Roman Polanski

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DarkImbecile
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Roman Polanski

#1 Post by DarkImbecile » Sun Jun 17, 2007 3:38 am

Roman Polanski (1933- )

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"Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater."

Filmography

Features
Nóz w wodzie / Knife in the Water (1962)
Repulsion (1965)
Cul-de-sac (1966)
The Fearless Vampire Killers AKA The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth are in My Neck AKA Dance of the Vampires (1967)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Macbeth (1971)
Che? / What? AKA Diary of Forbidden Dreams (1972)
Chinatown (1974)
Le Locataire / The Tenant (1976)
Tess (1979)
Pirates (1986)
Frantic (1988)
Bitter Moon (1992)
Death and the Maiden (1994)
The Ninth Gate (1999)
The Pianist (2002)
Oliver Twist (2005)
The Ghost Writer (2010)
Carnage (2011)
La Vénus à la fourrure / Venus in Fur (2013)
D'après une histoire vraie / Based on a True Story (2017)
Polansk, Horowitz [documentary] (2019?)

Shorts
"Zaczarowany Rower / Bicycle" (1955)
"Uśmiech zębiczny / A Toothful Smile" (1957)
"Rozbijemy zabawę / Break Up the Dance" (1957)
"Morderstwo / A Murderer" (1957)
"Dwaj ludzie z szafą / Two Men and a Wardrobe" (1958)
"Lampa / The Lamp" (1959)
"Gdy spadają anioły / When Angels Fall Down" (1959)
"Le Gros et le Maigre / The Fat and the Lean" (1961)
"Ssaki / Mammals" (1962)
"La Rivière de Diamants" [segment Les plus belles escroqueries du monde / The Beautiful Swindlers] (1964)
"Cinéma érotique" [segment Chacun son cinema / To Each His Cinema] (2007)
"A Therapy" (2012)

Books
The Cinema of Roman Polanski by Ivan Butler (1970)
Roman by Roman Polanski (1985)
Roman Polanski: Interviews by Paul Cronin (2005)
Roman Polanski by F.X. Feeney (2006)
Dark Spaces of the World: The Cinema of Roman Polanski by John Orr & Elzbieta Ostrowska, Eds. (2006)
Roman Polanski by James Morrison (2007)
Roman Polanski: The Cinema of a Cultural Traveler by Ewa Mazierska (2007)
Roman Polanski: A Life in Exile by Julia Ain-Krupa (2009)
Polanski and Perception: The Psychology of Seeing and the Cinema of Roman Polanski by Davide Caputo (2012)
Roman Polanski: A Retrospective by James Greenberg (2013)
The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski by Samantha Geimer (2013)
Roman Polanski: The Horror Films by Denis Meikle (2016)

Web Resources
Roman Polanski Site by French writer Alexandre Tylski (in French)
Roman Polanski Media Reports Archive Media archive relating to the rape charge against Polanski in 1977
1971 video interview with Dick Cavett
1983 video interview with Clive James
2000 video interview with Mark Cousins, Scene by Scene
2000 video interview with Charlie Rose
"Polanski's Tess 30 Years Later" by Jeremy Richey, Moon in the Gutter (2009)

Forum Resources
Roman Polanski Arrested
215 Knife in the Water
483 Repulsion
577 Cul-de-Sac
630 Rosemary's Baby
726 Macbeth
Che? / What? (Polanski, 1972)
697 Tess
Tess
To Each His Cinema [Chacun son cinéma] (various, 2007)
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (Marina Zenovich, 2008)
The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, 2010)
Carnage (Roman Polanski, 2011)

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Forrest Taft
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#2 Post by Forrest Taft » Mon Jan 28, 2008 7:54 pm

Anyone here familiar with the film A Day at the Beach, written by Polanski and with a cameo by Peter Sellers? A brief clip from the film is featured in The Unknown Peter Sellers. According to the imdb trivia page this film was lost for 20 years due to a "paperwork error" by Paramount. It was released on DVD in the UK last year. Polanski was supposed to direct but a man who goes by the name of Simon Hesera took over while Polanski stayed on as a producer. Theo Van Gogh remade the film in 1984. Apart from that I can find little information about this film, and it annoys me that there exists a Polanski film (starring Peter Sellers) that I´ve never heard of. Please let this film be as good as Che?, the other "lost" Polanski film.

