MYOFNF #15: Repulsion (dir. Roman Polanski, 1965)

This is the first MYOFNF entry that's in English, but the director is Polish, the lead actress is French, and it takes place in London, so it definitely counts as foreign. It's the story of a fragile young woman living with her sister, slowly going mad over the course of a solitary week. Polanski immerses the viewer in the mindset of his heroine, and the disorienting deluge of hallucinations and crack-ups that the difference between reality, dream and delusion melts away. Interestingly, the creeping sense of madness makes the film less traditionally scarry than it might otherwise be. The first time Catherine Denuve sees a man standing in the corner of her room, it makes your hair stand on end. As you realize that pretty much everything you're seeing exists only in her head, the sense of fear goes away. What doesn't go away is the anxiety provoked by such close and prolonged proximity to madness, culminating in a chilling final image that stays with the viewer long after the screen goes black.