Roman Polanski

"Polanski" redirects here. For other people with this name, see Polanski (surname).

Roman Polanski
File:PolanskiIFFKV.jpg Polanski with a Crystal Globe, 2005
Born	Rajmund Roman Thierry Polański
Occupation(s)	Actor, director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1953–present
Spouse(s)	Barbara Lass(1959–1962) Sharon Tate (1968–1969) Emmanuelle Seigner (1989–present)

Roman Raymond Polanski (Polish: Roman Rajmund Polański; born 18 August 1933) is a French-born and resident Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Polanski began his career in Poland, and later became a critically-acclaimed director of both art house and commercial films. Polanski's first feature-length film, Knife in the Water (1962), made in Poland, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He left the People's Republic of Poland to live in France for several years, then moved to Britain, where he collaborated with Gérard Brach on three films, beginning with Repulsion (1965). In 1968 he moved to the United States, directing the 1968 Hollywood horror film Rosemary's Baby.

In 1969 his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by the Manson Family. After making several independent films, Polanski returned to Hollywood in 1973 to direct Chinatown (1974) for Paramount Pictures, with Robert Evans serving as producer. The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, and was a critical and box-office success; the script by Robert Towne won for Best Original Screenplay. Polanski's next film, The Tenant (1976), was shot in France, and completed the "Apartment Trilogy", following Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby.

In 1977, Polanski was arrested for the sexual assault of a thirteen-year-old in Los Angeles, and later pled guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. To avoid sentencing, Polanski fled to France, and has had a U.S. arrest warrant outstanding since then, and an international arrest warrant since 2005. He continued to make films such as The Pianist (2002), a World War II-set adaptation of Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman's autobiography of the same name, which echoed some of Polanski's earlier life experiences. Like Szpilman, Polanski escaped the ghetto and the concentration camps while family members were killed. The film won three Academy Awards including Best Director, the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, and seven French César Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Harrison Ford accepted the awards on his behalf.

Polanski avoided visits to countries that were likely to extradite him to the United States. Although he owns a house in Switzerland which he visited frequently, in September 2009 Polanski was arrested by Swiss police, at the request of U.S. authorities, when he traveled there to receive a lifetime achievement "Golden Icon Award" from the Zurich Film Festival. The United States formally requested his extradition on October 23, 2009.

Film works

Early work in Poland

Polanski's star on the Łódź walk of fame

Polanski attended the Polish film school in Łódź, and graduated in 1959.

In the early 1950s, Polanski took up acting, appearing in Andrzej Wajda's Pokolenie (A Generation) (1954) and in the same year in Silik Sternfeld's Zaczarowany rower (known in English as Enchanted Bicycle or Magical Bicycle). Polanski's directorial debut was also in 1955 with a short film Rower (Bicycle; not to be confused with Zaczarowany rower). Rower is a semi-autobiographical feature film, currently believed to be lost, which also starred Polanski. It refers to his real-life violent altercation with a notorious Kraków felon, Janusz Dziuba, who arranged to sell Polanski a bike, but instead beat him badly and stole his money. In real life the offender was arrested while fleeing after fracturing Polanski's skull, and executed for three murders, out of eight prior such assaults, which he had committed. Several other short films made during his study at Łódź gained him considerable recognition, particularly Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958) and When Angels Fall (1959).

Polanski's first feature-length film, Knife in the Water, was also the first significant Polish film after WWII that did not have a war theme. Scripted by Jerzy Skolimowski, Jakub Goldberg and Polanski, Knife in the Water is about a wealthy, unhappily-married couple who decide to take a mysterious hitchhiker with them on a weekend boating excursion. A dark and unsettling work, Polanski's debut feature subtly evinces a profound pessimism about human relationships with regard to the psychological dynamics and moral consequences of status envy and sexual jealousy.

Although not well-received by the People's Republic of Poland communist regime, Knife in the Water was nevertheless a major commercial success in the West and gave Polanski an international reputation. The film also earned its director his first Academy Award nomination (Best Foreign Language Film, 1963).

Move to France

Despite his reputation as a major Polish filmmaker, Polanski left then-communist Poland and moved to France, where he had already made two notable short films in 1961: The Fat and the Lean and Mammals. While in France, Polanski contributed one segment ("La rivière de diamants") to the French-produced omnibus film, Les plus belles escroqueries du monde (English title: The Beautiful Swindlers) in 1964. However, Polanski found that in the early 1960s the French film industry was generally unwilling to support a rising filmmaker whom they viewed as a cultural Pole and not a Frenchman. So he soon left France to find new opportunities and financial backing in England.