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Cold Bishop
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#3 Post by Cold Bishop » Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:49 pm

RobertAltman wrote:Polanski was supposed to direct but a man who goes by the name of Simon Hesera took over while Polanski stayed on as a producer.
He left the film due to the Tate-LaBianca murders if I recall correctly.

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AWA
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Re: Roman Polanski

#4 Post by AWA » Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:09 am


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tartarlamb
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#5 Post by tartarlamb » Wed Jun 17, 2009 2:02 pm

RobertAltman wrote:Please let this film be as good as Che?, the other "lost" Polanski film.
A Day At the Beach is way better than Che? in my opinion (I find that film nearly unwatchable, so take my opinion with a grain of salt). I'm not sure if this is a "lost" Polanski film or Polanski on auto-pilot. Both are nice ways of circumnavigating the fact that there's little improvement he could have made by being at the helm as director. The script is clearly his own, full of that signature dark, dark, very dark humor with absurdist accents. The director, some guy named Simon Hesera, is actually quite capable. His scant filmography makes me wonder if he worked in theater, since the direction of the actors is very strong across the board.

But whether Polanski or Hesera owns this film is beside the point. As the main character of the film points out, the truth is usually somewhere inbetween. The strongest stamp on this film is made by Gilbert Taylor, whose moody understated photography is something to behold, and by Mark Burns, who gives a pretty amazing one-man show as a doomed, drunken, and apparently very talented man.

Its a very impressive film!

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colinr0380
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Re: Roman Polanski

#6 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Jun 28, 2009 1:47 pm

A very nice appreciation of Tess at the Moon In The Gutter blog.

so lightly here
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Re: Roman Polanski

#7 Post by so lightly here » Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:54 pm

Does anybody know if Switzerland will really follow through with their arrest of Polanski and actually extradite him because of the L.A. warrant? He friggin' has a home in Switzerland. How come this sudden move in an incident that happened more than a few decades ago and that the victim has since forgiven him for?

Because he is a french citizen now, I do hope they step in and put an end to this nonsense. L.A. has been doggin' him for far to long, but then again it is the city of The Academy of Economically Fruitful and not Artful Awards (who ironically gave him an award for The Pianist).

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MichaelB
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Re: Roman Polanski

#8 Post by MichaelB » Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:59 pm

so lightly here wrote:How come this sudden move in an incident that happened more than a few decades ago and that the victim has since forgiven him for?
Because this is the first time the Swiss police have specifically been asked to arrest Polanski under the terms of the international arrest warrant. And in turn it was the first time the US Justice Department was able to predict Polanski's arrival in a country that has an extradition deal with America - they've tried in the past, but Polanski always rumbled them and cancelled his travel plans at the last minute. So they'd have done this years earlier, but it wasn't until last week that everything came together for them.

But comments on the current Polanski saga should be posted on its own dedicated thread.

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FerdinandGriffon
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Re: Roman Polanski

#9 Post by FerdinandGriffon » Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:44 am

Look's like The Ghost Writer will be making an appearance at the Berlin Film festival in spite of its directors incarceration. Very good news, the film looks fascinating, and I had worried that it was at risk of disappearing into the cinematic ether for many years to come.

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anvilscepe
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Re: Roman Polanski

#10 Post by anvilscepe » Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:13 pm

This girl I know “refuses to give sexual predator Roman Polanski any money” by never seeing any of his films. So I told her to get over it and she responded with “so you support rape? Imagine hooking up with a 13 year old at your age – and he was like 10 years older! And then he fled! I hope he spends his last years in jail. He deserves to.” :roll:

BLAH! I think I need to unfriend her immediately.

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zedz
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Re: Roman Polanski

#11 Post by zedz » Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:18 pm

Let's not go there again. I'm all out of disinfectant.

