Rosemary's Baby

The presentation of this DVD is a bit of a mixed bag. The picture is clear enough, although I suspect it suffers from the age of the source material, with some shots being a little grainy. The sound, however, is clear as a bell, lending all the more weight to Christopher Komeda's eerie score.

The opening menu, however, is supremely unimaginative, with no music overlayed, something Paramount must be a bit embarrassed about too, one presumes, as when you put the disk in your machine it takes you straight to the film, following language selection, without showing you the main menu at all.

The extras, on the other hand, are minimal but great fun, particularly the "Making of" featurette, made in 1968, that has dated considerably more than the movie itself. It features comments from Mia Farrow revealing her to be a bit of a dippy hippy back then, as she describes Polanski's directing as "groovy" and explains how the cast decorated their trailers with paintings of flowers and mottos of peace and love. Much of the dialogue is layed over footage of the filming, once or twice revealing elements which were obviously left on the cutting room floor.

The retrospective interview with Polanski, designer Richard Sylbert and production executive Robert Evans is also interesting for casual watchers and fans alike and filled with trivial titbits. For example, Polanski reveals that he originally intended to cast a much more robust actress in the role of Rosemary - apparently he had Tuesday Weld in mind, and Sylbert explains how they instantly settled upon New York's Dakota as the gothic setting for the film. Most interesting for me, was to see how little Polanski's opinions about the cast, the book and the film have changed down the years, with many of his comments supporting what he had said all those years ago, albeit in a more flower-drenched setting.

Worth buying for the film alone, there is certainly enough in the way of extras and improvement to the presentation to justify adding this Baby to your collection.