Happy 87th Birthday, Roman Polanski! Born today in 1933 as Rajmund Roman Thierry Polanski, this French-Polish actor, writer, producer and film director who, through a variety of film genres, explored themes of isolation, desire, and absurdity.
After WWII, Polanski was reunited with his father and moved back to Kraków, Poland. During this time, his father had remarried (a woman Polanski had never liked).
However, time repaired the family contacts; Polanski visited his father and his second wife in Kraków, and relatives visited Polanski in Hollywood and Paris, France.
Polanski later recalled the villages and families he had lived with as relatively primitive by European standards.
Polanski's fascination with cinema began very early, when he was around age four or five. After the war, he watched films, either at school or at a local cinema, using whatever pocket money he had.
Polanski later wrote, "Most of this went on the movies, but movie seats were dirt cheap, so a little went a long way. I lapped up every kind of film." As time went on, films became more than an escape into entertainment.
Polanski was above all influenced by English film director Carol Reed's ('The Third Man') 1947 British black and white noir drama/crime film 'Odd Man Out'.
Of the film, Polanski said "I still consider it as one of the best movies I've ever seen and a film which made me want to pursue this career more than anything else ... I always dreamt of doing things of this sort or that style. To a certain extent I must say that I somehow perpetuate the ideas of that movie in what I do."
Polanski later attended the National Film School in Łódź. He eventually took up acting, appearing in a black and white war/drama film by Polish film and theatre director Andrzej Wajda ('Ashes and Diamonds', 'Man of Marble', 'Man of Iron').
In the mid-1960s, Polanski co-conceived, co-wrote. and directed the first film of which he is best known. This was the 1965 British psychological horror/thriller film 'Repulsion'.
The film debuted at the 18th Cannes Film Festival in May of that same year before receiving international theatrical releases.
Upon its release, 'Repulsion' received considerable critical acclaim and currently is considered one of Polanski's greatest works.
It was Polanski's first English-language film, and also his second feature-length production, following his 1962 Polish black and white drama/thriller film 'Nóż w wodzie' ('Knife in the Water').
Polanski had also co-written the film with two other writers, most notably Polish film director, screenwriter, dramatist and actor Jerzy Skolimowski ('Deep End').
Two years later, Polanski met rising American actress Sharon Tate while directing the 1967 British/American Metrocolor horror comedy cult/parody film 'The Fearless Vampire Killers'. During the production, the two of them began dating.
On January 20, 1968, Polanski married Tate in London, England, United Kingdom. Tate was Polanski's second wife and the most notable of his three marriages. However, the couple would only be married for one year.
In June of that same year, the second film of which Polanski is best known for writing and directing was released. This was the 1968 American Technicolor psychological horror drama film 'Rosemary's Baby'.
The film had been based on American novelist, playwright, and songwriter Ira Levin's titular 1967 horror fiction novel. On a budget of $2.3 million, 'Rosemary's Baby' grossed $33.4 million at the box office.
On August 9, 1969, while Polanski was in Europe working on a film, Tate was murdered along with four of their friends at their home in Los Angeles, California.
These were by members of Charles Manson's quasi-commune "family", a group of young, mostly female followers based in that state. Tate was twenty-six years old and eight-and-a-half months pregnant with a son at the time of her murder.
Polanski has said that his absence on the night of the murder is the greatest regret of his life.
In his autobiography, he 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".
In his autobiography, Polanski described his brief time with Tate as the best years of his life.
Polanski was also left with a very negative impression of the press, which he felt was interested in sensationalizing the lives of the victims, and indirectly himself, to attract readers. He was shocked by the lack of sympathy expressed in various news stories.
In the early 1970s, Polanski directed the third film of which he is best known. This was the 1974 American neo-noir mystery/crime film 'Chinatown'.
Polanski has a cameo in the film credited as Man with Knife, who slashes Jake Gittes' (Jack Nicholson) nose with it.
The following year, 'Chinatown' was nominated for eleven Oscars. However, it only received one for Best Screenplay (Robert Towne). This occurred at the 46th Academy Awards in early April 1974.
Today, Towne's screenplay is widely considered to be one of the greatest scripts ever written.
On AFI's 100 Years... 100 Quotes list, "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown." ranked in at #74.
In March 1977, Polanski, then forty-three, was arrested and charged in Los Angeles with five offenses against Samantha Geimer, a thirteen-year-old girl – rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious acts upon a child under fourteen, and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor.
At his arraignment, Polanski pleaded not guilty to all charges but later accepted a plea bargain whose terms included dismissal of the five initial charges in exchange for a guilty plea to the lesser charge of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse.
Polanski underwent a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation, and a report was submitted to the court recommending probation.
However, upon learning that he was likely to face imprisonment and deportation, Polanski fled to France in February 1978, hours before he was to be formally sentenced.
Since then, Polanski has mostly lived in France and has avoided visiting countries likely to extradite him to the United States.
Since 1978, Polanski has been a fugitive from the U.S. criminal justice system, having fled the country while awaiting sentencing in his sexual abuse case, in which he pleaded guilty to statutory rape.
A sequel to 'Chinatown', being the 1990 American neo-noir mystery/crime film 'The Two Jakes', was released. It again starred Nicholson (who also directed), with Towne returning to write the screenplay. However, the film failed to generate the acclaim of its predecessor.
In 1991, 'Chinatown' was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". It is also frequently listed as one of the greatest films of all time.
The American Film Institute (AFI) placed 'Chinatown' second among its top ten mystery films in 2008.
In the early 2000s, Polanski co-produced and directed the fourth and final film of which he is best known. This was the 2002 British/French/Polish/German/American biographical war/drama film 'The Pianist'.
The film had been based on the 1946 autobiographical Holocaust memoir by Polish pianist and classical composer of Jewish descent Władysław Szpilman. This was The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945.
Upon release, 'The Pianist' met with significant critical praise, and received multiple awards and nominations. It was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 55th Cannes Film Festival in May of that same year.
One year later, 'The Pianist' was awarded two Oscars for Best Director, Best Actor (Adrian Brody), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ronald Harwood). This occurred at the 75th Academy Awards in late March 2003.
Polanski is the second-oldest winner for the Best Director Academy Award (won for 'The Pianist' at age 69 years, 217 days).
Brody is also the youngest actor to take home an Oscar for Best Actor at age 29 years, 343 days. The record has currently been held for seventeen years.
In 2014, 'Rosemary's Baby' was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Thanks to his darkly unique perspective and grim, often nihilistic approach to storytelling, Polanski had left an indelible mark on world cinema.
Although his films have been compared to those of Alfred Hitchcock, with their use of gallows humor, tension, and occasional surrealism to tell amoral stories of ordinary men struggling to cope in a hostile, ironic world, Polanski, unlike Hitchcock, chose to experiment with a variety of genres.
In this regard, the director has considered himself a "cinematic playboy" intent on exploring the possibilities of all film categories.
A uniformly pessimistic viewpoint provides the clearest link to entries in Polanski's body of work, something that is widely traced back to years of childhood trauma.
Polanski has been active from 1953–present.
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