Roman Polanski. Interviews

Publisher's Description

Roman Polanski (b. 1933) arrived on the international scene in 1962 with his first feature film, Knife in the Water, and his face would be on the cover of Time magazine by the end of that year. His vibrant, disturbing, and often violent films—including the psychological thriller Rosemary's Baby, the film noir classic Chinatown, and the somber Holocaust drama The Pianist—have entertained and sometimes infuriated audiences. Stylistically unsettling and thematically varied, Polanski's films have established him as one of the most talented and controversial European filmmakers of his generation.

Polanski's life has been troubled. He survived the Krakow ghetto and the Holocaust, but his mother died at Auschwitz. His wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered in 1968 by members of Charles Manson's cult. After years of success in the United States, he fled the country in 1978 when he was convicted for having sex with a minor. He hasn't returned to America since that time. In Roman Polanski: Interviews, the acclaimed director talks openly about how incidents in his life have and have not influenced his artistic vision.

This collection of interviews spans nearly forty years and comprises translations from French, German, and Spanish newspapers and magazines and transcripts of British and American television and radio appearances.

Articles

ix		, Introduction
3		Roman Polanski, Script/1963
8		Philippe Haudiquet, I Made This Film for Myself
13		Michel Delahaye and Jean Narboni, Interview with Roman Polanski
31		Michel Ciment, Michel Perez, and Roger Tailleur, Interview with Roman Polanski
47		Dick Cavett, Roman Polanski
59		, Incest Is Interesting
64		Charlotte Kerr, Showing the Work as Accurately as Possible
67		Pascal Bonitzer and Nathalie Heinich, Interview with Roman Polanski
81		Max Tessier, Interview with Roman Polanski
86		Dominique Maillet, Roman Polanski
93		Alain Riou, Roman Polanski Wants to Quit Filmmaking
95		Piotr Kaminski, I Was Part of the Welles Group
100		Philip Short, Roman Polanski
102		Franz-Olivier Giesbert, Roman's Novel
112		Pierre-André Boutang, Polanski on Polanski
115		Jean-Pierre Lavoignat and Stella Molitor, Roman's Style
124		Michel Pérez, Thrilla à la Polanski
127		Michel Ciment and Michel Sineux, Interview with Roman Polanski
139		Gerhard Midding, Being Merciless
146		Antoine de Baecque and Thierry Jousse, Interview with Roman Polanski
154		Marc Weitzmann, Blood and Emotions
158		Laurent Vachaud, Ben-Hur's Riding Crop
169		Julian Hanich, Filmmaking Is a Roulette Game
171		Rüdiger Sturm, Depth Isn't Important to Me
175		Ralph Geisenhanslüke, What Does Evil Mean to You, Mr. Polanski?
179		Charlie Rose, Roman Polanski
195		Octavi Marti, Memories of the Ghetto
202		Leon de Winter, There Were Four of Us

Reviews

Laura Kern, Roman Polanski: Interviews, in Filmcomment, nr. , 2005 pp. 77