Roman Polanski

Masters of Cinema

by David Ehrenstein

Roman Polanski (born 1933) is a French–Polish film director, producer, writer and actor, who stands as one of the most influential directors living today.

A truly international filmmaker, Polanski has received numerous awards, including the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and five Oscar nominations.

Polanski has tackled many genres, including the horror film (Rosemary's Baby, 1968), film noir (Chinatown, 1974), historical drama (Tess, 1979), and, more recently, the war film The Pianist (2002), about the holocaust, and the thriller The Ghost Writer (2010).

Polanski has also directed some of the most talented actresses of our time, including Catherine Deneuve, Mia Farrow and Kate Winslet.

Polanski's films are dominated by a sense of claustrophobia and deal with the existential themes of loneliness, fear and uneasiness.

Genres: Media Tie In, Film

104 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

David Ehrenstein was an American critic who focused primarily on gay issues in cinema.

Reviews

[Iulian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fact that Roman Polanski - from whose works I enjoyed "The Tenant" and "Repulsion" a great deal - disliked John Cassavetes' style as a director only proves that Polanski is indeed an appreciated modern auteur while Cassavetes on the other hand, man, the guy is a f***ing revolutionary modern auteur (just watch "Shadows" or/especially "Faces" and let them sink in).

[Jayakrishnan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad coffee table book. It has nice pictures. But David Ehrenstein tries too hard to connect the events of Polanski's tragic, colorful and controversial life with his movies. Nothing wrong with that but some of the connections were a bit far fetched. Some critics are capable of writing genuinely interesting or outrageous insights into the work of an artist. Ehrenstein is neither interesting nor outrageous. Nothing about his writing made me tell myself "wow, he really nailed it there". Even the newspaper clippings were uninteresting. Except for the one about Kristoph Komeda, who composed the lullaby for Rosemary's Baby. Polanski made so many good movies. Ghost Writer is one of the greatest films of place and one of the best thrillers of this century. Critics and influencers cannot cancel horrible heads of states like Obama or Trump. But Polanski, whose victim forgave him, is still a fugitive.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Masters of Cinema series put out by the great magazine 'Cahiers du Cinema. The subject matter is Roman Polanski and it is written by David Ehrenstein. This is an excellent introduction to Polanski and his films. Since i haven't read the other titles in the series I don't know if this is a formula-based format for all of them, but with respect to Polanski, this is a good one, and Ehrenstein is a fantastic tour guide to the Polish filmmaker's film world.

Instead of going through a time chronology of his films, it is broken up by themes. "Raymond Chandler's Nightmare" ("Chinatown," "Frantic") and so forth. It makes the book a really good read through, and also I don't think it is important to see the films beforehand. "Roman Polanski" is basically a proper introduction to the works, and although i have seen half of the films mentioned in the book, I am now having an urge to see the rest.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

131 - 2018

[Steve Cox]

The book is riddled with typos. And on two occasions one of Polanski’s films is wrongly titled. Very shoddy!