Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski was born on the 18th of August 1933 in Paris. His family moved back to Kraków, Poland, in early 1937. Two years later, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and started World War II. The Polański family found themselves trapped in the Kraków Ghetto along with thousands of other Jews. Around the age of six, Polanski attended primary school for only a few weeks before all Jewish children were abruptly expelled from classrooms. He was not allowed to enter another classroom for six years.
His father was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp while his mother was taken to Auschwitz. She was four months pregnant when she arrived at the camp and was killed in the gas chamber soon after. Polanski tried to get closer to his father during the forced exodus but got within just a few yards. His father saw him and whispered in Polish that he should get lost because German soldiers might spot them. Polanski escaped the Kraków Ghetto in 1943 with help from Polish Roman Catholics who promised to shelter him.
He survived by adopting a false identity and concealing his half-Jewish heritage. Polanski attended church and learned to recite Catholic prayers by heart. He behaved outwardly as a Roman Catholic even though he was never baptized. One parish priest visited the family and asked him questions about the catechism. The priest concluded that he was not one of them. The punishment for helping a Jew in German-occupied Poland was death. By the time the war ended in 1945, three million Polish Jews had been killed.
Polanski's first feature-length film was Knife in the Water released in 1962. It was also one of the first significant Polish films after World War II without a war theme. Scripted by Jerzy Skolimowski, Jakub Goldberg, and Polanski, the story followed a wealthy unhappily married couple taking a mysterious hitchhiker on a weekend boating excursion. Leon Niemczyk played Andrzej while Jolanta Umecka played Krystyna. She was discovered by Polanski at a swimming pool.
The film became a major commercial success in the West and gave Polanski an international reputation. It earned its director his first Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1963. Polanski left communist Poland and moved to France where he made two notable short films in 1961: The Fat and the Lean and Mammals. He contributed one segment called La rivière de diamants to the French-produced omnibus film Les plus belles escroqueries du monde in 1964.
In England he directed Repulsion in 1965 which focused on a young Belgian woman named Carol played by Catherine Deneuve. The psychological horror film reflected influences from early surrealist cinema and horror movies of the 1950s. Cul-de-sac followed in 1966 as a bleak nihilist tragicomedy filmed on location in Northumberland. The tone owed much to Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and aspects of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party.
Polanski settled in the United States in 1968 after moving through France and the United Kingdom. Paramount studio head Robert Evans brought him to America ostensibly to direct Downhill Racer but instead asked him to read Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin. Polanski read it non-stop through the night and decided he wanted to write and direct it himself. He wrote the 272-page screenplay in just over three weeks.
Rosemary's Baby became his first Hollywood production and established his reputation as a major commercial filmmaker. The horror-thriller set in trendy Manhattan featured Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse who was impregnated by the devil. The film earned Polanski his second Academy Award nomination. On the 9th of August 1969 while Polanski worked in London, his pregnant wife Sharon Tate and four others were murdered at their Los Angeles residence by members of Charles Manson's cult.
Tate remained home eight-and-a-half months pregnant while Polanski was in Europe working on a film. Her unborn child was posthumously named Paul Richard Polanski. Charles Manson and other cult members were arrested in late 1969 and found guilty of first-degree murder in 1971. Polanski later said that his absence on the night of the murders was the greatest regret of his life. He described her death as the only watershed moment in his life that really mattered.
On the 11th of March 1977, Polanski was arrested at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for the sexual assault of 13-year-old Samantha Gailey. She had modeled for him during a Vogue photoshoot the previous day around the swimming pool at his Bel Air home. He was indicted on six counts of criminal behavior including rape. At his arraignment he pleaded not guilty to all charges but many Hollywood executives came to his defense.
A plea bargain arranged by Gailey's attorney dismissed five of the six charges. Polanski accepted the deal and pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. He was ordered to undergo 90 days of psychiatric evaluation at California Institution for Men at Chino. Upon release after 42 days he agreed to time served along with probation. However he learned afterward that judge Laurence J. Rittenband planned to disregard the plea bargain and sentence him to 50 years in prison.
Polanski decided not to appear at his sentencing hearing. The day before sentencing he left the country on a flight to Paris where he had a home. As a French citizen he has been protected from extradition and lived mostly in France since then. An Interpol red notice was issued for his arrest limiting his movements to France Switzerland and Poland. In 1978 he became a fugitive from American justice.
Polanski dedicated his next film Tess released in 1979 to the memory of Sharon Tate. Nastassja Kinski starred opposite Peter Firth and Leigh Lawson in the role requiring a local dialect. She spent five months studying in London and spending time in the Dorset countryside. The film became the most expensive made in France up to that time and proved financially successful. It won France's César Awards for Best Picture and Best Director while receiving three Oscars including cinematography art direction and costume design.
The Pianist released in 2002 won Polanski the Academy Award for Best Director. The film adapted Władysław Szpilman's World War II autobiography about a Polish-Jewish musician persecuted during the war. When Warsaw was chosen for the premiere the country exploded with pride. Numerous former communists attended the screening and agreed it was fantastic. The film won the Golden Palm award at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2002 as well as Césars for Best Film and Best Director.
Because Polanski would have been arrested in the United States he did not attend the Academy Awards ceremony. Actor Harrison Ford accepted the award for him then presented the Oscar at the Deauville Film Festival five months later. Polanski later received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2004.
In May 2018 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to expel Roman Polanski from its membership following allegations of sexual abuse. He is one of only four members expelled from the Academy. His wife Emmanuelle Seigner rejected the invitation to join the academy denouncing the hypocrisy of the group. In April 2019 Polanski filed a lawsuit against the academy alleging his expulsion was not appropriately supported but the court upheld the decision in August 2020.
Several women have accused Polanski of raping them when they were teenagers including Charlotte Lewis who claimed he forced himself on her while she auditioned for Pirates in Paris in 1983. She stated he sexually abused her when she was just 16 years old four years after he fled the United States. German actress Renate Langer told Swiss police that Polanski raped her in Gstaad when she was 15 in 1972. American artist Marianne Barnard accused him of sexually assaulting her in 1975 when she was 10 years old.
Polanski caused outrage by comparing his own experience to Dreyfus's during an interview promoting An Officer and a Spy released in 2019. He said he could see the same determination to deny facts and condemn him for things he had not done. The film received backlash due to its plot relating to his sexual abuse case and further accusations of harassment and assault. Police clashed with protestors at the César Awards ceremony even firing tear gas upon them.
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Common questions
When and where was Roman Polanski born?
Roman Polanski was born on the 18th of August 1933 in Paris. His family moved back to Kraków, Poland, in early 1937.
How did Roman Polanski survive World War II?
Polanski escaped the Kraków Ghetto in 1943 with help from Polish Roman Catholics who promised to shelter him. He survived by adopting a false identity and concealing his half-Jewish heritage while attending church and reciting Catholic prayers.
What film gave Roman Polanski his first Academy Award nomination?
Roman Polanski received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1963 for Knife in the Water. The film became a major commercial success in the West and established his international reputation.
Why is Roman Polanski considered a fugitive from American justice?
Roman Polanski left the country on a flight to Paris on the day before sentencing in March 1977 after learning that judge Laurence J. Rittenband planned to disregard the plea bargain. An Interpol red notice was issued for his arrest limiting his movements to France Switzerland and Poland.
Which film won Roman Polanski the Academy Award for Best Director?
The Pianist released in 2002 won Roman Polanski the Academy Award for Best Director. The film adapted Władysław Szpilman's World War II autobiography about a Polish-Jewish musician persecuted during the war.