Gérard Brach collaborations

Polanski then made three feature films in England, based on original scripts written by himself and Gérard Brach, a frequent collaborator. Repulsion is a psychological horror film focusing on a young Belgian woman named Carol (Catherine Deneuve), who is living in London with her older sister (Yvonne Furneaux). While working as a beautician's assistant at a salon, Carol is often disturbed by the physical decrepitude of her elderly clients, and throughout the course of the film, she becomes increasingly distressed by sexual advances from the men around her. Her sister departs for a holiday in Italy with a boyfriend, and Carol is left alone in their shared apartment flat. Carol's disordered mind finally breaks from reality as actual threats of domestic and sexual invasion blend into grotesque paranoid hallucinations, causing her to respond with desperate, deadly acts of violence. The film's themes, situations, visual motifs, and effects clearly reflect the influence of early surrealist cinema as well as horror movies of the 1950s – particularly Luis Buñuel's Un chien Andalou, Jean Cocteau's The Blood of a Poet, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Diabolique and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

Cul-de-Sac (1966) is a bleak nihilist tragicomedy filmed on location in Northumberland. The general tone and the basic premise of the film owes a great deal to Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, along with aspects of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party. Indeed, the original title for the film was When Katelbach Comes (named after the actor André Katelbach, who played the role of the master in Polanski's very Beckettian 1961 short film The Fat and the Lean), and among the cast was Jack MacGowran, a veteran of Beckett's stage and television work. The film's setup concerns two gangsters, Dickie and Albie (Lionel Stander and MacGowran), who are on the run after a heist went wrong. The film opens with Dickie pushing their broken-down car along the tidal causeway of Lindisfarne island. It is implied that the shootout which occurred during the heist had left Albie bleeding and paralyzed, and Dickie, who is also wounded but still mobile, now seeks to contact their underworld boss, Katelbach. (Like Beckett's Godot, Katelbach is frequently alluded to throughout the course of the film, but never actually appears.) As he searches the island, Dickie discovers that the famous medieval castle is inhabited by an eccentric, effeminate and neurotically excitable middle-aged Englishman named George (Donald Pleasence), and his adulterous, nymphomaniacal young French wife, Teresa (Françoise Dorléac, Catherine Deneuve's older sister). A series of absurd mishaps, both farcical and tragic, ensues when Dickie decides to take the couple hostage in their castle as he waits (in vain) for further instructions from the mysterious Katelbach.

The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) is a parody of vampire films (particularly those made by Hammer Studios) which was filmed using elaborate sets built on sound stages in London with additional location photography in the Alps (particularly Urtijëi, an Italian ski resort in the Dolomites). The plot concerns a buffoonish professor named Abronsius (Jack MacGowran) and his clumsy assistant, Alfred (played by Polanski himself), who are traveling through Transylvania in search of vampires. The two of them arrive in a small village near a vampire-infested castle, which they plan to examine. While taking lodgings at the village tavern, Alfred falls in love with Sarah, the local innkeeper's daughter (played by Polanski's future wife, Sharon Tate). Shortly after, Sarah is abducted by the vampires and taken to the castle. The rest of the film concerns Abronsius and Alfred's madcap efforts to penetrate the castle walls and rescue the girl. The ironic and macabre ending is classic Polanski. The Fearless Vampire Killers was Polanski's first feature to be photographed in color with the use of Panavision lenses (the aspect ratio is 2.35:1). The film's striking visual style, with its snow-covered, fairy-tale landscapes, recalls the work of Soviet fantasy filmmakers Aleksandr Ptushko and Alexander Row. Similarly, the richly textured, moonlit-winter-blue color schemes of the village and the snowy valleys evoke the magical, kaleidoscopic paintings of the great Russian-Jewish artist Marc Chagall, who provides the namesake for the innkeeper in the film. The film is also notable in that it features Polanski's love of winter sports, particularly skiing. In this respect, The Fearless Vampire Killers recalls Polanski's 1961 short film, Mammals.

