Roman Polanski (b. Paris, 1933) has, over the course of a half-century, become recognized as one of the great modern masters of the cinema. Many of his films are infused with a mysterious, difficult-to-define sense of dread, which is understandable given much of his early life experience. Polanski's parents were sent to a concentration camp, where his mother died, and he lived as a fugitive Jewish teenager in Nazi-occupied Poland. His 1984 autobiography begins, "For as far back as I can remember, the line between fantasy and reality has been hopelessly blurred," and his films use the fantastical elements of cinema to make sense of the extraordinary reality he has experienced.

This view of the world as something menacing is present from his debut feature, Knife in the Water (1962), through his award-winning The Ghost Writer (2010). And yet the depth of feeling in his Oscar-winning Holocaust film The Pianist speaks for itself. Like Alfred Hitchcock, who is in some sense Polanski's stylistic mentor, the threat of chaos is always overlaid with wryly absurdist, dark humor-and frequently a triumphant humanism.

Featured Works:

Pokolenie (A Generation, Andrzej Wajda, 1955); A Murderer (Roman Polanski, 1957), A Toothful Smile (Roman Polanski, 1957); Break Up the Dance (Roman Polanski, 1957); Two Men and a Wardrobe (Roman Polanski, 1958); The Lamp (Roman Polanski, 1959); When Angels Fall (Roman Polanski, 1959); The Fat and the Lean (Roman Polanski, 1961); Mammals (Roman Polanski, 1962); Nóz w wodzie (Knife in the Water, Roman Polanski, 1962); Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965); The Fearless Vampire Killers, or: Pardon Me, but Your Teeth Are in My Neck (Roman Polanski, 1967); Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968); Macbeth (Roman Polanski, 1971); Che? (What?, Roman Polanski, 1973); Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974); Le Locataire (The Tenant, Roman Polanski, 1976); Tess (Roman Polanski, 1979); Pirates (Roman Polanski, 1986); Frantic (Roman Polanski, 1988); Bitter Moon (Roman Polanski, 1992); Death and the Maiden (Roman Polanski, 1994); The Ninth Gate (Roman Polanski, 1999); The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002); Zemsta (The Revenge, Andrzej Wajda, 2002); Oliver Twist (Roman Polanski, 2005); The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, 2010, pictured)

Program information:

Roman Polanski

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