Roman Polanski - Biography - IMDb Roman Polanski Biography Showing all 87 items Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (3) | Trade Mark (3) | Trivia (27) | Personal Quotes (49) Overview (4) 5' 5" (1.65 m) Mini Bio (1) Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933. His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years before World War II began. On Germany's invasion in 1939, as a family of mostly Jewish heritage, they were all sent to the Krakow ghetto. His parents were then captured and sent to two different concentration camps: his father to Mauthausen-Gusen in Austria, where he survived the war, and his mother to Auschwitz where she was murdered.

Roman witnessed his father's capture and then, at only 7, managed to escape the ghetto and survive the war, at first wandering through the Polish countryside and pretending to be a Roman-Catholic kid visiting his relatives. Although this saved his life, he was severely mistreated suffering nearly fatal beating which left him with a fractured skull. Local people usually ignored the cinemas where German films were shown, but Polanski seemed little concerned by the propaganda and often went to the movies. As the war progressed, Poland became increasingly war-torn and he lived his life as a tramp, hiding in barns and forests, eating whatever he could steal or find. Still under 12 years old, he encountered some Nazi soldiers who forced him to hold targets while they shot at them. At the war's end in 1945, he reunited with his father who sent him to a technical school, but young Polanski seemed to have already chosen another career. In the 1950s, he took up acting, appearing in Andrzej Wajda 's A Generation (1955) before studying at the Lodz Film School.

His early shorts such as Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958), The Fat and the Lean (1961) and Mammals (1962), showed his taste for black humor and interest in bizarre human relationships. His feature debut, Knife in the Water (1962), was one of the first Polish post-war films not associated with the war theme. It was also the first movie from Poland to get an Oscar nomination for best foreign film. Though already a major Polish filmmaker, Polanski chose to leave the country and headed to France. While down-and-out in Paris, he befriended young scriptwriter, Gérard Brach , who eventually became his long-time collaborator. The next two films, Repulsion (1965) and Cul-De-Sac (1966), made in England and co-written by Brach, won respectively Silver and then Golden Bear awards at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 1968, Polanski went to Hollywood, where he made the psychological thriller, Rosemary's Baby (1968).

However, after the brutal murder of his wife, Sharon Tate , by the Manson Family in 1969, the director decided to return to Europe. In 1974, he again made a US release - it was Chinatown (1974). It seemed the beginning of a promising Hollywood career, but after his conviction for the statutory rape of a 13-year old girl, Polanski fled from the USA to avoid prison. After Tess (1979), which was awarded several Oscars and Cesars, his works in 1980s and 1990s became intermittent and rarely approached the caliber of his earlier films. It wasn't until The Pianist (2002) that Polanski came back to full form. For that movie, he won nearly all the most important film awards, including the Oscar for Best Director, Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, the BAFTA and Cesar Award. He still likes to act in the films of other directors, sometimes with interesting results, as in A Pure Formality (1994). By: Yuri German (blsidt1 AT imf.org) and edited by Steve Somers.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Yuri German (blsidt1 AT imf.org) Spouse (3) ( 19 September 1959 - 1962) (divorced) Trade Mark (3) Likes to arrange shots from the protagonist's perspective and slowly pan around the room to points of interest as the character notices them. By the end of his films, the protagonist often meets an uncertain, melancholic future (" The Ninth Gate (1999) ", " The Ghost Writer (2010)", " Rosemary's Baby (1968)", " Chinatown (1974)" and " Macbeth (1971)"). Often key scenes or plot are featured near or associated with water. Trivia (27) Has not returned to the United States since 1978. Convicted of the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl after plea bargaining, Polanski served time in prison in California, but prison officials released him sooner than the judge's original sentence had intended. The judge then sought to have Polanski brought to court again for further sentencing. Rather than do so, Polanski fled to Europe to avoid and escape a second arrest and incarceration.

In 2013, his former victim, Samantha Geimer--who was 50 years old and had long ago forgiven him for the crime--detailed her story in a book called "The Girl". After Polanski fled American justice, the judge over his case swore to put him behind bars again. Though the judge died in 1989, the director still cannot return to the U.S. as he would be arrested immediately. In 1969, while Polanski was out of town on business, his wife, actress Sharon Tate , was brutally murdered by members of Charles Manson 's cult family, though Manson only ordered the killing and was not present during the murders. Tate was eight months pregnant with Polanski's first child at the time. Polanski has said that his life's biggest regret was not being present at the house the night his wife and four others were murdered. Two children with Emmanuelle Seigner : Morgane Polanski (born January 20, 1993) and Elvis Polanski (born April 12, 1998).

Shortly before her murder, wife Sharon Tate gave Polanski a copy of Thomas Hardy 's 1891 novel "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", and he planned to film it with her. When he finally made the movie Tess (1979), he dedicated it to her. Roman and his father are Holocaust survivors. His father was Jewish, and his half-Jewish mother (who was murdered in Auschwitz) had been raised as a Roman Catholic. Received his first best director Oscar for the movie The Pianist (2002) five months after the awards ceremony. His friend, Harrison Ford , flew to France to present Polanski the award, since the director would be immediately arrested and incarcerated due to outstanding warrants stemming from his fleeing the US to avoid further imprisonment after his 1978 statutory rape conviction. [8 September 2003]. Won the Best Director Oscar in 2003 for The Pianist (2002) at the age of 69 years and 7 months, making him, at that time, the oldest person to win the award.

Polanski eclipsed the record previously held by George Cukor , who was 65 when he won Best Director for My Fair Lady (1964). This record was beaten in 2005, when Clint Eastwood won Best Director for Million Dollar Baby (2004) at the age of 74. Within the Hollywood industry in the late '60s and early '70s he was often mocked as the stereotypical short, tyrannical European director. Was voted the 26th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Was one of the judges in the Miss Universe pageant in 1976. When he fled from the U.S. in the late 70s, much was made about the director's inability to ever make films in the States again. However, Polanski only shot 2 films in the States prior to his arrest: Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974) were shot in North America. All other English-language films before the arrest were shot in the UK, and all the ones since have been shot in Central Europe. President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991.

Is portrayed by Marek Probosz in Helter Skelter (2004). Born in Paris, France, he was the son of Bula (née Katz-Przedborska) and Ryszard Liebling (aka Ryszard Polanski), a painter and plastics manufacturer. His father was a Polish Jew and his mother, a native of Russia, had a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother, and was raised as a Catholic. He was to have directed The Double, a modern-day, comedic adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky 's novel about a man whose life is taken over by his doppelganger. John Travolta , who was being paid $17 million, was to have played the lead, alongside Isabelle Adjani , John Goodman , and Jean Reno . Shooting was to have begun in Paris in June 1996. Lili Fini Zanuck and Todd Black were producing, Jeremy Leven had written the screenplay, and other personnel such as director of photography Robert Richardson and production designer Pierre Guffroy were in place.

