Roman Polanski

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

#26 Post by SternDiet » Thu Jan 13, 2011 3:38 pm

domino harvey wrote: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
Well, I want those two hours of my life back ](*,)

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

#27 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jan 13, 2011 3:49 pm

Well, "best" is a relative qualifier, as it's still not a very good movie. There's at least a strange nightmare logic to the scenario in which the lead loses her top and cannot seem to clothe herself thereafter that removes any eroticism from the base elements, which is something

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Re: Roman Polanski

#28 Post by cinemartin » Thu Jan 13, 2011 3:54 pm

I remember watching What with a friend and he said it gave him the same sensation of sneaking downstairs at night and watching skinamax movies before he could really understand what he was watching. A combination of incomprehensible erotica mixed with nostalgia is, I think, a good way to describe the film.

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mfunk9786
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Re: 'Forthcoming' Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vo

#29 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Jan 13, 2011 5:50 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)
I don't know, I wouldn't like The Tenant nearly as much if it bled any of its weirdness - some of the stranger tendencies of the film rescue it outright from being an utterly boring misfire. As it stands, it's a very good film because of Polanski giving into his every urge to weird everybody out.

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Professor Wagstaff
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Re: Roman Polanski

#30 Post by Professor Wagstaff » Thu Jan 13, 2011 7:06 pm

matrixschmatrix wrote: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...
This article, from around the same time as Rabin's, also made me feel What? is the one Polanski film I can do without.

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

#31 Post by knives » Thu Jan 13, 2011 7:56 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:
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)
I don't know, I wouldn't like The Tenant nearly as much if it bled any of its weirdness - some of the stranger tendencies of the film rescue it outright from being an utterly boring misfire. As it stands, it's a very good film because of Polanski giving into his every urge to weird everybody out.
Is The Tenant not considered great Polanski(at least by the people on this board)? It's quite honestly my favorite of his movies and maybe one of my favorite films in general.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Roman Polanski

#32 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:01 pm

I can't speak for this board, but I like it quite a bit. But I prefer Rosemary's Baby if we're playing favorites.

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knives
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Re: Roman Polanski

#33 Post by knives » Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:12 pm

This is going to come off as a tad weird, but we are talking Polanski, the reason why I like The Tenant so much is that egotism I have. More than any of his other films(this is completely embarrassing)it makes complete sense and I can relate to it on an intensely personal level. I have never seen a film able to portray complete isolation as well as that one. The closest I can think of right now is a few animes and his buddy Skolimowski's Moonlighting(which is a great film in it's own way). Even in those cases though it either is a pure isolation or the character is able to make connections(not all positive) with those around him. In the Tenant though even as there is dozens of people around him and even as he gets into a traditional relationship he finds himself ultimately alone with the misfortune of his own head being the only thing to give him company.
I do despise the quality of the dubbing though and I hope if it ever gets rereleased that gets cleared up a little. Everything else(that isn't terrible)has a nice story to it, but doesn't make as deep of an impression on me as that one. It's more than one of his genre exercises(for me).

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mfunk9786
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Re: Roman Polanski

#34 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:40 pm

I'm with you on the representation of isolation, I saw that film for the first time while living in a rented bedroom with hardwood floors in an empty house, and it totally sunk in for me. But I don't know if anyone likes it as much as you, Knives.

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Roger Ryan
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Re: Roman Polanski

#35 Post by Roger Ryan » Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:58 am

I still think CHINATOWN has the edge on THE TENANT, but Polanski's Kafkaesque comic-psychodrama follow-up certainly comes in a close second for me. THE TENANT manages to be both frightening and hilarious at the same time and I'm still not sure how Polanski manages that balance. The film is brimming with great ideas, not the least of which is when Polanski's feverish protagonist reaches for the glass of water perched on a chair and, when the hand fails to make contact, we realize the chair and glass are a two-dimensional photo representation and not the real thing!

Regarding the awkward dubbing: I doubt this will ever be perfected, but then only the bombastic friend and girlfriend are really affected by this since Polanski himself, along with a number of the other actors, retain their actual voices as recorded live during the takes.

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Zazou dans le Metro
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Re: Roman Polanski

#36 Post by Zazou dans le Metro » Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:17 am

knives wrote:This is going to come off as a tad weird, but we are talking Polanski, the reason why I like The Tenant so much is that egotism I have. More than any of his other films(this is completely embarrassing)it makes complete sense and I can relate to it on an intensely personal level. I have never seen a film able to portray complete isolation as well as that one.
Have to chime in here and say that it strikes exactly the same chord for me. I spent a very miserable year in a block of flats in Cologne when I was working in a factory to save money. I remember one Sunday cleaning my windows when I looked down into the courtyard to see a tutting crowd glowering at me. I even got spat at that evening. Go figure.. Cleaning windows on a Sunday= sacrilege. Spitting at people = recreational norm. Slight amends were made later when it was explained to me that they thought I was turkish and it would'nt happen again. So 'The Tenant' takes me back to my tenure on the Waldecker strasse everytime. Luckily I never managed to see myself simultaneously in my room whilst staring out the communal toilet window. That still gives me the willies just thinking about it.

