DEATH AND THE MAIDEN

Roman Polanski

Moved to Poland in 1937. After the nazist invasion he was forced with his family into the Krakow ghetto. His mother was deported to Auschwitz and killed, while his father survived the concentration camp of Mauthausen Gusen. He graduated at the Polish Film School of Cinematography of Łódź in 1959. During his studies he shot several short films, among them Two Men and a Wardrob, which was awarded at many international festivals. In 1962 he presented his first feature film, Knife in the Water.
Despite the Polish authorities’ critics, the film was acclaimed by the audience and earned Polanski his first nomination to the Academy Award and the Critics’ Award at the Venice Film Festival. He moved to London in 1963, where he wrote and directed three films with Gérard Brach: Repulsion (1965), whose main character was Catherine Deneuve, Cul-de-sac (1966), which gained the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), produced by MGM, starring his future wife Sharon Tate. In 1968 he moved to the USA, where he shot Rosemary’s
Baby, a horror film set in New York starring John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow. In the August of 1969 Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by members of Charles Manson’s “family”. In 1971 Polanski moved back to London to direct a film adaptation of Macbeth (1971), his first work after his wife’s death. After What?(1972), shot in Italy and played by Marcello Mastroianni, he returned to Hollywood to direct Chinatown (1974) for Paramount Pictures, his tribute to the American classics of noir genre,
starring Jack Nicholson as main actor. In the same year he debuted as theatre director at the Spoleto Festival with Alban Berg’s Lulu. He was the main character in his next film The Tenant (1976), based on a Roland Topor’s novel, with Sven Nykvist as cinematographer. He played the role of a shy Polis immigrant obsessed by suicide instinct. Embroiled in a sexual scandal and convicted by the American Court, he is forced to leave the USA in 1978 and settles in France, where he shot Tess (1979). Then he directed Pirates (1986) and Frantic (1987) with Harrison Ford and his future wife Emmanuelle Seigner, who also played in Bitter Moon (1992) and The Ninth Gate (1999). In 1994 Polanski was the main character with Gérard Depardieu in A Pure Formality by Tornatore and he directed Death and the Maiden. In 2002 he was awarded the Golden Palm at Cannes and an Oscar for Best Director with the film The Pianist. Two years later he directed Oliver Twist, based on Dickens’ novel.

FILMOGRAFIA

Morderstwo (cm, 1956), Uśmiech zębiczny (cm, 1956), Rozbijemy zabawę (cm, 1957), Dwaj ludzie z szafą (cm, 1958), Lampa (cm, 1959), Gdy Spadają anioły (cm, 1959), Le Gros et le maigre (cm, 1960), Ssaki (cm, 1962), Nóż w wodzie (Il coltello nell’acqua, 1962), Les Plus belles escrocqueries du monde (ep. La rivière de diamants; Le più belle truffe del mondo, ep. La collana didiamanti, mm, 1964), Repulsion (Repulsione, 1965), Cul-de-sac (Cul de sac, 1966), The Fearless Vampire Killers (Per favore non mordermi sul collo, 1967), Rosemary’s Baby (Rosemary’s Baby - Nastro rosso a New York, 1968), Macbeth (id., 1971), What? (Che?, 1972) Chinatown (id., 1974), Le Locataire (L’inquilino del terzo piano, 1976),
Tess (id., 1979), Pirates (Pirati, 1986), Frantic (id., 1988), Bitter Moon (Luna di fiele, 1992), Death and the Maiden (La morte e la fanciulla, 1994), Gli angeli (videoclip, 1996), The Ninth Gate (La nona porta, 1999), The Pianist (Il pianista, 2002), Oliver Twist (id., 2005), Chacun son cinéma (ep. Cinéma érotique, cm, 2007).

SPOT PUBBLICITARI/COMMERCIALS
Marie Claire (1981), Chanel Antaeus (1982), Kronenburg (1982), Peugeot 309 (1986), Vanity Fair, Compratore d’anime (1990), Parisienne, Parisienne People (1999), XelionBanca, My Economy (2000), Associazione Europea contro le leucodistrofie (2003).