Just nine days before the commencement of principal photography, and with around $15 million already spent on the project, Travolta flew back to the U.S. following an argument with Polanski. Travolta claimed that the shooting screenplay had been significantly altered from the one he had originally read. Following Travolta's departure, Steve Martin was quickly hired to replace him, but Isabelle Adjani said she was only prepared to work with Travolta, and she, too, left the film. The project collapsed shortly afterwards. According to his autobiography, producer Robert Evans initially wanted Polanski to direct Sliver (1993). But since Polanski could not return to the U.S., Evans planned on having a second unit director shoot some footage in New York, while Polanski would direct the rest of the film in Paris. Was offered the chance to direct King Kong (1976) but turned it down. In November 1989, Polanski was approached by Warner Bros. to adapt and direct Mikhail A. Bulgakov 's novel The Master and Margarita. The project was subsequently dropped by Warner Bros.

due to budgetary concerns and the studio's belief that the subject matter was no longer relevant due to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Polanski has described his script as the best he has ever adapted. Directed four actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Ruth Gordon , Jack Nicholson , Faye Dunaway , and Adrien Brody . Gordon and Brody did win Oscars for their performances in two of his films. In February 2007 it was announced that Polanski would direct a $130m adaptation of Robert Harris ' novel Pompeii. Orlando Bloom and Scarlett Johansson were rumoured to be starring, but in September 2007 he left the project due to concerns over the threatened Screen Actors Guild strike. In 1969, he was writing a script for a film about the Donner Party, as well as a biography of Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini , but both projects were abandoned.

Six of Roman Polanski's films-- Knife in the Water (1962), Repulsion (1965), Cul-De-Sac (1966), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Macbeth (1971), and Tess (1979)--are in the Criterion Collection. Personal Quotes (49) Normal love isn't interesting. I assure you that it's incredibly boring. My films are the expression of momentary desires. I follow my instincts, but in a disciplined way. [on filmmaking] "You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity." [on his style of filmmaking] "I don't really know what is shocking. When you tell the story of a man who is beheaded, you have to show how they cut off his head. If you don't, it's like telling a dirty joke and leaving out the punch line." The best films are because of nobody but the director. I can only say that whatever my life and work have been, I'm not envious of anyone, and this is my biggest satisfaction.

Whenever I get happy, I always have a terrible feeling. Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater. If ever I see one of my films on television, I have a hard time sitting through it, because it seems like all the sins of youth. Truly, I don't think I did my picture yet. I don't feel like I did anything that was totally satisfying to me. In Paris, one is always reminded of being a foreigner. If you park your car wrong, it is not the fact that it's on the sidewalk that matters, but the fact that you speak with an accent. [on François Truffaut , Claude Lelouch , and Jean-Luc Godard ] People like Truffaut, Lelouch and Godard are like little kids playing at being revolutionaries. I've passed through this stage. I lived in a country where these things happened seriously. Every failure made me more confident. Because I wanted even more to achieve as revenge. To show that I could. Every film I make represents a departure for me. You see, it takes so long to make a film. By the time you get to the next one you're already a different man.

You've grown up by one or two years. [To the press after the murder of his wife Sharon Tate in 1969] ...All of you know how beautiful she was, but few of you know how good she was. Hollywood is like that: a spoiled brat that screams for possession of a toy and then tosses it out of the baby buggy. [on Oliver Twist (2005)] I would never think of doing a movie for children if I did not have any. A lot of things in the film I know about. I relate to all the sufferings much more now that I have kids. I see it from the outside now. And before, I didn't. Children have this capacity for resistance, and they accept things as they are, maybe because they have no other reference. They are somehow more flexible; they adapt much faster than adults. My children like coming to the set of my movies, they know what I am doing, they live around all that, but the result of all this work is something so remote from their world they can't identify with it. I wanted something they could, so I started looking for subjects that would be suitable.

It's for them, so they will be able to remember the movie years from now when I won't be around. I am not a fortune teller. I would like to be judged for my work, and not for my life. If there is any possibility of changing your destiny, it may be only in your creative life, certainly not in your life, period. A lot has changed for me. My life has improved. It's not only children, but the relationship with my wife is the best thing that ever happened to me. First comes my love of my work [in movies], but secondary to the creation itself is the need to get laid. [on Jack Nicholson ] Jack! You see how angry he gets in a scene? Unbelievably scary! He can not stop, he goes into a kind of it, you dunno whether he is acting any more! [on Harrison Ford ] Often when Harrison read a line, it was a different reading than I anticipated, but it worked. Somehow, it was more inspiring or original than what I had in mind. [on Faye Dunaway ] She was a gigantic pain in the ass. She demonstrated certifiable proof of insanity.

You make films for people, so you enjoy it when it's a success. Who wants an empty theatre? But you can't think of that when you're doing it because you have to satisfy your own artistic taste, and not trying to extrapolate it, asking whether they're going to like it or not, because it doesn't work this way, unfortunately. It's getting more and more difficult to make an ambitious and original film. There are less and less independent producers or independent companies and an increasing number of corporations who are more interested in balance sheets than in artistic achievement. They want to make a killing each time they produce a film. They're only interested in the lowest common denominator because they're trying to reach the widest audience. And you get some kind of entropy. That's the danger; they look more alike, those films. The style is all melting and it all looks the same. Even young directors - for most of them their only standard of achievement is how well their films do on the first weekend or whatever. It worries me. But then, from time to time, you have a film like The Usual Suspects (1995) or Pulp Fiction (1994), which I enjoyed very much.

Whenever you do something new or original, people run to see it because it's different. Then, if it happens to be successful, the studios rush to imitate it. It becomes commonplace right away. But it's been like that before, I think. Now, the stakes are so gigantic that they cut each other's throats. So if most of the films are failures, then those that succeed so spectacularly, so commercially, become the norm. It's like a roulette for the studios. The problem with it is that it becomes more and more of a committee. Before, you dealt with the studio. It had one or two persons and now you have masses of executives who have to justify their existence and write so-called "creative notes" and have creative meetings. They obsess about the word creative probably because they aren't. [on casting Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)] She has a neurotic quality, good for Rosemary. Only nuts are interesting people. [on aborted film The Double with John Travolta ] So many people had put so much effort into that project when all of a sudden everything fell apart. Pierre Guffroy , my longtime production designer, cried when we tore down the set.

