“chinatown”. one of the greatest closing lines in film history. wonderful neo-noir.
Bob,
I’m a great admirer of Polanski’s films—-of the world in those films that is “predicated on violent absurdity” (J. Hoberman’s phrase)—an admiration I came to relatively late, I suppose. Having come of age in the 80s, the two Polanski films I saw in the theater were Pirates and Frantic—not his best work by any means (but certainly Gore Verbinski was influenced by Pirates when making the Pirates of the Carribean trilogy). It was only later I saw his best Hollywood work—Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby—and later still that I saw The Tenant and Compulsion—the two Polanski films that probably made the greatest impression on me. I’m also a fan of the literary adaptions—Tess, Macbeth, and Oliver Twist.
You’ve done a nice job of capsulizing what’s compelling about most of those films, So I’ll mention a couple of ‘90sr films that I like—Bitter Moon and Death and the Maiden. Death and the Maiden—about a woman who kidnaps a doctor she believes to have been her torturer while she was a political prisoner—is essentially just a filmed play, but it’s ruthlessly efficient in its design and Polanski gets great performances from the actors. Bitter Moon is indeed “predicated on violent absurdity”—it’s Polanski’s most audacious film since The Tenant—a lurid dark comedy about an Englishman who gets drawn into twisted relationship between a wheelchair-bound writer and his wife (a role in which Polanski cast his own wife, and which Roger Ebert discribed as a woman “whose amusement is to blind men in the headlights of her sexuality, and step on the gas”) while cruising the Mediterranean with his own wife. Thematically it expands upon the psychosexual themes established in Polanski’s earlier films, and once again recasts the triangular relationship pattern used in Knife in the Water, Cul-de-Sac, and Death and the Maiden.
I’m a great fan of his work, and I have been since my 70s childhood. I remember going to see The Tenant with friends in 1976. We were all 11. Some were bored silly, a few were scared (wimps …), and I sat there thinking, “My God, how is he getting these fantastic performances out of this outstanding supporting cast?!?”
Tess was released when I was 15. Nastassja Kinski, whom I would meet in a hot tub two years later, did wonders for my libido. But I still considered it a fantastic film as much as anything else. And, of course there’s always Chinatown.
He did a film a few years back with Johnny Depp called The Ninth Gate, which a lot of people considered just a throwaway piece. It’s not. In fact, it has several wonderful throwbacks to his may other sinister-themed films, and with a lot of style. Check it out.
Thanks guys – for the insights and suggestions. Christopher: you must be living a charmed life to be hot tubbing with the likes of the gorgeous Tess, star, Nastassja K. I am glad now that I posted this thread, just to hear that story! When I saw Tess, I was thinking that it was only natural that Polanski would be drawn to the fatalism in Hardy’s story. Fatalism – the fact we can’t really do much with what fate throws at us – seems to be a theme that runs throughout his films. That is why The Pianist seemed to be a step forward in his own thematic iconography, so to speak, because here the victim does manage to elude his fate – by keeping a low profile. This must have been how Polanski himself survived in Nazi occupied Poland. The man’s life has been far stranger and certainly more grotesque than anything he ever put on film. You are right, Mark, to point out Hoberman’s phrase "“predicated on violent absurdity” as this can be applied both to his films and life. Usually, I am against any type of biographical reduction of an artist’s works, but here, I think you can’t escape it. I plan to see all of his major work that I have missed, including his acting role in A Pure Formality.
A Pure Formality is an interesting film—very Polanskiesque.
Yes, he’s quite brilliant playing the inspector in A Pure Formality. I was afraid Depardieu would get his nose sliced at any moment during the film.
I’ve always admired Roman Polanski. Repulsion was my first introduction to his world, and there’s no turning back after that. In the theatre of the grotesque, the absurd and the macabre, he’s the undisputed master. I count Cul-De Sac, Fearless Vampire Killers, Bitter Moon and the much maligned Che?(What?) as personal favorites, in addition to his major works. The latter especially reminded me of Alice in Wonderland – on acid!
One of the writers of Knife in the Water, Jerzy Skolimowski, also has a career set in the psychological character studies and darkened themes that are a stamp of Roman Polanski’s work. His movie Deep End is one of my favorite works, and he made another Knife-in-the-Water-esque movie called The Lightship which contains remarkable performances and virtuoso camera work in a rather confined space.
