Roman Polanski appreciation thread

Let him be guilty, I'm not saying he is but for the sake of the argument he is.
I still don't see why that means he's unworthy of an appreciation thread. He's made three of the finest films ever made. He has a creative and near perfect style of directing. And he deserves more then tow pages of appreciation half of which are condoling him.

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My top 3:

1. Repulsion
2. Chinatown
3. The Tenant

I also like Cul-de-sac and Rosemary's Baby. Not the biggest fan of a lot of his later work.

Opps I mean rapist*

Good, seems a few people left with morals in our world. I don't care how many great movies he makes, he raped a child. That's pretty obvious, not just from the testimony but from the fact he went on the run. The more people who view his work, the more money he makes, making a comfortable life for himself. The fact that a number of big names in Hollywood support him just goes to show Hollywood is morally bankrupt.

Imagine if a pedophile moved onto your street and made tens of thousands of pounds/dollars off of you, would you be happy about that? Just because Polanski is a public figure who might have made a few good movies doesn't mean he should be forgiven or his crimes have suddenly become irrelevant.

Again, he served time and community service.

1) No one is condoning anything by liking his movies
2) He doesn't live next door to you. Chill out.

^^^ Stupid arguments no offence. Something more intellectual next time. Bye.

Why are they stupid?

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

What community service and the only time he served was while he was sitting in jail without bail.

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It reminds me of a toilet paper on the trees
- Paula

The discussion of Polanski's illegal actions and appropriate consequences can be found here. Bring your rope if so desired. This thread is for discussing his movies without people calling him and the fans of his films nasty names.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

It is Roman Polanski's fault he has made himself an issue and since when does an appreciation thread mean only praise can be in them? You can'r express a dissenting view?

There are a few more Polanski movies since I made this thread back in 2009.



I like The Ghost Writer quite a bit. A paranoid political thriller based on a novel by Thomas Harris, it follows an author (Ewan McGregor) who is abruptly hired to ghostwrite the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). The man who had been working on the project before him, an old friend and trusted aide of the PM, has just died in an apparent accident on the ferry at Martha's Vineyard, where Lang keeps a secluded house with his wife (Olivia Williams). Just as the writer arrives, the Prime Minister and his administration are newly under fire in the press for possible war crimes. Is there something in the former writer's notes that is a smoking gun for this and other transgressions, or is there something even more sinister to be found in the manuscript?

Very well crafted, excellent actors (it may be Olivia Williams' best screen role ever), Polanski can do cinematic paranoia and dread as well as anybody, and it wraps up with satisfying bits of twisting and intrigue. Roman won Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival, it did very well in Europe, but it was ignored by the Academy and managed $15-million at the domestic box office, but more than doubled that, worldwide.




Carnage adapts Yasmina Reza’s play, a four character piece, about two upper middle class couples in Brooklyn, played by Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz. Their grade-school-aged sons have gotten into a fight, and so begins a meeting at the apartment of the beaten child’s parents (Foster & Reilly), with the aggressor’s parents (Winslet & Waltz) looking to smooth things over. It starts civilized, if a bit awkward, and with each poorly chosen phrase and dig between the married units and the group as a whole, the conversation becomes more and more heated, until breakdowns and flare ups begin.

I think it’s quite funny, and the top-notch cast is of course wonderful to watch interact with each other. While it’s not in the same class as, say, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, it is still quite a tasty treat. Carnage barely registered at the box office, and it was snubbed by the major awards, but I think in his seventies, Polanski clearly still has more cinema to give us.


Polanski’s latest film, Venus in Fur, I haven't seen, yet. It premiered at Cannes last year, and is finally making its way to the U.S., now, having played at the Tribeca Film Festival last month, with a limited arthouse run coming in June (or thereabouts). Another play adaptation, this one down to only two characters, played by Mathieu Amalric and Polanski's wife, Emmanuelle Seigner. Anyone seen it?

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

I saw it a while back, but my copy had bad/missing subtitles too often, so I'll rewatch it when they're hopefully better.

Great pieces Pike. I'll certainly be seeking more of his work now. I think i enjoyed The Tenant more than you did, at least, I actually preferred it to Rosemary's Baby anyway.

Cheers for the info.

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Too weird to live, and too rare to die.

Thanks.

Yeah, I'm probably due to give The Tenant a full rewatch, but even if I raise its rating a bit, I can't forsee me ever thinking it is in the same class as Rosemary's Baby. Tess and Death and the Maiden are his two seemingly-lesser-appreciated greats I would put at the top of your watch list.

Especially Tess, since though it qualified for the 1980 Oscars, it was released in Europe in 1979, and that is the date it carries on the IMDb...thus making it eligible for the MoFo '70s List.

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What's the name of that movie he directed a long time ago, where this ******* raped a 13yr little girl and then fled the country as to avoid getting raped in prison, himself? I always thought that was his best work, and I certainly think he deserves an appreciation thread. Kudos to the OP, and now if you guys will excuse me, I believe I'll start an appreciation thread for Hitler's oil paintings... you know, because they were so good.

You haven't read much of this thread, have you? Pay special attention to Mark's post on this very page.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Never heard of that film.

The title escapes me, but if I'm not mistaken it's based on a true story. Those are always the best, imo.

If you've not taken my little hint then I'll tell you plainly - Go to this thread if you want to discuss Polanski's personal and legal troubles.

I'd like this thread to be about his films. Got it?

Does anyone know of a movie similar to "Knife in the Water" -- no trickery, just a great movie, great character interplay, didn't feel contrived, felt original, actually, but the tension was amazing, yet done with subtlety.