Travolta claimed I'd changed the script without him agreeing. Besides the fact that it was within my rights to do so, the whole thing was a joke. On the other hand, looking back, it was probably a good thing in the end because of all the special effects needed. It required a lot of patience and I don't think Travolta would have been up to it. Stars are an audience attraction, though that doesn't make their wages any less obscene. How can Travolta - who gets $20 million - risk such silly behaviour? But there are plenty of counterexamples, like Sigourney Weaver who asked for a third of her usual fee for Death and the Maiden (1994) and Johnny Depp who was very disciplined when we made The Ninth Gate (1999). The older I get, the harder I find it to decide what I should do next. As a young man I was much more innocent. Life seemed endless and I simply said, "Okay: I'm doing this film. Period." Time has taught me that I have to assume all the responsibilities when I embark on one of these adventures, and today I ask myself, "Do I really have the perseverance?

Can I handle everything getting on my nerves?" Making films is a battle and sometimes you get tired of fighting. I simply want to produce good work, and that's why I have to think I'm the best. Of course this isn't easy because it's not necessarily true. But you won't win if you think you're a loser. The Ninth Gate (1999) is fun, it's nice, I think it's a good movie, but after all, what is it about? It's like every other movie that is made nowadays. It may be different in style, but it doesn't make any important statement. It was something that could be done quickly, I needed work, I had to do something. It was too long a time since my last film and a lot of projects were canceled. Evil and the Devil are two different things. The Devil is how humans like to imagine evil, with horns and a tail. Evil is part of our personality. I've never believed in occultism or the Devil, and I'm not at all religious. I'd rather read science books than something about occultism. When it comes to cinema, evil is simply a form of entertainment to me.

The world isn't getting any better, which is quite alienating. Scientific progress seems to amplify rather than lessen our problems. Inventions proliferate, the economy booms, but people suffer ever more. I think there are simply too many people. Progress can't keep up with the growing population, although we like to believe otherwise. [1999] There are differences between making films in the US and Europe; in America the opportunities are grander but the films are more formulaic and less artistic. [on Frantic (1988)] The idea was to make a film about the things I know - to show my Paris. I wanted to get rid of everything that was too obviously quaintly Parisian and tried to show the town of today. It was the way I see it and not as Americans might imagine it to be. Having as a theme an American in Paris, I wanted to dispel the idea and tradition of Irma la Douce (1963) and Moulin Rouge (1952) which still perseveres, and I wanted to create a new idea of an American here. [advice to aspiring filmmakers] It's a question of patience and perseverance.

You can't teach talent, but you can tell someone how to sustain the adversity which is an enemy constantly on set. Whatever type of film you make, it requires a crew, it requires financing, it requires a lot of people around you. And those people - even if they are all with you, even if they are all friendly, and even if they agree with the final result - they still have their personal agendas. They see things differently than you do.. They have families and children and girlfriends and they're horny. So what you really need is to be patient and to be able to stand all those problems. [on Weekend of a Champion (1972)] The reason I made the film was first because I wanted to make a film about a friend, about Jackie Stewart specifically, and two because I like Formula 1 very much and I thought it was a very cinematic, very visual kind of sport. And it was not really being filmed that much because there was no television every week where you could watch the Formula 1 races. I never considered myself talented in this direction. I didn't consider myself a director of documentaries particularly in that period.

Documentaries were not as frequently successful as they are now - there are many more of them now because of the television. You see many more documentaries in theaters. In those times it was very, very seldom that you could hope to have any kind of success with a documentary in a general theatrical release. [on Bitter Moon (1992)] The fact that sexual attraction wanes, that's what fascinated me. That has nothing to do with love, which can actually deepen as sex declines. The premise of the film is that love cannot last forever in its true intensity. It must bleed or end tragically. If it has peaks, it must have lows. I hadn't done a movie like this for a long time, and I felt strongly not only that I'd like to do it, but that people who know my work were somehow expecting me to return to this kind of material. I wasn't making it to shock. Maybe I had a little bit of this desire when I was young. I don't have any of those needs now, and even when I was beginning, the main thing for me was to tell the story and if the story required violent images or nudity, I would use them for telling it.

I didn't have much money, so we worked hard and were under tremendous pressure, but I did what I wanted and nobody interfered with the result. Films are films, life is life. Never pull a hair from Faye Dunaway 's head. Pull it from somebody else's head. The first time that I felt that I really had got it technically smooth was Rosemary's Baby (1968). The first time I made a film that would make me happy because I felt the humour and the tone the way I like it was The Fearless Vampire Killers: Vampires 101 (1967). Chinatown (1974) was the first film where I had no struggle throughout the production because I was totally supported by the producer and had everything at my disposal; I was like a racing driver with a bunch of people standing around you and just ready to respond to every gesture. I'm happy when I find a subject that excites me, that gives me a reason to make a film; and I'm still happy when I'm making it because this is my real and true profession. [on Pirates (1986)] To make a costume picture on a sound stage is bad enough.

To do it on the deck of a galleon is terrible. I thought of building part of a boat, and also using models and interior sets. Then we decided it was easier to just build the whole boat. The boat is the set. Fine, except that it must also float, and the sails had to be unfurled, and taken up and down, and behind us was the canopy of sky, which would be blue in one shot and cloudy in the next. The wind comes from nowhere and first you see the town in the background, then the sand, then the sea. Nothing matches between one shot and the next. And then you have to think about the beards, and the swords, and the wigs! The wigs and the wigs, and Walter Matthau 's wooden leg. And if there was to be an explosion, then you think about the beards and the wigs and the leg and the explosion and the wind and the sky, and it drives you crazy. Each shot was like tearing a fish out of a shark's mouth. It is easy to be perfect when no one disturbs you. On the sound stage, you control everything. So you can be patient.

On a boat, however, providence may have other plans for you. It was a nightmare from beginning to end. Every day something new would go wrong. I should have got a special award just for finishing it. [interview from 1976] Attention to detail is something that I have been always very fond of, even when I was doing my first little films at the film school, and even before then when I used to go the cinema, the films that really interested me as the viewer were the ones which had tremendous attention to detail. I think that detail creates atmosphere; and now when I go the cinema sometimes a little detail which is wrong can throw me completely off. When I see a film, let's say, which happens in the 30s and suddenly I see men with long hair - that spoils the film for me completely because I know that people didn't wear this type of hairdo until only 10 or 15 years ago. It's a question of honesty, of not only the film director but any other artist or writer, this attention to detail. In literature, when the writer knows the subject he is writing about, it becomes twice as interesting.

