Roman Polanski(Roman Raymond Polański (born August 18, 1933) is one of the most controversial contemporary directors in Cinema History.His name has become synonymous with events from his personal life, which in fact have at times detracted and taken precedence from his work as a filmmaker.
Roman has created films that unnerve and horrify the viewer such as "Rosemary's baby" and "The Tenant", as well as the masterpiece "Chinatown" starring, Jack Nicholson. He also directed the comedy vampire movie "Dance of the Vampires (also known as The Fearless Vampire Killers) and the period drama "Tess" based on the novel by Thomas Hardy starring, Nastassja Kinski. Both of these films exude a haunting yet luminous beauty.
As a filmmaker he is exceptional in his ability to produce works with a disturbing mood and atmosphere of suspense that is impossible to replicate. His hallmark is to utilize seemingly everyday events and situations and then expose the undercurrent of evil that lies beneath; he explores the thin line between madness and sanity with compelling expertise and intuitive mastery
Roman Polanski was born to Polish parents in Paris 1933. They moved to Krakow, Poland, when Romanwas still a toddler. Roman grew up in a constricted communist environment; however, he had a highlycreative intellect and created his own exceptional world of fantasy. His imagination was the key that helped him overcome the horror of War in Europe.
Whenever Roman had a chance to visit the theatre he had no uncertainties that one day he would appearon centre stage or behind the camera as a director, Roman was an incredibly confident child with grandaspirations.
Roman's father owned a plastics business in Krakow, although his parents were not rich they provided Roman with everything he needed. He was a child who in his own words "wanted everything his own way".His childhood would soon be shattered as War began in Poland.
The changes to the Jewish community began slowly and unpleasantly when Roman's parents were told to wear white armbands with the Star of David stencilled on them in blue. Roman was told it was because they were Jewish, although his parents did not practice their religion and his mother was only partlyJewish.
They were forced to move home by the Krakow Municipal Authorities. Soon after moving, Roman's sisterpointed outside the window and Roman looked out to see men building a wall, he and his family werebeing imprisoned in a Jewish ghetto. During this time both his parents were taken to concentration camps, his mother was never to return. Roman always believed he would see her again as he had no knowledge of the Third Reich's 'Final Solution' and he never had the opportunity to say goodbye to her.
His father had paid a family to look after Roman and he was moved from one place to another doing anything he could to survive. There were times of play amongst the ruined buildings of Poland with other children, yet he would always be a witness to brutality and depravity as the war continued witnessing scenes of inhumanity.
At the end of the World War II he was reunited with his father and began to pursue his dreams of having a career in the film industry, he started by working on a Children's radio programme called"The Merry Gang". He soon acquired a lead role in "The Son of the Regiment" the story of a Russian peasant boy. He attended Art School and finally with the help of Andrzej Wajda the great Polish directorhe applied to and was accepted at the Lodz Film School, the world of film and fantasy and the door to his dreams. At the film school his talent was readily apparent in his first student film "Two Men and a Wardrobe". He longed to escape Poland and travel abroad to America and Paris.
The first film he made that received significant attention was "Knife in the Water" made in 1962, this was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign language film. He then directed three films in England including "Cul de Sac" and "Repulsion" starring Catherine Deneuve as a young woman suffering from a mental illness.
He married the gentle, and talented actress Sharon Tate who starred in "The Dance of the Vampires", whowas brutally murdered in 1969. His next film "Macbeth" is notorious for it's violent and bloody adaptation of the play by the English playwright, William Shakespeare.
Relationship with Sharon Tate, Rosemary's Baby (1968), and the Manson murders
Polanski met rising actress Sharon Tate shortly before filming The Fearless Vampire Killers (she was known to producerMartin Ransohoff), and during the production the two of them began dating. On January 20, 1968, Polanski married Sharon Tate in London. In his autobiography, Polanski described his brief time with Tate as the best years of his life. During this period, he also became friends with martial-arts master and actor Bruce Lee.
Shortly after, in 1968, Polanski went to the United States, where he established his reputation as a major commercial filmmaker with the success of his first Hollywood film, Rosemary's Baby, based on the recent popular novel of the same name by Ira Levin. The film is a horror-thriller set in New York about Rosemary (Mia Farrow), an innocent young woman from Omaha, Nebraska, who is impregnated by the devil after her narcissistic actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes), offersher womb to a coven of local witches in exchange for a successful career. Polanski's screenplay adaptation earned him asecond Academy Award nomination.
In April 1969, Polanski's friend and collaborator, the composer Krzysztof Komeda (1931-1969), died from head injuries sustained from a skiing accident, though other accounts of the cause of his death exist. After the short Two Men and aWardrobe, he scored all of Polanski's feature films (with the exception of Repulsion), and is probably best known in the U.S. for his final collaboration with the director: the haunting soundtrack to Rosemary's Baby.
On August 9, 1969, Tate, who was eight months pregnant with the couple's first child (a boy), and four others (AbigailFolger, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, and Steven Parent) were brutally murdered by members of Charles Manson's "Family", who entered the Polanskis' rented home at 10050 Cielo Drive in the Hollywood Hills intending to "kill everyone there".Previous resident Terry Melcher (son of film icon Doris Day) had angered Charles Manson because he had declined to record some of his music. Melcher and his girlfriend at the time, actress Candice Bergen, had been living at the house but moved out in February 1969. The following month, Polanski and Tate moved in.
When Manson ordered members of his group to go to the property and kill everyone, they obeyed. After Parent, Sebring,Frykowski, and Folger had been murdered, Tate pleaded for the life of her unborn son. Susan Atkins replied that she felt no pity for her and began stabbing her.