United States

Shortly afterwards Polanski established his reputation as a major commercial filmmaker with his first Hollywood film, Rosemary's Baby (1968), based on the recent bestseller of the same name by Ira Levin. A horror-thriller set in the trendy Manhattan apartment building "The Dakota", the story is about Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), an innocent young housewife, originally from Omaha, who is impregnated by the devil after her narcissistic and ambitious actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes), who offers her womb to a coven of local satanists, in exchange for stardom. Much of the film concerns Rosemary's suspicions and her increasingly successful attempts to uncover the truth of what is going on. Polanski's screenplay adaptation earned him a second 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 a Wardrobe, he scored all of Polanski's feature films (with the exception of Repulsion), and is probably best known in the US for his final collaboration with the director: the haunting soundtrack to Rosemary's Baby.

Polanski's first feature following Sharon Tate's murder was a bleak and violent film version of Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth. Jon Finch and Francesca Annis appeared in the lead roles. He adapted Shakespeare's original text into a screenplay with the British theater critic Kenneth Tynan, and gained financing for the project through his friendship with Victor Lownes, who was an executive for Playboy magazine in London at the time. Polanski wanted to make the film in the play's actual historical setting of Scotland, but while scouting for locations there he could find no suitable sites that were still unmarked by telephone poles and other such modern installations. He eventually chose to shoot in an area of Britain which would provide him with a much more convincing medieval landscape complete with picturesque Norman castles: the rugged environs of Snowdonia National Park, North Wales. The production took six months to complete and exceeded its initial budget by at least $500,000  mostly due to weather problems (it rained frequently during the location filming in Wales) as well as Polanski's insistence on shooting multiple takes of several technically challenging scenes in these adverse conditions. When the film finally premiered in December 1971, a number of critics were disturbed by its rampant violence as well as the overwhelming nightmarish atmosphere and unredeemed nihilism of Polanski's very modernist interpretation of Shakespeare (influenced by the writings of Polish drama critic and theoretician, Jan Kott). Film critic Pauline Kael commented that the slaughter of Lady Macduff and her household appeared to have been staged in an especially lurid manner that was clearly intended to evoke the Manson killings.

Written by Polanski and previous collaborator Gérard Brach, What? is a mordant absurdist comedy made in the spirit of Roger Vadim and Terry Southern and loosely based on the themes of Alice in Wonderland and Henry James. The film is a rambling shaggy dog story about the sexual indignities that befall Nancy (Sydne Rome), a winsome young American hippie hitchhiking through Europe. After escaping a farcical rape attempt in the back of a truck, she soon finds herself stranded in the hothouse atmosphere of a remote Italian villa inhabited by a band of decadent, lecherous grotesques — the main trio are played by Marcello Mastrioanni, Hugh Griffith and Polanski himself. What? is also significant in that it is Polanski's only film to date in which a character breaks the fourth wall. The film was a failure with audiences and critics, although in the years since its release What? has attracted a minor cult following and a modicum of critical notice.

In 1973, Polanski returned to Hollywood to make Chinatown for Paramount Pictures, with Robert Evans serving as producer. The film was nominated for a total of 11 Academy Awards; stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway both received Oscar nominations for their roles, and the script by Robert Towne won for Best Original Screenplay. A private detective, Jake Gittes (Nicholson), is hired to investigate a case of suspected adultery, but instead winds up uncovering a nefarious cabal of corrupt public officials and crooked businessmen who are secretly defrauding city hall and local taxpayers by undermining the publicly owned water supply as a means to facilitate a vast land grab in the San Fernando Valley. As the detective finds out, the ringleader of the conspiracy is responsible for the libel and murder of the city's water commissioner as well as an incestuous rape. Polanski appears in a cameo role as a hoodlum who slices Nicholson's nose with a knife in a failed attempt to scare him off the case. A major critical and box-office success from the time of its premiere in the summer of 1974, Chinatown has been considered by some to be Polanski's greatest achievement as a filmmaker.

Return to Europe

Polanski returned to Europe for his next film, The Tenant (1976), which was based on a 1964 novel by Roland Topor, a French writer of Polish-Jewish origin. In addition to directing the film, Polanski also played the lead role of Trelkovsky, a timid Polish immigrant living in Paris who seems to be possessed by the personality of a young woman who committed suicide by jumping out of the window from her apartment — the very apartment that Trelkovsky now occupies. Many have noted the similarities with Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby, and together with these two earlier works, The Tenant can be seen as the third installment in a loose trilogy of films called the "Apartment Trilogy" that explore the themes of social alienation and psychic and emotional breakdown. For The Tenant, Ingmar Bergman's regular cinematographer, Sven Nykvist, served as cameraman, and actors such as Isabelle Adjani, Shelley Winters, Melvyn Douglas and Jo Van Fleet appeared in supporting roles. The Tenant also marked the first of three consecutive occasions that French composer Philippe Sarde would score a Polanski film. In his autobiography, Polanski wrote: "I had a great admiration for American institutions and regarded the United States as the only truly democratic country in the world."

