She is very cute in her street clothes and she catches the eye of a lot of the workmen when she passes a sewer crew taking their own break. When she passes The Hoof & Toy a public house, Colin, seated by the window gets excited when he spots her and rapps on the pane as she passes. Carol either blows him off or doesn't see him and continues down the street.
It ends at a greasy plate of fish and chips on a table in a restaurant.
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| fish & chips |
Carol is again sitting and staring vacantly. It's here where Colin catches up to Carol. He knocks on the plate glass window to get Carols attention. He mimes if he could come in and join her. Carol nods.
Colin is very persistent by not very observational, he's obsessed with Carol. We, the audience have been getting all the visual clues and signs that Carol is not quite all there. Colin is obviously clueless. Colin probably assumes that Carol is just a very shy woman.
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He walks her back to the salon and tries to make a date for the evening. Carol replies that she's eating with her sister, so the ever persistent Colin switches the date to tomorrow. Carol doesn't say no, and Colin takes that as an encouraging yes, while the audience already knows that Carol is off in space.
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Cue the flute music and we see Carol riding in an elevator on her way up to the apartment she shares with her big sister Helen. In the apartment we watch as she slips out of her shoes, removes her skirt and top, then walks in just her slip to the bathroom where she washes her feet off in the sink.
While she is washing off her feet she gets annoyed that Helens boyfriend John has put his toothbrush and straight razor in "her" glass. She takes them out, and lays them on the glass shelf.
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In the kitchen Helen is peeling potatoes. Carol comes in and asks if she's still going away.
Helen attempts to tell Carol a funny story but Carol cuts in aksing "why does he have to put his toothbrush in may glass?" Helen replies "please." Carol then changes the subject remarking that we have to get this crack fixed. But at this point we have no idea what she is talking about.
The doorbell rings. Carol runs to her room. It's John showing up early.
John gives Helen a little squeeze on her ass as she walks by him after opening the door.
Helen reads the recipe and announces that it will take about an hour and a half before the rabbit will be ready for their dinner. John counters by inviting her out to dinner instead telling her to get dressed.
Carol is never happy to see John. She slips past him to go into Helen's room. There she asks if Helen is still going away on holiday with John. Helen answers her, as if she has been asked the same question a thousand times. Helen is getting a bit frustrated with her.
John has definitely picks up on the signals that not all is well with the little sister Carol. "Cinderella," is what he calls Carol. In the elevator going down with Helen. John mentions that Carol doesn't like him. Helen replies that Carol is just "sensitive." John remarks that she should go see a doctor.
John definitely picks up on the signals that not all is well with the little sister Carol. "Cinderella," is what he calls Carol. In the elevator going down John mentions that Carol doesn't like him. Helen replies that Carol is just "sensitive." John remarks that she should go see a doctor.
When we cut back to Carol. She is seated by a table looking at her distorted image reflected in a chrome teapot.
Then we get a sequence where a pan allows us to see all the trinkets of her life strewn on the fireplace mantel.
Carol weighs putting on a record but decides not to and at the end of another pan, we zoom on a childhood photo which, later we find is a clue to the why of the whole film. fade to black.
Clocks. We hear clocks. We now see a window, a night breeze lightly rustles the curtains.
Carol is awakened at night by the sounds of, heavy breathing, lovemaking and Helen's loud amplified climax.
Carol finally rolls over and covers her head.
The next morning Helen is up and in the kitchen, and Carol walks in on John shaving in the loo.
When John splits Carol asks Helen with her hands on her hips, if John is going to be there. every night?
Helen replies that it's no affair of hers. This little argument continues into Helens room but is interrupted by a phone call from the landlord asking again for the late rent. Helen says she'll have it and that he can pick it up from Carol since she is leaving on a holiday.
We get more goings on at the beauty salon, and afterwards on Carol's way (either home or to her date with Colin) she sees a crack in the sidewalk and it stops her dead cold.
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| the crack |
Colin, at the Hoof and Toy is getting ribbed by his buds at the pub, at Carols no show. We find out here that Colin is somehow related to Carol (a distant cousin), through the conversations he's having.
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| Colin's pub pals |
Colin can only take so much of the ribbing and after leaving the pub he spots Carol sitting on a bench still staring at at the same crack. Colin breaks the spell when he steps upon the crack.
He asks her what happened telling her that he been waiting over an hour, and she replies "What for?" Colin just doesn't pick up on these subtle hints that Carol is "wound a bit too tight."
He takes her to his 1964 Triumph TR4, and they drive off. It starts going Noirsville when, stopped at a light Colin leans over and steals a kiss from a now horrified Carol, who hops out of the car and runs off.
When Carol gets back to the elevator in their building we see her still vigorously wiping off her lips.
Noirsville
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A
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Polanski does a great job using all the tools in the Noir Visual Style toolbox to visually tell the story depicting Carol's obvious symptoms of PTSD. He also nicely juxtaposes Deneuve's icy beauty with her blank expressions. Beautiful but deadly, a destroying angel. Bravo! 8/10
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