—PolarisDiB
It’s true that Skolimowski has largely been discarded, and that is a shame. He did an amazing creepy piece in the late 70s with Alan Bates called The Shout. I’d love to find that again.
Christopher,
I didn’t care for Depp’s performance, but The Ninth Gate has some great stuff in it.
. . . surely there is more to be said about Polanski???
Well, i’m not exactly a fan (nor particularly a detractor), but it’s worth catching his early shorts, several on youtube, the best of which imo are Two Men and a Wardrobe, and the Lamp. Quite the violent little hooligan in the former, with fisticuffs, whereas in Chinatown it was a knife. I’m hardly alone in thinking Chinatown his masterpiece. I liked the relative restraint of The Pianist (considering his own family background and some other films on the subject)
Christopher, you can get The Shout from Amazon.co.uk for a few groats. I’m not a great fan of Skolimowski but this is a very intriguing film.
I’ve recently decided to try and watch as much of his cinematic output as i can in chronological order. Just started with the box set featuring Knife in the Water, Repulsion, Cul de Sac and his early shorts.
Saw Knife in the Water for the first time last week. Really awesome stuff. You really get a sense of the claustrophobia emerging on the boat and the acting is amazing, i couldn’t predict what was going to happen. I thought it could have erupted into a mad killing spree at any second, but Polanski manages to keep the events securely based in reality so that you totally believe every action the characters make. Plus the cinematography is amazing.
Watched Repulsion yesterday, which i saw on TV when i was younger and made a very strong impression on me. Some of the images from that film were burned into my memory ever since. It’s one of those films that you don’t want to analyze too much because it will take its power away.
Might watch Cul-de-Sac this afternoon.
the most i know of polanski is “chinatown”, which in a masterpiece, and “repulsion”, which also made an impact on me when i saw it. its actually one of the few films that truly disturbed me.
“The Shout” was the first Dolby movie. It’s not bad. Sklimowski’s recent return to directing wiht “Four Nights with Anna” is quite strange. Imagine “Deep End” with a grotesque middle-aged man instead of John Moulder-Brown.
As for Polanski I’m crazy about “What?” ( a cross between Playboy’s “Little Annie Fanny” and Bunuel’s “The Exterminating Angel”). “Cul-de-Sac,” “The Fearless Vampire Killers,” and “Bitter Moon.”
I didn’t see Rosemary’s Baby until recently and it had an enormous impact on me. It was almost perfect.
Bob Stutsman
What do we think now of Roman Polanski? Polanski is one of those directors whose work needs re-evaluation. He has had a long and distinguished career on film. Beginning with his early three person character study – Knife in the Water, he has been interested in exploring unusal psychological states – especially how conflict and circumstance can shatter a person’s sense of belonging and well-being. Polanski has had a very troubled life, widely documented, and no need to cover here – it is described well enough on the biographical section on him on site.
Surely, he has given us many worthwhile films over his long and varied career. I have by no means seen all of his work, but his dark vision and subject matter, his own obsessions, have always intrigued me. From his early feature Knife in the Water, to Fearless Vampire Killers, Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, Macbeth, Chinatown, The Tenant, Tess, Frantic, and finally The Pianist, I have watched and studied his evolution as an artist. Each of these films has added something to my respect and admiration of his style. Repulsion is surely one of his perfect films. A visual and psychological masterpiece in anyone’s book. Polanski got as near as possible into describing, through his creative manipulation of sets and subject, the breakdown of a woman subject to extreme stress. It is perfectly acted by Catherine Deneuve and filmed by Polanski. In Rosemary’s Baby, perhaps the work most people identify with Polanski and his style, he establishes a mood of paranoia and suspense that is palpable throughout. Macbeth: one of the greatest Shakespeare adaptations ever put on film – a great comeback vehicle – the ‘Scottish play’ seemed an appropriate subject matter for Polanski’s recent tragic personal history. When he made Chinatown, Polanski tried to update the film noir genre, creating an aura of suspense and paranoia – his trademark in all his films. The Tenant: I thought this now largely forgotten film, which Polanski stars in himself, had the punch and gritty feel of Polanski’s earlier work, and was very effective in bringing out the sinister atmosphere. I really didn’t see most of Polanski’s work after the so-so Frantic, but was amazed at the passion and vision he brought to the powerful The Pianist. Perhaps in this film, he finally settled the score with his own inner demons and his own war-time past, by fully bringing to life the story of a survivor against all odds – which, surely Polanski is. What do you think of his films and which have stood out for you?