The domestic space in architecture and cinema

Modulation through spatial perspective distortion

Abstract

The cinematographic space results from the imbrication of the architectural space and the narrative that is modified according to the character’s conflicts. In Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965), this transformation is represented by a spatial perspective distortion. Polanski places the individual’s threats inside home, questioning family compositions in contemporary society. Repulsion is a psychological film that expresses the conflict of Carol (Catherine Deneuve), who suffers from repulsion against men. It is the shivering portrait of a young woman whose sexual neurosis causes her to cut herself off from social life and to shut herself in her apartment. Polanski builds a world of nightmares and hallucinations when Carol is all by herself at home in London. Spatial modulation expresses the conflict of the leading character and is crucial in representing the psychical torment haunting her. The narrative structure articulates with the alternate staging of two different moments that are represented by transformations of space: one that is ‘imagined’ by the leading character, which are distortions caused by her mental disturbance, and a ‘real’ one in which transformations reflect her conflict process.