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domino harvey
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Re: Roman Polanski

#12 Post by domino harvey » Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:37 pm

Try reading a Polanski ONTD post if you need an impetus to blind yourself

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eltopo
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Re: Roman Polanski

#13 Post by eltopo » Sun Apr 25, 2010 6:07 am

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swo17
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Re: Roman Polanski

#14 Post by swo17 » Mon May 03, 2010 12:14 pm

Roman Polanski wrote:I can remain silent no longer!

Throughout my seven months since September 26, 2009, the date of my arrest at Zurich Airport, where I had landed with a view to receiving a lifetime award for my work from the representative of the Swiss Minister of Culture, I have refrained from making any public statements and have requested my lawyers to confine their comments to a bare minimum. I wanted the legal authorities of Switzerland and the United States, as well as my lawyers, to do their work without any polemics on my part. I have decided to break my silence in order to address myself directly to you without any intermediaries and in my own words.

I have had my share of dramas and joys, as we all have, and I am not going to try to ask you to pity my lot in life. I ask only to be treated fairly like anyone else.

It is true: 33 years ago I pleaded guilty, and I served time at the prison for common law crimes at Chino, not in a VIP prison. That period was to have covered the totality of my sentence. By the time I left prison, the judge had changed his mind and claimed that the time served at Chino did not fulfil the entire sentence, and it is this reversal that justified my leaving the United States.

This affair was roused from its slumbers of over three decades by a documentary film-maker who gathered evidence from persons involved at the time. I took no part in that project, either directly or indirectly. The resulting documentary not only highlighted the fact that I left the United States because I had been treated unjustly; it also drew the ire of the Los Angeles authorities, who felt that they had been attacked and decided to request my extradition from Switzerland, a country I have been visiting regularly for over 30 years without let or hindrance.

I can now remain silent no longer!

I can remain silent no longer because the American authorities have just decided, in defiance of all the arguments and depositions submitted by third parties, not to agree to sentence me in absentia even though the same Court of Appeal recommended the contrary.

I can remain silent no longer because the California court has dismissed the victim’s numerous requests that proceedings against me be dropped, once and for all, to spare her from further harassment every time this affair is raised once more.

I can remain silent no longer because there has just been a new development of immense significance. On February 26 last, Roger Gunson, the deputy district attorney in charge of the case in 1977, now retired, testified under oath before Judge Mary Lou Villar in the presence of David Walgren, the present deputy district attorney in charge of the case, who was at liberty to contradict and question him, that on September 16, 1977, Judge Rittenband stated to all the parties concerned that my term of imprisonment in Chino constituted the totality of the sentence I would have to serve.

I can remain silent no longer because the request for my extradition addressed to the Swiss authorities is founded on a lie. In the same statement, retired deputy district attorney Roger Gunson added that it was false to claim, as the present district attorney’s office does in their request for my extradition, that the time I spent in Chino was for the purpose of a diagnostic study.

The said request asserts that I fled in order to escape sentencing by the U.S. judicial authorities, but under the plea-bargaining process I had acknowledged the facts and returned to the United States in order to serve my sentence. All that remained was for the court to confirm this agreement, but the judge decided to repudiate it in order to gain himself some publicity at my expense.

I can remain silent no longer because for over 30 years my lawyers have never ceased to insist that I was betrayed by the judge, that the judge perjured himself, and that I served my sentence. Today it is the deputy district attorney who handled the case in the 1970s, a man of irreproachable reputation, who has confirmed all my statements under oath, and this has shed a whole new light on the matter.

I can remain silent no longer because the same causes are now producing the same effects. The new District Attorney, who is handling this case and has requested my extradition, is himself campaigning for election and needs media publicity!

I can no longer remain silent because the United States continues to demand my extradition more to serve me on a platter to the media of the world than to pronounce a judgment concerning which an agreement was reached 33 years ago.

I can remain silent no longer because I have been placed under house arrest in Gstaad and bailed in very large sum of money which I have managed to raise only by mortgaging the apartment that has been my home for over 30 years, and because I am far from my family and unable to work.

