Roman Polanski Blogathon - Day Three

Hosted by Tom Hyland of Cinema Directives

The Tenant (1976)

By JPK of Can't Explain

"It's as if Polanski wants us to see the ravages he has suffered, how he has been damaged, destroyed, driven mad. He enters into the role of the timid Trelkovsky, mild-mannered clerk and thrusts himself at us in this guise, as if waving his arms and screaming, 'Look what happened to me. Can't you see the pain I am in?'"

Read more here

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Repulsion (1965)

By Jean Melkovsky of Polanski-Odd Man Out

"The horror lurks in the trivial objects, just like sanity lurks within sanity. Carole slips into madness one step at a time and the everyday objects become more and more menacing."

Read more here

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Le Gros e le maigre (1961)

By Tom Hyland of Cinema Directives

"Polanski's character was at least in some ways inspired by Chaplin's tramp and indeed, his little dance has a lot of Chaplinesque movements to it."

Read more here

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The Ghost Writer (2010)

By Tom Hyland

"In The Ghost Writer, Roman Polanski's taut suspense/mystery with political overtones, it's either raining, has just rained or looks as though it's about to rain - literally, we never see the sun shine in the film."

Read more here

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And finally, as I opened this blogathon with a passionate defense of Polanski regarding his legal troubles, here is a slightly opposing viewpoint from Tony Dayoub at Cinema Viewfinder:

"But there is something I can't get past which has always made me a bit uncomfortable. There is a sense of entitlement inherent in Polanski's behavior towards the whole episode."

Read more here

Roman Polanski Blogathon - Day Two

Hosted by Tom Hyland of Cinema Directives





Cul-de-Sac (1966)
By Tony Dayoub of Cinema Viewfinder

"The premise of Roman Polanski's Cul-de-Sac (1966) resembles that of an ethnic joke, "An effeminate Englishman, a French nymphomaniac and an American gangster are stuck on an island..." And in many ways, Polanski approaches his moody character study with black comedy in mind."


Read more here

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Cul-de-Sac

By Pete Roberts of Furious Cinema

"One of Cul-de-Sac's most interesting qualities is the mixture of eccentric personalities it tosses together. At the forefront is Lionel Stander, whose voice is so gravelly, whenever he talks it cuts through the movie like a buzzsaw."


Read more here

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Cul-de-Sac

By Jean Melkovsky of Polanski- Odd Man Out

"George doesn't only lose his dignity at every step; worse, he is constantly trying to keep it or regain it, when invariably it is lost, making a deplorably ridiculous fuss while fighting this lost case."

Read more here

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Frantic (1988)

By Adam Zanzie of Icebox Movies

"Though he never explicity acknowledges it, there is temptation for Walker to forget his wife and go for Michelle instead. One reason could be the possibility that Walker's wife may not have been kidnapped at all, but may, instead, have been whisked away by a lover in Paris."

Read more here

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The Pianist (2002)

By Anna of Defiant Success

"Schindler's List is in the German's point of view; The Pianist is in the Jew's point of view. The fact the Polanski based some of the scenes off of his own experiences of the Holocaust gives it a more stunning feel."

Read more here

Roman Polanski Blogathon - Day One

Hosted by Tom Hyland of Cinema Directives

Welcome to Day 1 of the Roman Polanski blogathon!

I have been hearing from many of you and I want to thank everyone for their contributions and interest. To start things out, I want to let you know about a wonderful blog written by Jean Melkovsky entitled Polanski-Odd Man Out. Jean greatly admires Polanski's films and calls him, "an outstanding film director and equally outstanding, though greatly slandered person."

What I love about Jean's blog is the fact that he has gone to great depths to set the record straight about Polanski's legal troubles in the US. His case has been greatly discussed and more than 30 years later, there are all sorts of versions out there that conflict with the truth. Here is an excerpt from Jean's blog, in which she refers to Samantha Geimer, the under-age girl Polanski had sex with in California (this is text from one of her recent statements):

"At the time of his arrest, my family and I consented and encouraged the then District Attorney, John van de Kamp, to enter into a plea bargain with Mr. Polanski on three conditions. That Mr. Polanski admit the conduct, show contrition, and seek assistance in changing his life. He has admitted the facts underlying the crime for which he has pled guilty. He has publicly expressed contrition, and Mr. Polanski has had a significant life change which merits consideration in connection with his attempted return to the United States"

Jean goes into great detail about all the facts of the case and includes transcripts from the trial. He also explains all the angles in this case that have emerged over the past thirty plus years. Read more of what Jean has written here

My thanks to Jean not only for letting me know about his blog, but also a big thank you to him for doing a tremendous amount of research and setting the record straight. It is clear after reading this that Polanski has been very unfairly treated in the court of public opinion.

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The Tenant (1976)

By Jean Melkovsky

Jean also has film reviews on his site. Here is an excerpt from her commentary on The Tenant.

"Whatever the tenant might do to preserve his sanity won't work. He is trying to play by their rules, which is impossible by definition, - "they" are out to get him for no other reason than because they can..."

Read more here

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The Ghost Writer (2010)

By Tony Dayoub at Cinema Viewfinder

"You see while it is rather simple to draw the parallel with Lang - rich guy with a weakness for women who has to seclude himself far from home to avoid a public trial - it is also rather evident the Ghost represents a younger version of Polanski: the young, commercially driven artist who may have sown the seeds of his own destruction when he sold out to the mainstream."

Read more here

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Chinatown (1974)
By Tom Hyland


"Gittes was once a policeman in the Chinatown district of Los Angeles, where he received advice telling him to do "as little as possible." In other words, accept the madness you will witness from day to day, as you live in a world without rules or at least a world where the rules make little sense."


Read more here

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Rosemary's Baby (1968)

By Anna at Defiant Success

"It takes a lot for a horror movie to scare the crap out of me. Like Psycho, Rosemary's Baby did just that."

Read more here