[on working with John Travolta on aborted film The Double] There were changes in the script, but they were not that dramatic. The problem was that Travolta resented any kind of comment. He seemed to have some kind of inferiority complex, perhaps from some period of his life when he was not justly dealt with. During the third read-through, about a week before we were supposed to start shooting, there was a heated conversation between us. I made some comment about his line-readings in a scene - I said something like, "That's not how I heard it in my mind" - and he said, "Well, that's how I heard it." I said, "Well, there may be as many ideas of how this scene should be dealt with as there are people in the world. Who takes the final decision? I'm here to direct." And we started arguing. It was not a fight but it was quite uneasy, as when people don't say exactly what's on their mind. He is more a passive-aggressive person, he does not come right out and say, "You asshole!" Maybe in the readings I should have just sat there and listened without reacting, just to get him acclimatised.

But from what I had seen of him, I thought he was a real pro, and with pros, you know, you work without thinking of all this sensitivity. You just give direction and sometimes you show what you want that's different. I've never known any instance of an actor walking out like this so close to filming. The fact is, if you are an actor and people depend on you, you cannot just bolt like that. To me, Rosemary's Baby (1968) is not an entirely serious movie - it can be interpreted two ways. I shot it in such a way that you could consider her as a person with problems and imagining it all. I made it more ambiguous than the book and that's why I never showed the baby. [on Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)] I had only seen her on the cover of Life. To be honest, I was not enthusiastic about her until we started to work. Then I discovered, somewhat to my surprise, that she is a brilliant actress. This is one of the most difficult woman's parts I can imagine. [2014] I never really imagined how one can retire. What do you do? Gardening?

No, I feel really happy when I'm working. I think the best moments in my life are when I work. It was my passion when I was a young man, and it remains my passion. I feel probably the way a carpenter feels when he's making a beautiful chair and seeing the result of his work. The work itself is satisfying, the process of getting the result. [on attracting an audience] One can create the most marvellous things, but if they are not accepted, it's a tragedy. It's like Van Gogh, who sold only one painting, and in fact to his brother, I believe. This great painter, who is my absolute favourite, lived his life for us, not for himself. I don't have this ambition; I would like to share my view of the world with others. [on Carnage (2011)] With each film, I need an artistic challenge so I don't get bored! I like to tackle challenges. On this film, it was telling a story that takes place in real time and in a confined space. I've made films before in an enclosed space, but not as rigorously self-contained, so this was a new experience.

When I was a teenager, I was really struck by Laurence Olivier 's Hamlet (1948), with its strange castle full of stairs, terraces and corridors, and also by Carol Reed 's fabulous Odd Man Out (1947) with James Mason . It's a film with such a strong impact that I often tried to imitate it later. In fact, my first film, Knife in the Water (1962) was filmed on a boat with three people. So I wasn't afraid of the constraints of a confined space like an apartment. I find it really exciting, in fact, even if it isn't easy. Because there were no ellipses, you couldn't put something in a different place from one shot to another. If someone put a glass on the table it had to be there throughout the picture unless we see it being moved in the action. [2000 interview] I don't think I made my movie yet. I don't have one that would give me a real satisfaction. I would not put any one of them on my gravestone. [2007 interview] I think my best work is The Pianist (2002).

I think if I were asked what cans of which movies do I want deposited on my tomb, I would say The Pianist. But next probably is Chinatown (1974). See also Roman Polanski Roman Polanski Age: 83, born 18 August 1933 Country of origin: View all Roman Polanski pictures Description: Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933. His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years before World War II began. On Germany's invasion in 1939, as a family of mostly Jewish heritage, they were all sent to the Krakow ghetto. His parents were then captured and sent to two different concentration camps: his father to Mauthausen-Gusen in Austria, where he survived the war, and his mother to Auschwitz where she was murdered. Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor.

Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933. His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years before World War II began. On Germany's invasion in 1939, as a family of mostly Jewish heritage, they were all sent to the Krakow ghetto. His parents were then captured and sent to two different concentration camps: his father to Mauthausen-Gusen in Austria, where he survived the war, and his mother to Auschwitz where she was murdered. Roman witnessed his father's capture and then, at only 7, managed to escape the ghetto and survive the war, at first wandering through the Polish countryside and pretending to be a Roman-Catholic kid visiting his relatives. Although this saved his life, he was severely mistreated suffering nearly fatal beating which left him with a fractured skull. Local people usually ignored the cinemas where German films were shown, but Polanski seemed little concerned by the propaganda and often went to the movies.

As the war progressed, Poland became increasingly war-torn and he lived his life as a tramp, hiding in barns and forests, eating whatever he could steal or find. Still under 12 years old, he encountered some Nazi soldiers who forced him to hold targets while they shot at them. At the war's end in 1945, he reunited with his father who sent him to a technical school, but young Polanski seemed to have already chosen another career. In the 1950s, he took up acting, appearing in Andrzej Wajda's A Generation (1955) before studying at the Lodz Film School. His early shorts such as Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958), The Fat and the Lean (1961) and Mammals (1962), showed his taste for black humor and interest in bizarre human relationships. His feature debut, Knife in the Water (1962), was one of the first Polish post-war films not associated with the war theme. It was also the first movie from Poland to get an Oscar nomination for best foreign film.

Though already a major Polish filmmaker, Polanski chose to leave the country and headed to France. While down-and-out in Paris, he befriended young scriptwriter, Gérard Brach, who eventually became his long-time collaborator. The next two films, Repulsion (1965) and Cul-De-Sac (1966), made in England and co-written by Brach, won respectively Silver and then Golden Bear awards at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 1968, Polanski went to Hollywood, where he made the psychological thriller, Rosemary's Baby (1968). However, after the brutal murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, by the infamous Manson gang in 1969, the director decided to return to Europe. In 1974, he again made a US release - it was Chinatown (1974). It seemed the beginning of a promising Hollywood career, but after his conviction for the statutory rape of a 13-year old girl, Polanski fled from the USA to avoid prison.

After Tess (1979), which was awarded several Oscars and Cesars, his works in 1980s and 1990s became intermittent and rarely approached the caliber of his earlier films. It wasn't until The Pianist (2002) that Polanski came back to full form. For that movie, he won nearly all the most important film awards, including the Oscar for Best Director, Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, the BAFTA and Cesar Award. He still likes to act in the films of other directors, sometimes with interesting results, as in A Pure Formality (1994). By: Yuri German (blsidt1 AT imf.org) and edited by Steve Somers. ... ( more ) ( less ) Roman Polanski - IMDb IMDb Actor | Director | Writer Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933. His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years before World War II began.

On Germany's invasion in... See full bio » Born: a list of 26 people created 27 Aug 2011 a list of 26 people created 17 Dec 2011 a list of 41 people created 28 Feb 2012 a list of 27 people created 08 Jun 2014 a list of 31 people created 08 Jul 2014 Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Roman Polanski's work have you seen? User Polls Won 1 Oscar. Another 80 wins & 72 nominations.

