HBO Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski


Mini biography

Roman Polanski's parents returned to Poland from France just two years before the World War II began: both were taken later to concentration camps where his mother eventually died. Young Roman managed to escape the ghetto and learned to survive wandering through the Polish countryside and living with the different Catholic families. Though local people usually ignored cinemas where mostly German films were shown, Polanski seemed not very much concerned about patriotism and frequently went to the movies. In 1945, he reunited with his father who sent him to technical school, but young Polanski seemed to have already made his choice._In the 1950s, he took up acting, appearing in Andrzej Wajda's Pokolenie (1955) before studying at the Lodz Film School. His early shorts such as Dwaj ludzie z szafa (1958), Gros et le maigre, Le (1961), and Ssaki (1963) showed his taste for black humor and interest in bizarre human relationships. His feature debut, Nóz w wodzie (1962), was the first Polish post-war film not associated with the war theme. Though being already a major Polish filmmaker, Polanski yet chose to leave the country and headed to France. Being down-and-out in Paris, he befriended young scriptwriter, Gérard Brach, who eventually became his long-time collaborator. The next two films, Repulsion (1965) and Cul-de-sac (1966), made in England and co-written by Brach, won respectively Silver and Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festivals.__In 1968, Polanski went to Hollywood, where he made the psychological thriller Rosemary's Baby (1968). However, after the brutal murder of his wife Sharon Tate by the infamous Manson gang in 1969, the director decided to return to Europe. In 1974, he again appeared with a US release of Chinatown (1974). It seemed the beginning of the promising Hollywood career, but after his conviction for the statutory rape of a 13-year old girl, Polanski fled from America to avoid prison.__After Tess (1979), which was awarded several Oscars and Cesars, his work became intermittent and rarely approached the level of his better known films. The director also stretched his talents to include occasional work in theatre. He still likes to act in the films of other directors, sometimes with interesting results as it was in Pura formalità, Una (1994). IMDb Mini Biography By: Yuri German
Commentary:
Roman Polanski, writer, producer, actor, director of the most famous, most watched films of the century. A giant in the film industry for whom one feels the ravages of the assault on his character by the law enforcement agencies. The disgust, the condemnation of an intellectual/artistic genius trickles down into the minds and gossip mongrels par excellent.
And where do we stand on this issue:
It came before us with Woody Allen another giant in the film industry who married his seemingly too young lover. For Roman Polanski his sexual interaction with a minor is still an issue all these many years later.

Here we are watching his story unfold on the Home Box Office documentary that brings those times and those issues into clear view. Roman was so attractive with such intense sexuality that the thought of doing something wrong just because there for this master of the chase after women (always more women to conquer) is not the personification of his illness but of the sickness that reigns in our country.

Yes, it is the rare man who hasn’t sought a woman for her body, knowing full well that she would never be his sustained love relationship/interest in life. This is applauded in our society and yet the woman who gives into the man, who is overcome by his cunning, his effort to seduce is considered “undesirable”.

How far have we come from this restrictive and prejudicial stance the double standard. As one watches the film is there a feeling of disgust for Roman Polanski or horror at how he is being treated.? Does success too often bread contempt and assault for couses unbeknownst to the genius. How far astry from the norm is a genius and how do they fare in this restrictive country. Not well, I fear. Not well.


I recommend everyone see this film, embrace our individual feelings about his alleged Pedophilia and the ills of our society. This is a chance to see life through the behavior of a not too hungry man but a man so separated from the humble pie we all eat that he didn’t imagine the consequences of yet another conquest.

The victim was a thirteen year old girl physically going on twenty-one and where were her parents, her protective shields. Did they not know her maturity was a problem? Did they not work with her, give her the fundamental knowledge to adjust normally to her premature physical development?

This is not a defense of Roman Polanski but a review of the documentary now being shown on HBO. But since the two seem so forcefully linked, the review of the production and the subject matter, my stance, my reaction to the subject becomes a testimony to the strength of the documentary.

A must see moment from the past that informs forcefully on the present.

See it, if you can.


Linda Zises