Unwilling to return to the United States for fear of jail, Polanski continued to work in Europe. He dedicated his next film, Tess (1979), to the memory of his late wife, Sharon Tate. According to the director, after spending time with him in London in the summer of 1969, Tate left a copy of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles on Polanski's nightstand, along with a note suggesting that it would make a good film. Tess was Polanski's first film since his 1977 arrest in Los Angeles, and because of the American-British extradition treaty, Tess was shot in the north of France instead of Hardy's Dorset and Wiltshire; a replica of Stonehenge was constructed at Morienval for the final scene. Nastassja Kinski (with whom Polanski had been romantically involved) appeared in the title role opposite Peter Firth and Leigh Lawson. The film became the most expensive made in France up to that time, causing producer Claude Berri considerable anxiety when there was difficulty finding a North American distributor for the picture, which was nearly three hours long. Matters were also complicated when cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth died in the middle of production and had to be replaced by Ghislain Cloquet. Tess was eventually released in North America by Columbia Pictures, which had also distributed Polanski's earlier Macbeth. Ultimately, Tess proved a financial success and was well-received by both critics and the public. For Tess, Polanski won French César Awards for Best Picture and Best Director and received his fourth Academy Award nomination (and his second nomination for Best Director). The film received three Oscars: best cinematography, best art direction and best costume design. In addition, Tess was nominated for best picture (Polanski's second film to be nominated) and best original score.

Nearly seven years passed before Polanski completed his next film, Pirates (1986), a lavish period piece starring Walter Matthau, which the director intended as an homage to the beloved Errol Flynn swashbucklers of his childhood. Pirates was followed by Frantic (1988), starring Harrison Ford and the actress/model Emmanuelle Seigner. She would go on to star in two more of his films, Bitter Moon (1992) and The Ninth Gate (1999).

Later work and honours

Polanski at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival

In 1997, Polanski directed a stage version of his 1967 film The Fearless Vampire Killers, a musical, which debuted on October 4, 1997 in Vienna as Tanz der Vampire (Dance of the Vampires), the German title of the film version. After closing in Vienna, the show had successful runs in Stuttgart, Hamburg, Berlin, and Budapest. On 11 March 1998, Polanski was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

In 2002 Polanski released The Pianist, a World War II-set adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman, whose experiences have similarities with Polanski's own (Polanski, like Szpilman, escaped the ghetto and the concentration camps, while family members did not). In May 2002, the film won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) award at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as Césars for Best Film and Best Director, and later the 2002 Academy Award for Directing. Polanski did not attend the Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood because he would have been arrested once he set foot in the United States. After the announcement of the "Best Director Award", Polanski received a standing ovation from most of those present in the theater. In 2004, he received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

During late 2004, Polanski shot a new film adaptation of the Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist, based on Ronald Harwood's screenplay. The shooting took place at the Barrandov Studios in Prague, Czech Republic and starred Barney Clark (as Oliver Twist), Harry Eden (as the Artful Dodger), Ben Kingsley (as Fagin) and Edward Hardwicke (as Mr. Brownlow). The director also gathered some collaborators from The Pianist: Ronald Harwood (screenplay), as noted, Allan Starski (production designer) and Pawel Edelman (director of photography). Polanski is known for making cameo appearances in his movies and others, the latest was a cameo in Rush Hour 3 (2007) as a French police official. An attempt to adapt Robert Harris' Pompeii was abandoned in 2009.

In September 2009 Polanski was awarded a lifetime achievement "Golden Icon Award" by the Zurich Film Festival, which he was travelling to receive when he was arrested on 26 September.

Prior to his September 2009 arrest in Switzerland, Polanski was 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 writer and Pierce Brosnan as the prime minister. Filming takes place in Germany. The Ghost is being co-produced as of February 2009 by the Babelsberg Studios.