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

#37 Post by tartarlamb » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:48 am

knives wrote:Is The Tenant not considered great Polanski(at least by the people on this board)? It's quite honestly my favorite of his movies and maybe one of my favorite films in general.
It's probably my favorite Polanski -- I'm a little surprised to see that it doesn't get much love on this forum. As for it being Too Weird For Its Own Good, I would not lump it in with Cul-de-Sac and What?. Actually, for the most part it tempers the excessive eccentricities of Roland Topor's novel. It's sort of the tongue-in-cheek copestone to Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby, and I appreciate the ironic flourish. There's not many directors that can have so much fun with isolation and paranoia. Sven Nykvist and Philippe Sarde are also major assets.

I first saw this while I was living alone in a creepy old motel that had been renovated into apartments. I had a crazy neighbor below me that would pound on her ceiling every time I took a step in my apartment past 9pm, and two other grubby little creeps in the apartment adjacent that would have sex as loud as it was both frequent and elaborate. The Tenant was cold comfort. "They're trying to turn me into Simone Schule!" is still my cry of exasperation every time I have a run-in with neighbors or landlords.

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domino harvey
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Re: Roman Polanski

#38 Post by domino harvey » Thu Dec 22, 2011 9:28 pm


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Lighthouse
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Re: Roman Polanski

#39 Post by Lighthouse » Sat Dec 24, 2011 8:58 am

Polanski was a great in the 60s, but I think after Chinatown he hasn't made anything really interesting or exciting. Most are ok to watch, but at least only one (The Nine Gates) is mediocre. I haven't seen the Ghostwriter so far.

His latest film Carnage is too much a message movie and the dialogues and the acting is too much theatre. I rarely have seen Winslet, Waltz and Foster so less convincing.

Mike_S
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Re: Roman Polanski

#40 Post by Mike_S » Thu Jan 19, 2012 2:21 pm

I'd strongly defend a few more recent Polanski movies, especially "The Ninth Gate" which I found to be a lot of fun and directed with considerable panache. I'd say much the same about the lunatic "Bitter Moon" which has to be seen to be believed and may not be entirely believed even then.

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Bikey
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Re: Roman Polanski

#41 Post by Bikey » Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:09 am

Second Run DVD in the UK are releasing in February a 4-DVD set called Polish Cinema Classics.

The set includes two films in which a (very) young Polanski appears, at a time when he was an actor and precedes his Knife in the Water: Janusz Morgenstern's Goodbye, See You Tomorrow (the first DVD release of this film anywhere) and Wajda's Innocent Sorcerers. Polanski has oft referred to Morgenstern as a great influence on him and and described him as "my oldest friend" at Morgenstern's funeral in Warsaw in September 2011.

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MichaelB
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Re: Roman Polanski

#42 Post by MichaelB » Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:29 am

Bikey wrote:Janusz Morgenstern's Goodbye, See You Tomorrow (the first DVD release of this film anywhere)
Actually, I make it the fourth DVD release (!), though admittedly "the first DVD release of the recent Studio Kadr restoration with English subtitles" is a bit of a mouthful.

The new Second Run disc is certainly the one to go for, though - the other two English-subtitled versions looked pretty lousy, and the only other disc featuring the new restoration is unsubtitled.

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JPJ
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Re: Roman Polanski

#43 Post by JPJ » Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:25 am

Good news for those who are region B locked,both Repulsion and Cul De Sac are coming to blu in France.Release date april 17th.

bamwc2
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#44 Post by bamwc2 » Thu Sep 12, 2013 11:02 pm

boywonder wrote:So where exactly is the hoopla over the Warner/FR release of Polanski's "The Curse of the Fearless Vampire Killers" steel-book all region Blu, November 20th? Perhaps, just here at my house ...
It's easily my least favorite film of his that I've seen. Not a single good joke, and the film is rife with anti-Semitic stereotypes. So, no, no hoopla here.

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knives
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#45 Post by knives » Thu Sep 12, 2013 11:06 pm

Anti-semitic? I don't recall anyone being called semitic in the film and Polanksi himself is Jewish.

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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#46 Post by bamwc2 » Sat Sep 21, 2013 2:52 pm

knives wrote:Anti-semitic? I don't recall anyone being called semitic in the film and Polanksi himself is Jewish.
Sorry for the late reply, but I had forgotten that I posted this. It's also probably been at least 15 years since I saw this, but I was highly disturbed by the character of Shagal, who seemed to embody all of the worst Jewish-European stereotypes. I may change my mind on a second viewing, but I remember it as so painful to watch that I doubt I'd ever sit down for it again. I had no idea that Polanski himself was Jewish. With or without Shagal, it's truly dreadful.

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knives
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#47 Post by knives » Sat Sep 21, 2013 3:00 pm

I thought that surviving the camps was the second or third most noted part of Polanski's life to be honest. I don't remember the Shagal character at all so I can't actually comment. He was such a small part of the film to me.

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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#48 Post by bamwc2 » Sat Sep 21, 2013 3:08 pm

knives wrote:I thought that surviving the camps was the second or third most noted part of Polanski's life to be honest.
He's also a Holocaust survivor? I had no idea. He's made such wonderful films, that I don't want to focus on what I consider to be the worst of what I've seen.

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knives
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#49 Post by knives » Sat Sep 21, 2013 3:34 pm

Yes, I believe he was orphaned during it. Obviously it was not easy growing up Jewish in Poland during the '40s.

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tenia
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#50 Post by tenia » Sat Sep 21, 2013 6:05 pm

He actually lived as a kid in the Krakow ghetto is 1939, while his parents got deported (his mother died in Auschwitz). I don't think he went into any concentration camp, though.

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