See more awards » Known For | Edit Filmography Genek 'The Little' (segment "Jacek") Hide 1957 Koniec nocy (assistant director) Hide 2002 The Pianist (voice dubbing: Michal Zebrowski - uncredited) Hide 2016 Le petit journal (TV Series) Himself 2016 La grande librairie (TV Series) Himself 2015 Vivement dimanche (TV Series) Himself 2014 Zweiter Weltkrieg (TV Mini-Series documentary) Himself' 1980-2014 La nuit des Césars (TV Series documentary) Himself - Meilleur réalisateur / Himself - César de la meilleure adaptation - César du meilleur réalisateur / Himself / ... - 39ème nuit des Césars (2014) ... Himself - Meilleur réalisateur - 36e cérémonie des César (2011) ...

Himself - César de la meilleure adaptation - César du meilleur réalisateur 2013 Interview De Roman Polanski (Video documentary short) Himself 2013 Conversation secrète (TV Series) Himself 1992-2013 Cinema 3 (TV Series) Himself 2007 Chinatown: Filming (Video documentary short) Himself 2007 Chinatown: The Legacy (Video documentary short) Himself 2007 HBO First Look (TV Series documentary) Himself 2007 Il était une fois... (TV Series documentary) Himself 2006 Polanski par Polanski (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2006 Campus, le magazine de l'écrit (TV Series documentary) Himself 2006 Twist by Polanski (Video documentary short) Himself 2005 Corazón de...

(TV Series) Himself 2004 'Tess': From Novel to Screen (Video documentary short) Himself 2004 'Tess': The Experience (Video documentary short) Himself 2004 Filming 'Tess' (Video documentary short) Himself 2003 Claude Berri, le dernier nabab (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2003 Two Gangsters and an Island (Video documentary short) Himself 2003 The Making of 'The Pianist' (TV Short documentary) Himself 2003 A British Horror Film (Video documentary short) Himself 2002 2002 World Awards (TV Special) Himself 2001 The 10 Commandments of Creativity (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2000 Rosemary's Baby: A Retrospective (Video documentary short) Himself 2000 Scene by Scene (TV Series) Himself 2000 Charlie Rose (TV Series) Himself - Guest 2000 Ostatnie zdjecia (TV Movie documentary) Himself 1995-1999 Biography (TV Series documentary) Himself 1999 Intimate Portrait (

TV Series documentary) Himself 1998 Wetten, dass..?

(TV Series) Himself 1998 E! True Hollywood Story (TV Series documentary) Himself 1997 Dracula: The True Story (TV Movie documentary) Himself 1996 Elle s'appelait Françoise (TV Movie documentary) Himself 1996 La nuit des Molières (TV Series documentary) Himself 1995 Empire of the Censors (TV Movie documentary) Himself 1993 Hollywood U.K.

(TV Series documentary) Himself / Himself - Contributor 1992 Le divan (TV Series documentary) Himself 1982-1988 7 sur 7 (TV Series) Himself / Himself - Guest 1988 Bains de minuit (TV Series) Himself 1986 La tarde (TV Series) Himself - Guest 1984 Clive James Meets Roman Polanski (TV Special documentary) Himself 1980 A fondo (TV Series) Himself - Guest 1972 Cinema (TV Series documentary) Himself 1970 Apropos Film (TV Series documentary) Himself 1969 Playboy After Dark (TV Series) Himself 1968 NET Festival (TV Series documentary) Himself 1968 Le cinéma fantastique (Documentary short) Himself 1968 Mia and Roman (Documentary short) Himself 1968 The New Cinema (TV Movie documentary) Himself 1967 Hollywood Backstage (TV Series) Himself 1966 XVI.

Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin 1966 (TV Movie documentary) Himself 1966 Roman Polanski - Versuch eines Fernseh-Porträts (TV Movie documentary) Himself 1966 Late Show London (TV Series) Himself 1964 Grand écran (TV Series documentary) Himself 2016 Arena (TV Series documentary) Himself 2015 Orson Welles: Shadows & Light (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2012 Cinéphiles de notre temps (TV Series documentary) Himself 2012 Too Young to Die (TV Series documentary) Himself 2012 I Am Bruce Lee (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2010 Un jour, un destin (TV Series documentary) Himself 2010 Special Collector's Edition (TV Series) Alfred, Abronsius' Assistant 2010 Gilles Jacob: CIitizen Cannes (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2010 Cinema 3 (TV Series) Himself 2003-2010 Larry King Live (TV Series) Himself 2009 Memories of a Young Pianist (Video documentary short) Man in Tavern (un

credited) 2009 Access Hollywood (TV Series) Himself 2009 Uuden aallon jäljillä (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2008 A Surreal Pop Movie (Video documentary short) Mosquito (uncredited) 2008 Sydne in Wonderland (Video documentary short) Mosquito (uncredited) 2008 Dateline NBC (TV Series documentary) Himself 2007 Cámara negra.

Teatro Victoria Eugenia (TV Short documentary) Himself 2007 British Film Forever (TV Mini-Series documentary) Himself 2007 Cannes, 60 ans d'histoires (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2007 The Fearmakers Collection (Video documentary) Himself 2007 Vinte na Galega (TV Series) Himself 2005 Cinema mil (TV Series) Himself 2002 Biography (TV Series documentary) Himself 1999 E! True Hollywood Story (TV Series documentary) Himself 1994 Turning Point (TV Series documentary) Himself - Film Director 1992 Hollywood Babylon (TV Series) Himself 1967 Lionpower from MGM (Short) (uncredited) Related Videos Autobiography: "Roman", William Morrow & Co. (1984) See more » Publicity Listings: 3 Biographical Movies | 12 Print Biographies | 1 Portrayal | 5 Interviews | 67 Articles | 6 Pictorials | 6 Magazine Cover Photos | See more » Official Sites: Did You Know? Personal Quote: Every film I make represents a departure for me.

You see, it takes so long to make a film. By the time you get to the next one you're already a different man. You've grown up by one or two years. See more » Trivia: Directed four actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Ruth Gordon , Jack Nicholson , Faye Dunaway , and Adrien Brody . Gordon and Brody did win Oscars for their performances in two of his films. See more » Trademark: Often key scenes or plot are featured near or associated with water. See more » Nickname: Film director Roman Polanski questioned, released in Poland - World Socialist Web Site World Socialist Web Site Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) Film director Roman Polanski questioned, released in Poland By David Walsh 3 November 2014 At the request of US authorities, veteran filmmaker Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, The Pianist) was questioned by Polish prosecutors in Krakow last week, but later released. The American government effort is the latest episode in a campaign to return the director to the US based on his having pled guilty in 1977 to having sex with an underage girl.