Personal life

Early life

Polanski was born as Rajmund Roman Thierry Polański in Paris, France, the son of Bula (née Katz-Przedborska) and Ryszard Polański (né Liebling), a painter and plastics manufacturer. His mother had a daughter, Annette, by her previous husband. Annette managed to survive Auschwitz, where her mother died, and left Poland forever for France. His father was nominally Jewish and his Russian-born mother had been raised in the faith of her own Polish Roman Catholic mother. His mother's father was Jewish, but not observant. Ryszard Liebling had changed his surname to Polański in early 1932. The Polański family moved back to the Polish city of Kraków in 1936, and were living there when the World War II began with the invasion of Poland. Neither of Roman Polanski's parents was religious. Kraków was soon occupied by the German forces. Nazi racial and religious purity laws made the Polańskis targets of persecution and forced them into the Kraków Ghetto, along with thousands of the city's Jews.

His father survived the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria, but his mother perished at Auschwitz. Polański himself escaped the Kraków Ghetto in 1943 and survived the war using the name Romek Wilk with the help of some Polish Roman Catholic families. As a Jewish child in hiding, he behaved outwardly as a Roman Catholic, although he was never baptized as such. After the war he was reunited with his father and moved back to Kraków, now part of the Communist People's Republic of Poland. Roman Polanski's father married Wanda Zajączkowska, but Roman disliked his stepmother, which further estranged father and son, who had never been able to establish an intimate relationship. Ryszard Polański died of cancer in 1984.

Relationships

Polanski's first wife, Barbara Lass (née Kwiatkowska), starred in When Angels Fall. The couple were married in 1959 and divorced in 1961.

Martin Ransohoff introduced Polanski and rising actress Sharon Tate shortly before filming The Fearless Vampire Killers, and during the production the two of them began dating. On 20 January 1968, Polanski married Sharon Tate in London. In his autobiography, Polanski described his brief time with Tate as the best years of his life. This marriage ended with the death of Tate in the Manson murders, leaving Polanski devastated.

In 1976, Polanski started a romantic relationship with Nastassja Kinski, when she was 15 years old and he was 43 years old. In 1979, their relationship ended at the completion of filming Polanski's Oscar nominated "Tess", in which Kinski had played the lead role. Polanski and Emmanuelle Seigner married in 1989. They have two children, daughter Morgane and son Elvis, who is named after Elvis Presley.

Sharon Tate's murder

Main article: Sharon Tate § Death and aftermath

In 1969, Polanski's wife Sharon Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant, was murdered (along with four others) at the Polanski/Tate residence in Los Angeles by followers of Charles Manson. Polanski had been 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 after the killers were arrested. Polanski later stated that he gave away all his possessions, as everything reminded him of Tate and was too painful for him. Polanski has declared his absence on the night of the murders from his home in Beverly Hills to be his greatest regret. In his autobiography, Polanski wrote, "Sharon's death is the only watershed in my life that really matters", and commented that her murder changed his personality from a "boundless, untroubled sea of expectations and optimism" to one of "ingrained pessimism ... eternal dissatisfaction with life".

Sexual assault case

Main article: Roman Polanski sexual abuse case

On March 11, 1977, Polanski was arrested and charged with a number of offenses against a thirteen-year-old, Samantha Geimer, that occurred the day before at the Hollywood home of actor Jack Nicholson. Geimer testified that Polanski gave her a combination of champagne and quaaludes, a sedative drug and muscle relaxant, and despite her repeated protests and being asked to stop, he performed oral sex, intercourse and sodomy upon her. A grand jury decided to charge him with rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under fourteen, and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor. When initially questioned Polanski didn't appear to realize having intercourse with a thirteen-year-old girl was illegal in America, and he has maintained the sex was consensual. At the time of his arraignment Polanski pleaded not guilty to all charges of the grand jury indictment.

In an effort to preserve the child's anonymity, Geimer's attorney arranged a plea bargain which Polanski accepted, and, under the terms, five of the initial charges were to be dismissed. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse, a charge which is synonymous under Californian law with statutory rape. Polanski agreed that Judge Laurence Rittenband would determine the sentence. The judge received a probation report and psychiatric evaluation, both indicating that Polanski should not serve jail time, and in response Rittenband ordered the filmmaker spend 90 days in prison in order to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Prior to undergoing this evaluation, Polanski was granted a 90 day court stay in order for him to complete film work in Tahiti. Polanski was ordered back to court in October after being photographed in Germany at Oktoberfest, however after the testimony at the hearing, that the travel was related to the film, Polanski was allowed to continue working.On December 16, 1977 Polanski reported to the Chino Prison.

