Don’t Rock the cradle
Rosemary Woodhouse, played by Mia Farrow in the 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby, on the outside is the quintessential idea of motherhood. This is the story of a young New York couple, well off in life, who move into the Dakota and come to find that they are neighbors to a Satanic Coven. Guy Woodhouse, John Cassavetes, sells his wife to the coven for use of her to birth a child of Satan so that he can receive fame for his career. What unfolds in the story beyond the veil of the occult is a horror story far worse. Rosemary is at the mercy of her husband, having no career of her own, facing consistent gaslighting from her husband and even her doctors, she is unable to trust the people in her life with whom she should be able to trust the most. The only person who see’s that something is wrong, her friend Hutch played by Maurice Evans, is discovered to be a threat to the cult and suspiciously falls ill into a comma.
The fragility of Rosemary is highlighted beautifully by costume designer Anthea Sylbert. Mia Farrow is already a small woman and there is a childlike quality to Rosemary. She is innocent and naive, making a home for her and her husband and wanting a child so that they may start a family. Although this film was made in 1968 it is actually set 3 years earlier. The fashion of the 60’s changed so rapidly and as more women became liberated different movements of fashion became more mainstream. You now had multiple style choices to match your personality as we do today. The Woodhouse’s are an upper middle class young New York couple, so it is only fitting that they are of the mod class when it comes to clothing. Quirky and fashionable enough to meet the artistic trends her husbands circle would keep as an actor but yet not has far avant-garde as what you find in the walls of Andy Warhol’s Factory.
The primary shape on Rosemary we see time and time again is the shift dress. For her small frame this boxed over sized dress drapes her figure in a way that allows her body to be almost engulfed by the fabric. It gives her the same babydoll bell shape a lot of young girls of the 60’s are seen in. In choosing this cut and allowing to omit the vision of the female figure we immediately desexualize her. When she is then taken advantage of and we watch her suffer from pain, internal and external, she is looked at simply as a vessel. When I first came upon this film I think I was around 13, and was insulted that a horror movie “wasn’t scary”. Upset that they did not show the baby at the end, I felt cheated. If the devil was involved then I wanted to see what he had produced. Now much older and around the age of Rosemary and thinking about myself not only as a woman, but a sexual woman who will one day bare children, this film now shakes me to my core. The horror is not in the devil himself but the evil that lives within undermining the female experience.
She is deliberately in patterns and shapes that, as I expressed earlier, convey her as a little girl. Pastels, soft textures, and subtle stripes and floral patterns, are all in contrast to the evil that lurks around her. The evil that is not overt however. As we see in her nosy neighbors, their exterior does not display the evil harbored within them. Minnie and Roman Castevet (Ruth Gordon and Sydney Blackmer) appear on the outside as a flamboyant older couple. They have lived life and they are well traveled, appearing in gaudy prints and a style of wear that is way over the top for their occasions. As the Castevet’s insert themselves into Rosemary’s life more as her pregnancy progresses, we see layers of sweaters, nightgowns, and robes being added to her, further smothering her already frail frame. Winter approaches coupling with the severity of Rosemary’s pain and discomfort, and our color pallet starts to become much more muted and darker. Navy’s, browns, and grey’s are now introduced and play well with the darker circles we see appearing under her eyes. We truly see this broken and isolated women, who has been purposely kept from the outside world.
As spring and her June due date approach, her pain disappears and the life that was slipping begins to return to Rosemary. We once again see the return of the shifts and patterns with color. What I appreciated about Sylbert’s designs is the repeat and the re-purposing of Rosemary’s wardrobe. Just like any other woman, we see the same outfits from previous scenes being worn again or worn again in new ways, I.E. one scene she adds tights to the striped shift we see in the beginning of the film. However this introduction back into the familiar bright wardrobe comes with a change, the latest Vidal Sasson pixie cut. Throughout the course of the film Rosemary is cautious of her neighbors. I believe she feels under the surface that something is wrong and off. But like a good wife of the 60’s doesn’t question her husbands choices or his trust in the couple. Rosemary is watching everyone else make choices for her and this hair cut is the first choice she makes for herself. Which is immediately met with disdain from her husband. This small act has allowed her to take some agency over her life. Suddenly those colors and silhouettes look less immature.
My favorite moment within the film are the last moments. After she has given birth, and realized that her child is in fact alive and not dead as they’re telling her, she immediately takes matters into her own hands. Armed with her soft baby blue robe, the traditional color for baby boys, she hears crying from the next apartment takes the kitchen knife and sneaks through the trap door in the closet to the adjoining apartment. She is met with the shocked faces of the Castavet’s, Guy, and the rest of the coven. She steps up to the bassinet, that is elegantly draped in all black to encounter that her baby did in fact live, but is also the son of Satan. What choice does this new mother have, the picture of innocence and purity. Her girl like nativity is being pushed to chose between backing away from this cult and the care of her own child. As she stands rocking the bassinet, a figure in quilted blue with lace collar and delicate pink ribbon along the neckline, she has chosen her place next to her son. While we see pieces that predate even this story of women taking agency of their own needs, A Dolls House a play by Ibsen comes to mind, in this story the much more palatable version would be her to continue to live by the choices of others. She will remain this frail woman, drenched in yellow florals and shifts.
The 1960’s was this radical age for women that propelled forward the second wave of feminism we saw in the 1970’s. Women were entering the work force and demanding equal rights. The rights over their own bodies and choices were at the forefront to so many political campaigns of the day. While the hems got shorter the women got bolder. While we do not know what the rest of Rosemary’s life looks like, I want to believe that by making the choice for her child, son of Satan or not, she has learned their ways and will hopefully preform small acts of rebellion from the inside. Towing that line and pushing for more. We can only hope that she will no longer remain at the mercy of others.