Polanski fled the US in February 1978 upon learning that the judge in the case was planning to renege on a plea agreement and sentence him to decades in prison. In 2009, American officials prevailed upon the Swiss government to arrest Polanski, a French-Polish citizen, in Zurich and applied for his extradition. After nearly 10 months, much of which Polanski spent under house arrest, the Swiss rejected the US request. Polanski was in Poland to take part in events surrounding the formal opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. The filmmaker was born to a Polish Jewish father and a Russian half-Jewish mother in Paris in 1933. The family returned to Krakow in 1936. Much of Polanski’s family perished in the Holocaust, including his mother and his favorite uncle. US officials reportedly contacted the Polish attorney general’s office last week and asked that Polanski, who has visited Poland several times in recent years, be detained so that extradition proceedings could be set in motion. A Polish Justice Ministry official told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily that the US petition was rejected because it was not submitted in Polish.

“This was not a request for extradition, but for [Polanski’s] detention, so that extradition proceedings can be initiated,” the official explained. “For the time being, we won’t do anything, as the petition did not meet formal requirements. It is not translated into Polish, and that is required by international agreements. “It will come to nothing, because the document will be amended, and in the meantime, Polanski will return to France—until next time.” Jan Olszewski, one of Polanski’s attorneys, told CNN affiliate TVN24, “[The matter] was not sent to the court that could impose a temporary arrest because the prosecution did not find basis for that.” Polish Justice Ministry spokesman Mateusz Martyniuk told the media Thursday that Polanski “said he would comply with all requests made by prosecutors in this case and provided his address.

Prosecutors therefore decided not to arrest him in connection with a possible US extradition request.” Martyniuk still held out the possibility of Polanski’s being extradited because “the statute of limitations does not apply to US requests.” In 2010, the Polish prosecutor indicated that the director could not be handed over to US officials because under Polish law too much time had passed since the offense. Polanski told TVN24 that he believed his Polish lawyers would soon have the case—presumably referring to the possibility of his being extradited from Poland—closed “once and for all.” He told the media that he would be in Poland in February and March 2015 to work on a new film about the Dreyfus case, the infamous anti-Semitic witch-hunt in France in the 1890s. Polanski also indicated he wanted to show the country to his young children, who have not been there since they were very young and “as a result don’t know my motherland.” The latest attempt by US authorities to extradite Polanski, whether or not they thought it had a chance of succeeding, is reactionary and vindictive.

A government recently accused in a submission to the UN Committee Against Torture of authorizing and implementing “a sophisticated, international criminal program of torture” has the audacity to treat the 81-year-old filmmaker like a major criminal. One of the aims of campaigns such as that against Polanski, which instantly generate inflammatory coverage in the media, is to divert public attention away from the social crisis within the United States and the endless wars waged by the US government. In 1977, the filmmaker pled guilty to one charge of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, with the expectation that he would be put on probation at the final sentencing. As part of a plea agreement, Polanski spent 42 days in a California state prison undergoing psychiatric evaluation. Probation officers recommended against further jailing, noting that the victim and her parent, as well as an examining psychiatrist, made the same recommendation. However, Judge Laurence J. Rittenband, in an act of brazen judicial misconduct in response, in part, to pressures from right-wing “law and order” elements, indicated that far more jail time and possible deportation were in order, prompting Polanski to flee.

In contrast to the authorities, the victim herself, Samantha Geimer (then Gailey), continues to demonstrate an elemental humanity and democratic sensibility. In her 2013 memoir, The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski, Geimer cites her lawyer Larry Silver’s assertion following Polanski’s arrest in 2009—obviously conveying her own sentiment—that she continued to suffer “because a corrupt judge caused, understandably, Polanski to flee. No matter what his crime, Polanski was entitled to be treated fairly; he was not. The day Polanski fled was a sad day for American justice. Samantha should not be made to pay the price. She has been paying for a failed judicial and prosecutorial system.” In October 2010, Geimer told talk show host Larry King that she had been “more damaged by the court system and the media” than by Polanski. Polanski’s brief detention in Poland last week inevitably brought out the baying hounds—the sordid coalition of ultra-right media figures, upper-middle class feminists and others—that coalesced in 2009.

In Britain’s Independent, Alice Jones headlined her piece, “It’s time to say no to Roman Polanski, the on-the-run paedophile.” Terrence McCoy’s scurrilous article in the Washington Post was entitled, “Why Roman Polanski may never be brought to justice for raping a child.” It is especially obscene that Polanski, on the insistence of US authorities, was detained in Krakow, the city where he spent much of his childhood and where his family was trapped behind barbed wire in the Jewish ghetto established by the occupying German forces in 1941. Over the course of the following two years, the ghetto population was decimated, many deported to Germany for slave labor or sent to the extermination camp at Auschwitz, only thirty miles west of Krakow. In his autobiography, Roman by Polanski, the director recounts how his mother took him to stay temporarily with a non-Jewish family in February 1943 after warnings of a new German raid: “When the time came for me to go back, it was my father, not my mother, who collected me on his way from the factory in town where he was employed as a metalworker.

He had bribed a guard to let him quit work early and was returning to the ghetto without his armband… [H]e hugged and kissed me with surprising intensity. As we were walking back across the Padgorze bridge toward the ghetto, he started weeping uncontrollably. At last he said, ‘They took your mother.’” Polanski’s mother, four months pregnant, was transported directly to Auschwitz where she was murdered. His father survived the Mauthausen concentration camp in Upper Austria, “among the harshest outposts of a penal system known for its barbarism,” comments a Polanski biographer. Roman Polanski Country - Roman Polanski Net Worth Roman Polanski Country Read more... Roman Polanski Roman Polanski Net Worth is $45 Million. Roman Polanski is an award winning actor/writer as well as a director/producer of films and has a net worth of $45 million. Roman Polanski has earned his net worth from his many films, books and acting roles.. Roman Polanski (born 18 Augus... Roman Polanski Net Worth is $45 Million. Roman Polanski Net Worth is $45 Million.

Roman Polanski is an award winning actor/writer as well as a director/producer of films and has a net worth of $45 million. Roman Polanski has earned his net worth from his many films, books and acting roles. Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers." Polanski's films have inspired diverse directors, including the Coen Brothers,Atom Egoyan,Darren Aronofsky,Park Chan-wook,Abel Ferrara, and Wes Craven. Born in Paris to Polish parents, he moved with his family back to Poland in 1937, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Holocaust and was educated in Poland and became a director of both art house and commercial films. Polanski's first feature-length film, Knife in the Water , made in Poland, was nominated for a United States Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film but was beaten by Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 .