Polanski was released after 42 days. The expectation was that Polanski would receive only probation at the sentencing hearing, with the probation officer, examining psychiatrist and the victim all recommending against jail time. However, the situation changed when the judge "suggested to Polanski's attorneys" that he would imprison and then deport him. Informed of this by his attorney, on 1 February 1978, Polanski responded by fleeing to France, just hours before he was to be formally sentenced. As a French citizen, Polanski has been protected from extradition. Since then Polanski has mostly lived in France and avoided visiting countries (such as the UK) likely to extradite him.

In February 1978, Judge Rittenband left the case to a new judge, after Polanski filed a motion seeking removal of the judge based on unprofessional conduct, prejudice and bias against Polanski. The new judge chose to not sentence Polanski in absentia. Because Polanski fled prior to sentencing, all six of the original charges are still pending.

Geimer sued Polanski in 1988, alleging sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and seduction. In 1993 Polanski agreed to pay Geimer at least $500,000 as part of a civil settlement, however in August 1996, a court filing stated that he owed her $604,416.22, including interest. The court records do not state whether Polanski made any subsequent payment.

On 26 September 2009, Polanski was arrested by Swiss police at Zürich Airport while trying to enter Switzerland, in relation to his outstanding 1978 US arrest warrant. Polanski was to attend the Zurich Film Festival to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. The Federal Department of Justice and Police said Polanski was put "in provisional detention". Polanski announced that he intends to appeal extradition and hired lawyer Lorenz Erni to represent him. On October 6 his initial request for bail was refused by the Federal Department of Justice and Police; a spokesperson commented, "we continue to be of the opinion that there is a high risk of flight". On 19 October, his appeal was rejected by the Federal Criminal Court.

Vanity Fair libel case

In 2004, Polanski sued Vanity Fair magazine in London for libel. A 2002 article in the magazine written by A. E. Hotchner recounted a claim by Lewis H. Lapham, editor of Harper's, that Polanski had made sexual advances towards a young model as he was traveling to Sharon Tate's funeral, claiming that he could make her "the next Sharon Tate". The court permitted Polanski to testify via a video link, after he expressed fears that he might be extradited were he to enter the United Kingdom.

The trial started on 18 July 2005. Polanski made English legal history as the first claimant to give evidence by video link. During the trial, which included the testimony of Mia Farrow and others, it was claimed that the alleged scene at the famous New York City restaurant Elaine's could not have taken place on the date given, because Polanski only dined at this restaurant three weeks later. Also, the Norwegian model disputed accounts that he had claimed to be able to make her "the next Sharon Tate." In the course of the trial, Polanski did admit to having been unfaithful to Tate during their marriage.

Polanski was awarded £50,000 damages by the High Court in London. Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, responded, "I find it amazing that a man who lives in France can sue a magazine that is published in America in a British courtroom".

Filmography

Director

Year	Film	Oscar nominations	Oscar wins
1955	Rower (aka Bicycle)
1957	Morderstwo (aka A Murderer)
	Uśmiech zębiczny (aka A Toothful Smile)
	Rozbijemy zabawę (aka Break Up the Dance)
1958	Dwaj ludzie z szafą (aka Two Men and a Wardrobe)
1959	Lampa (aka The Lamp)
	Gdy spadają anioły (aka When Angels Fall)
1961	Le Gros et le maigre (aka The Fat and the Lean)
	Ssaki (aka Mammals)
1962	Nóż w wodzie (aka Knife in the Water)	1
1964	Les plus belles escroqueries du monde (aka The Beautiful Swindlers) — segment: "La rivière de diamants"
1965	Repulsion*
1966	Cul-de-Sac
1967	The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, Madam, but Your Teeth Are in My Neck (aka Dance of the Vampires)
1968	Rosemary's Baby*	2	1
1971	The Tragedy of Macbeth
1973	What? (aka Diary of Forbidden Dreams)
1974	Chinatown	11	1
1976	Le Locataire (aka The Tenant)*
1979	Tess	6	3
1986	Pirates	1
1988	Frantic
1992	Bitter Moon
1994	Death and the Maiden
1999	The Ninth Gate
2002	The Pianist	7	3
2005	Oliver Twist
2007	To Each His Own Cinema (segment Cinéma erotique)
2010	The Ghost

*These movies are part of his 'Apartment Trilogy'.

Actor

This list contains both cameos and more major roles.