Polanski was at his house in London at the time of the murders and immediately traveled to Los Angeles, where he was questioned by police. As there were no suspects in the case, police checked on the past history of Polanski and Tate to try to determine a motive. After a period of months, Manson and his "family" were arrested on unrelated charges, which revealed evidence of what came to be known as the Tate-LaBianca murders. Polanski returned to Europe shortly afterthe killers were arrested. He later said that he gave away all his possessions as everything reminded him of Tate and was too painful for him. His greatest regret was that he was not in Los Angeles with Tate on the night of the murders.
Sex crime allegationsIn 1977, Polanski, then aged 44, became embroiled in a scandal involving 13-year-old Samantha Geimer (then known as SamanthaGailey). It ultimately led to Polanski's guilty plea to the charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
According to Geimer, Polanski asked Geimer's mother if he could photograph the girl for the French edition of Vogue, which Polanski had been invited to guest-edit. Her mother allowed a private photo shoot. According to Geimer in a 2003 interview,"Everything was going fine; then he asked me to change, well, in front of him." She added, "It didn't feel right, and I didn't want to go back to the second shoot."
Geimer later agreed to a second session, which took place on March 10, 1977 at the Mulholland area home of actor JackNicholson in Los Angeles. "We did photos with me drinking champagne," Geimer says. "Toward the end it got a little scary, and I realized he had other intentions and I knew I was not where I should be. I just didn't quite know how to get myself out of there." Geimer testified that Polanski performed various sexual acts on her, after giving her a combination of champagne and quaaludes. In the 2003 interview, Geimer says she resisted. "I said no several times, and then, well, gave up on that."
In his autobiography, Roman by Polanski,Polanski alleged that Geimer's mother had set up her daughter as part of a casting couch and blackmail scheme against him.
Charges and guilty pleaPolanski was initially charged with rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance (methaqualone) to a minor. These charges were dismissed under the terms of his plea bargain, and he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
Imprisonment and flight
Following the plea agreement, according to the aforementioned documentary, the court ordered Polanski to report to a stateprison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation, but granted a stay of ninety days to allow him to complete his current project.under the terms set by the court, he was permitted to travel abroad. Polanski returned to California and reported to Chino State Prison for the evaluation period, and was released after 42 days.
On February 1, 1978, Polanski fled to London, where he maintained residency. A day later he traveled on to France, where he held citizenship, avoiding the risk of extradition to the U.S. by Britain. Consistent with its extradition treaty with the United States, France can refuse to extradite its own citizens. An extradition request later filed by U.S. officials was denied. The United States government can request that Polanski be prosecuted on the California charges by the French authorities.
Polanski has never returned to England, and later sold his home in absentia. The United States can still request the arrestand extradition of Polanski from other countries should he visit them, and Polanski has avoided visits to countries that are likely to extradite him (such as the UK) and mostly travels and works in France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland
Polanski and Emmanuelle Seigner
Polanski and Seigner married in 1989. They have two children, daughter Morgane and son Elvis, whom is named after Polanski's favorite singer, Elvis Presley.
Current projectsPolanski made a cameo appearance in Rush Hour 3 (2007) as a French police official. After a failed attempt to adapt Robert Harris' Pompeii,he is currently directing an adaptation of Harris' The Ghost, a novel about a writer who stumbles upon a secret while ghosting the autobiography of a former British prime minister. It will star Ewan McGregor as the writerand Pierce Brosnan as the prime minister. Filming takes place in Germany by the Babelsberg Studios
Style and themes
Most of Polanski's films are psychological suspense thrillers, notable for their deliberate pacing, carefully established mood and atmosphere, and often Gothic treatment of settings and characters.As a stylist, Polanski favors long takes,deep-focus photography, detailed mise-en-scène and wide panoramic compositions;jump cuts and montage almost never appearin his work.
A recurring theme in his films is the relationship between victim and perpetrator, and the unstable and shifting dynamics of these power relations are often resolved in sudden outbursts of senseless violence. Many of Polanski's films (especially his early works) deal with characters struggling for mastery over an intractable situation and feature a circular plot structure — i.e., the action is framed by an ironic recurrence of events or reversal of fortunes at the conclusion.
In this sense, Polanski's oeuvre — particularly, his most celebrated work from the 1950s through to the 1970s — seems to reflect a decidedly pessimistic and desolate absurdist worldview. However, Polanski's old tendency towards unremittingbleakness appears to have mellowed in recent years, with films like Death and the Maiden, The Pianist and Oliver Twist ultimately imparting a more hopeful view of human nature and admitting the possibility of redemptive action in the face ofa hostile and incomprehensible universe.
Oscar
Received his first best director Oscar for the movie The Pianist (2002) five months after the awards ceremony. His friend, Harrison Ford, flew to France to present Polanski the award, since the director would be immediately arrested and incarcerated due to outstanding warrants stemming from his fleeing the US after his 1978 statutory rape conviction to avoid imprisonment. [8 September 2003].
Won the Best Director Oscar in 2003 for The Pianist (2002) at the age of 69 years and 7 months, making him the oldest person ever to win that award to that point in time. Polanski eclipsed the record previously held by George Cukor, whowas 65 when he won for directing My Fair Lady (1964). This record was beaten in 2005 when Clint Eastwood won at the ageof 74 for Million Dollar Baby (2004).
Personal Quotes
My films are the expression of momentary desires. I follow my instincts, but in a disciplined way.
[On filmmaking] "You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity."
[On his style of filmmaking] "I don't really know what is shocking. When you tell the story of a man who is beheaded, you have to show how they cut off his head. If you don't, it's like telling a dirty joke and leaving out the punch line."
Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater.
I never made a film which fully satisfied me
Every failure made me more confident. Because I wanted even more to achieve as revenge. To show that I could