He has since received five more Oscar nominations, along with two Baftas, four C'esars, a Golden Globe Award and the Palme d'Or of the Cannes Film Festival in France. In the U... Roman Polanski arrested in Switzerland, Photo Gallery Roman Polanski arrested in Switzerland Noted Polish-born film director Roman Polanski has been arrested in Switzerland under a 31-year-old US arrest warrant and may be extradited to face sex abuse charges, police in Zurich said on Sunday. Noted Polish-born film director Roman Polanski has been arrested in Switzerland under a 31-year-old US arrest warrant and may be extradited to face sex abuse charges, police in Zurich said on Sunday. Organizers of the Zurich Film Festival say he was detained by police on Saturday, September 26, 2009. In this file photo, Polanski is seen at the burial ceremony for French film maker Claude Berri in Montrouge, outside Paris, in this Jan. 15, 2009.

(Photo: AP) In this August 8,1977 file photo, director Roman Polanski is shown entering court in Santa Monica, where he entered a guilty plea to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year old girl. Polanski was arrested by Swiss police as he flew in for the Zurich Film Festival and faces possible extradition to the United States for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl, authorities said on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009. Polanski was scheduled to receive an honorary award at the festival when he was apprehended Saturday at the airport, the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement. It said US authorities have sought the arrest of the 76-year-old director around the world since 2005. (Photo: AP) Film Director Roman Polanski, and his attorney Douglas Dalton stand in Courtroom in this August 9,1977 file photo taken in Santa Monica, Calif. After Polanski entered a guilty plea to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

In 1977, Polanski, then aged 44, became embroiled in a scandal involving 13-year-old Samantha Gailey (now known as Samantha Geimer). It ultimately led to Polanski's guilty plea to the charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. In this May 6, 2008 file photo, Samantha Geimer arrives at the premiere of the HBO Documentary 'Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired' in New York. Director Roman Polanski, who was accused of having sex in 1977 with the then 13-year-old Geimer, was arrested by Swiss police late on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, as he flew in for the Zurich Film Festival and faces possible extradition to the United States. According to Geimer, Polanski asked Geimer's mother if he could photograph the girl for the French edition of Vogue, which Polanski had been invited to guest-edit. Her mother allowed a private photo shoot.

According to Geimer in a 2003 interview, "Everything was going fine; then he asked me to change, well, in front of him." She added, "It didn't feel right, and I didn't want to go back to the second shoot." Geimer later agreed to a second session, which took place on March 10, 1977 at the Mulholland area home of actor Jack Nicholson in Los Angeles. "We did photos with me drinking champagne," Geimer says. "Toward the end it got a little scary, and I realized he had other intentions and I knew I was not where I should be. I just didn't quite know how to get myself out of there." Geimer testified that Polanski performed various sexual acts on her, after giving her a combination of champagne and quaaludes. In the 2003 interview, Geimer says she resisted. "I said no several times, and then, well, gave up on that." (Photo: AP) In this Sept. 19,1977 file photo, Director Roman Polanski is shown leaving court in Santa Monica, Calif., after being ordered to undergo a 90 day diagnostic study at a state prison.

Polanski was initially charged with rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance (methaqualone) to a minor. These charges were dismissed under the terms of his plea bargain, and he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Following the plea agreement, according to the aforementioned documentary, the court ordered Polanski to report to a state prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation, but granted a stay of ninety days to allow him to complete his current project. Under the terms set by the court, he was permitted to travel abroad. On February 1, 1978, Polanski fled to London, where he maintained residency. A day later he traveled on to France, where he held citizenship, avoiding the risk of extradition to the US by Britain. (Photo: AP) Movie director Roman Polanski talks with correctional officers in this Dec. 17, 1977 file photo taken at Chino Mens Institute in Chino, Calif.

Polanski, who pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl was beginning a court ordered 90-day psychiatric study at the time. Polanski never returned to England, and later sold his home in absentia. Polanski has avoided visits to countries that are likely to extradite him (such as the UK) and before his visit to Zurich, mostly traveled and worked in France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. (Photo: AP) Film director Roman Polanski is seen as he leaves court in this Oct. 25, 1977 file photo taken in Santa Monica, California. In a 2003 interview, Samantha Geimer said, "Straight up, what he did to me was wrong. But I wish he would return to America so the whole ordeal can be put to rest for both of us." Furthermore, "I'm sure if he could go back, he wouldn't do it again. He made a terrible mistake but he's paid for it".

(Photo: AP) In this May 19, 2007 file photo, French director Roman Polanski arrives for the screening of the film 'No Country For Old Men,' at the 60th International film festival in Cannes, southern France. (Photo: AP) In 2008, Geimer stated in an interview that she wishes Polanski would be forgiven, "I think he's sorry, I think he knows it was wrong. I don't think he's a danger to society. I don't think he needs to be locked up forever and no one has ever come out ever - besides me - and accused him of anything. It was 30 years ago now. It's an unpleasant memory ... (but) I can live with it." In this Nov. 14 2008 file photo, Polish-born filmmaker Roman Polanski arrives for the opening ceremony at the 8th Marrakech Film Festival in Marrakech. In December 2008, Polanski's lawyer in the United States filed a request to Judge David S. Wesley to have the case dismissed on the grounds of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. (Photo: AP) In this Nov.

21, 2008 file photo, Director Roman Polansky. center, waves at the screening of Director Oliver Stone's film "W." at the XXVI Turin Film Festival in Turin, Italy. In January 2009, Polanski's lawyer filed a further request to have the case dismissed, and to have the case moved out of Los Angeles, as the Los Angeles courts require him to appear before the court for any sentencing or dismissal, and Polanski will not appear. That same month, Samantha Geimer filed to have the charges against Polanski dismissed from court, saying that decades of publicity as well as the prosecutor's focus on lurid details continues to traumatize her and her family. (Photo: AP) A 1960's file photo taken in London shows French director of Polish origin Roman Polanski (L) and his wife US actress Sharon Tate. On September 26, 2009 Polanski was arrested by Swiss police at Zürich Airport while trying to enter Switzerland, in relation to his outstanding 1978 US arrest warrant for the rape of Geimer. Polanski had hoped to attend the Zurich Film Festival to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The arrest followed a request by the United States that Switzerland apprehend Polanski. The United States had been seeking his arrest worldwide since 2005. The United States must make a formal extradition request to have Polanski extradited and stand trial. (Photo: AFP) A file photo taken on May 24, 2002 shows Polish-born, French director Roman Polanski and his companion actress Emmanuelle Seigner posing as they arrive at the gala screening of the film 'The pianist' during the 55th Cannes film festival. The Swiss Justice Ministry said Polanski was put "in provisional detention." But whether he can be extradited to the United States "can be established only after the extradition process judicially has been finalised," a ministry spokesman said in an e-mail to CNN. (Photo: AFP) A file photo taken on October 17, 2005 shows Polish-born Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski of France posing with his girlfriend Emmanuelle Seigner in Paris, prior to the preview of 'Oliver Twist', his latest film which is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel 'Oliver Twist'.