• Trzy opowieści (aka Three Stories) as Genek 'The Little' (segment "Jacek") (1953)
• Zaczarowany rower (aka Magical Bicycle) as Adas (1955)
• Rower (aka Bicycle) as the Boy who wants to buy a bicycle (1955)
• Pokolenie (aka A Generation) as Mundek (1955)
• Nikodem Dyzma as the Boy at Hotel (1956)
• Wraki (aka The Wrecks) (1957)
• Koniec nocy (aka End of the Night) as the Little One (1957)
• Dwaj ludzie z szafą (aka Two Men and a Wardrobe) as the Bad boy (1958)
• Zadzwońcie do mojej żony ? (aka Call My Wife) as a Dancer (1958)
• Gdy spadają anioły (aka When Angels Fall Down) as an Old woman (1959)
• Lotna as a Musician (1959)
• Zezowate szczęście (aka Bad Luck) as Jola's Tutor (1960)
• Do widzenia, do jutra (aka Good Bye, Till Tomorrow) as Romek (1960)
• Niewinni czarodzieje (aka Innocent Sorcerers) as Dudzio (1960)
• Ostrożnie, Yeti! (aka Beware of Yeti!) (1961)
• Gros et le maigre, Le (aka The Fat and the Lean) as The Lean (1961)
• Samson (1961)
• Nóż w wodzie (aka Knife in the Water) voice of Young Boy (1962)
• Repulsion as Spoon Player (1965)
• The Fearless Vampire Killers as Alfred, Abronsius' Assistant (1967)
• The Magic Christian as Solitary drinker (1969)
• What? as Mosquito (1972)
• Chinatown as Man with Knife (1974)
• Blood for Dracula (Andy Warhol) as Man in Tavern (1976)
• Locataire, Le (aka The Tenant) as Trelkovsky (1976)
• Chassé-croisé (1982)
• En attendant Godot (TV) as Lucky (1989)
• Back in the USSR as Kurilov (1992)
• Pura formalità , Una (aka A Pure Formality) as Inspector (1994)
• Grosse fatigue (aka Dead Tired) as Roman Polanski (1994)
• Hommage à Alfred (aka Tribute to Alfred Lepetit) (2000)
• Zemsta (aka The Revenge) as Papkin (2002)
• Rush Hour 3 as Detective Revi (2007)
• Caos Calmo as Steiner (2007)

Writer

• Script for A Day at the Beach (1970) based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Simon Heere Heeresma.
• Polanski's autobiography, Roman by Polanski, sometimes known as Roman.

Sources

• Cronin, Paul (2005) Roman Polanski: Interviews, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. 200p
• Farrow, Mia (1997). What Falls Away: A Memoir, New York: Bantam.
• Visser, John J. 2008 Satan-el: Fallen Mourning Star (Chapter 5). Covenant People's Books. ISBN 978-0-557-03412-3
• Feeney, F.X. (text); Duncan, Paul (visual design). (2006). Roman Polanski, Koln: Taschen. ISBN 3-8228-2542-5
• Leaming, Barbara (1981). Polanski, The Filmmaker as Voyeur: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671249851.
• Parker, John (1994). Polanski. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. ISBN 0575056150.
• Polanski, Roman (1973) Roman Polanski's What? From the original screenplay, London: Lorrimer. 91p. ISBN 0856470333
• Polanski, Roman (1973) What?, New York: Third press, 91p, ISBN 089388121X
• Polanski, Roman (1975) Three film scripts: Knife in the water [original screenplay by Jerzy Skolimowski, Jakub Goldberg and Roman Polanski; translated by Boleslaw Sulik]; Repulsion [original screenplay by Roman Polanski and Gerard Brach]; Cul-de-sac [original screenplay by Roman Polanski and Gerard Brach], introduction by Boleslaw Sulik, New York: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 275p, ISBN 0064300625
• Polanski, Roman (1984) Knife in the water, Repulsion and Cul-de-sac: three filmscripts by Roman Polanski, London: Lorrimer, 214p, ISBN 0856470511 (hbk) ISBN 0856470929 (pbk)
• Polanski, Roman (1984, 1985) Roman by Polanski, New York: Morrow. ISBN 0688026214, London: Heinemann. London: Pan. 456p. ISBN 0434591807 (hbk) ISBN 0330285971 (pbk)
• Polanski, Roman (2003) Le pianiste, Paris: Avant-Scene, 126p, ISBN 2847250166

External links

• Roman Polanski at IMDb
• Roman Polanski's official webpage