Such are the facts I wished to put before you in the hope that Switzerland will recognize that there are no grounds for extradition, and that I shall be able to find peace, be reunited with my family, and live in freedom in my native land.

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Lemmy Caution
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Re: Roman Polanski

#15 Post by Lemmy Caution » Mon May 03, 2010 1:39 pm

I can understand how Polanski can feel aggrieved and wronged, and views the crime as a long ago incident, but even he makes it clear in his open letter that the plea bargain was never accepted by the judge and so never went into effect. He can impugn the motives of various US officials past and present, but that doesn't change the bottom line -- he fled prior to sentencing because the favorable plea bargain had fallen apart, and he was worried about receiving a tougher, longer sentence.
The said request asserts that I fled in order to escape sentencing by the U.S. judicial authorities, but under the plea-bargaining process I had acknowledged the facts and returned to the United States in order to serve my sentence. All that remained was for the court to confirm this agreement, but the judge decided to repudiate it in order to gain himself some publicity at my expense.
Further, his current house arrest in his Swiss villa sounds to me like a favor bestowed on a celebrity with money and good lawyers. Much like the rather minimal jail time he served in Cali a few decades back, which he hoped would be the end of it.

Btw, the dedicated thread is locked.
As this will be when it too goes off the rails.

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domino harvey
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Re: Roman Polanski

#16 Post by domino harvey » Mon May 03, 2010 5:13 pm

Yeah, let's start this again

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Orphic Lycidas
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Re: Roman Polanski

#17 Post by Orphic Lycidas » Sat May 15, 2010 5:29 am

Rapist Roman Polanski is being accused by actress Charlotte Lewis of having sexually assaulted her when she was 16 while filming Pirates in 1986. Los Angeles Times has the story. Here is video an excerpt of her press conference.

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R0lf
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Re: Roman Polanski

#18 Post by R0lf » Sat May 15, 2010 5:33 am

Breaking news; Roman Polanski has sex with a girl of legal age.

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Orphic Lycidas
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Re: Roman Polanski

#19 Post by Orphic Lycidas » Sat May 15, 2010 5:36 am

R0lf wrote:Breaking news; Roman Polanski has sex with a girl of legal age.
I'll remember to use that excuse next time I'm arrested for sexually assaulting a 30 year old woman ("but she was of legal age!"). Not being a millionaire with a cult-like following, I somehow doubt it'll fly.

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domino harvey
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Re: Roman Polanski

#20 Post by domino harvey » Sat May 15, 2010 9:03 am

Orphic Lycidas wrote:Rapist Roman Polanski
Oh good, more of this

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perkizitore
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Re: Roman Polanski

#21 Post by perkizitore » Sat May 15, 2010 9:51 am

What about his cinema contribution? Three years after making Chinatown and still with much to offer he had to flee the US. I am not saying an artist should get away with everything, but after all these years this matter should have been settled.

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knives
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Re: Roman Polanski

#22 Post by knives » Sat May 15, 2010 10:10 am

...Or banned from being brought up in the forums again. This discussion has gotten far to repetitive.

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domino harvey
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Re: 'Forthcoming' Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vo

#23 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:57 pm

Feego wrote:It's Roman Polanski's Cul-de-sac.

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It should really be released as a double feature with Che?/What? as The Polanski Films That Are A Little Too Weird For Their Own Good (could arguably throw the Tenant in there too)

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: 'Forthcoming' Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vo

#24 Post by matrixschmatrix » Thu Jan 13, 2011 2:09 pm

domino harvey wrote:It should really be released as a double feature with Che?/What? as The Polanski Films That Are A Little Too Weird For Their Own Good (could arguably throw the Tenant in there too)
Have you read this piece on What? I'd been trying to track it down before I read that, then kind of decided to move on...

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domino harvey
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Re: 'Forthcoming' Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vo

#25 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jan 13, 2011 2:55 pm

I probably like it the "best" of the three films I mentioned ( and there is a nice R2 DVD out), but it is truly one of those "see it to believe it" experiences

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