In his illustrious career as a filmmaker, Polanski has won several honours and awards around the world, notably the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) award at the Cannes Film Festival for The Pianist In May 2002, for which he also took Césars for Best Film and Best Director, and later won the 2002 Academy Award for Directing. He did not attend the Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood because he would have been arrested once he set foot in the United States. After the announcement of the "Best Director Award", Polanski received a standing ovation from most of those present in the theater. In 2004, he received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. (Photo: AFP) A file photo taken on May 19, 2005 shows Polish-born French director Roman Polanski posing as he arrives for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AMFAR) "Cinema Against AIDS" benefit in Le Moulin de Mougins, on the sidelines of the 58th Cannes International Film Festival.

Polanski is currently directing an adaptation of Harris' 'The Ghost', a novel about a writer who stumbles upon a secret while ghosting the autobiography of a former British prime minister. It will star Ewan McGregor as the writer and Pierce Brosnan as the prime minister. Filming takes place in Germany. 'The Ghost' is being co-produced as of February 2009 by the Babelsberg Studios. (Photo: AFP) (Text: Agencies, with additional inputs from Wikipedia) ................................ Advertisement ................................ Roman Polanski | Polish film director | Britannica.com Polish film director Alternative Titles: Raimund Liebling, Rajmund Roman Thierry Polański, Roman Raymond Polanski Roman Polanski Roman Polanski, in full Roman Raymond Polanski, original name Rajmund Roman Thierry Polański (born August 18, 1933, Paris , France ), motion-picture director, scriptwriter, and actor who, through a variety of film genres , explored themes of isolation, desire, and absurdity. Roman Polanski, 2008.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images Shortly after the young Polanski’s family settled in Kraków , Poland, his parents were interned in a Nazi concentration camp, where his mother died. Polanski escaped internment and survived the war years by finding occasional refuge with Catholic families and often fending for himself. At age 14 he appeared on the stage, later acting in films directed by Andrzej Wajda , the leading figure in the Polish film revival of the 1950s. Polanski studied directing at the State School of Cinema in Łódź . By the time he graduated in 1959, he had already directed several award-winning short films. He made the French film Le Gros et le maigre (1961; The Fat and the Lean) and then returned to Poland to direct his first full-length feature, Nóż w wodzie (1962; Knife in the Water ), a tense psychological study of sexual rivalry that brought him international fame. After he left Poland in 1962, Polanski made several major films in Great Britain and the United States .

Repulsion (1965) traces the psychotic breakdown of a young woman whose fear and loathing of sex drive her to commit several murders. The dark comedies Cul-de-Sac (1966) and The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me but Your Teeth Are in My Neck (1967) followed. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) is a thriller about a young New York City woman who unwittingly bears a child by the devil. Polanski’s second wife, the Hollywood actress Sharon Tate , was pregnant when she was brutally murdered (along with four others) by Charles Manson and his acolytes in 1969. The violence of her death influenced his next film, Macbeth (1971), a gory yet artistically effective adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare . Chinatown (1974) reinvigorated the moribund film noir genre . These films were notable for their careful buildup of mood and suspense, their subtle handling of human psychology, and their fascination with evil in its various forms. Roman Polanski, 1972.

John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby (1968), directed by … © 1968 Paramount Pictures Corporation; photograph from a private collection Jack Nicholson in Chinatown (1974), directed by Roman Polanski. © Long Road Productions; photograph from a private collection Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent In 1977 Polanski was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful intercourse with a minor. He subsequently jumped bail and fled to France, where he remained active in both the theatre and motion pictures. His subsequent films include Tess (1979), based on Thomas Hardy ’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles ; Frantic (1988), a suspense film; Bitter Moon (1992), an erotic comedy; and Death and the Maiden (1994), a psychological drama adapted from a play by the Chilean author Ariel Dorfman .

In 1989 Polanski married the French actress Emmanuelle Seigner, who starred in Frantic (1988), Bitter Moon (1992), The Ninth Gate (1999), and La Vénus à la fourrure (2013; Venus in Fur). The Pianist (2002), which tells the true story of Władysław Szpilman’s survival of the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II , shared much in common with Polanski’s own childhood experience and earned the Palme d’Or at the Cannes international film festival and a best director Academy Award for Polanski. It was followed by Oliver Twist (2005), an adaptation of Charles Dickens ’s classic novel , and The Ghost Writer (2010), a thriller involving a former politician and the author who is writing his memoir. For the latter movie Polanski won his third French César award for best director. He then directed Carnage (2011), a biting comedy in which two sets of parents tangle over approaches to child rearing; the film was based on Yasmina Reza ’s play Le Dieu du carnage.

Director Roman Polanski born - Aug 18, 1933 - HISTORY.com Director Roman Polanski born Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1933, Roman Polanski, the director of such films as Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist, is born Rajmund Roman Liebling in Paris, France. As a movie director, Polanski has received numerous honors, including an Academy Award; his personal life, however, has been marked by tragedy and controversy. Polanski grew up in Poland during World War II, when both his Jewish parents were sent to concentration camps. His mother died at Auschwitz. As a young man, Polanski studied film in Poland; he made his feature-film directorial debut in 1962 with Knife in the Water, a psychological thriller that received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Polanski then made a series of films in England, including The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), which featured Sharon Tate, an American actress who became his wife in January 1968. Polanski’s first Hollywood film, Rosemary’s Baby, was released that same year.

The horror film, which starred Mia Farrow as a woman impregnated by the devil, was a box-office hit and earned Polanski an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. On August 9, 1969, while Polanski was out of the country, Tate (then eight months pregnant with the couple’s first child) was found murdered at the couple’s Los Angeles home, along with four other people. Members of an infamous cult led by Charles Manson were later convicted of the brutal crime. Reportedly devastated by the tragedy, Polanski continued to work steadily in Europe and Hollywood during the 1970s, directing such films as Macbeth (1971), What? (1972) and Chinatown (1974), starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. Chinatown, a dark story about land and water rights in Southern California in the early 20th century, was nominated for 11 Oscars and won for Best Original Screenplay. In 1977, Polanski became embroiled in controversy when he pled guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

In February 1978, Polanski fled the United States before he could be sentenced. Thereafter, he continued to make films in France and Poland, where he couldn’t be extradited to America. His 2002 movie The Pianist, starring Adrien Brody as a Polish-Jewish musician during World War II, earned Polanski an Oscar for Best Director. Fearing he’d be arrested if he returned to the United States, Polanski did not attend the awards ceremony. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Get This Day In History every morning in your inbox!

Question: In which country was the film director Roman Polanski born?
Answer: France