Special Season: February 20 - March 5

The Twisted Vision of Roman Polanski

Polish-born director Roman Polanski (1933-) scored an Oscar nomination for his 1st feature, Knife in the Water, announcing to the world the arrival of a new master of the taut, psychological drama. The Melbourne Cinémathčque 1st director's season for 2008 follows Polanski's journey from his early Polish short films & groundbreaking initial feature to the playfulness of Dance of the Vampires & the Hollywood success of Rosemary's Baby & onward to the grim years after the murder of his wife Sharon Tate by the Manson "Family" (resulting in his brutal adaptation of Macbeth) & his exile from the United States (marked by his engrossing European "comeback", Tess).

A genuinely controversial & fated figure, Polanski's career is one of the most fascinating of the post-WWII era & shifts restlessly but deftly between horror, comedy, respectful adpation & the psychological thriller. Even his lightest films have an underlying darkness & claustrophobia that suggests a fundamental paranoia & pessism about the human world.

Covering the 1st 20 years of Polanski's career, this season of local & imported 35mm prints hones in on his truly momentous contribution to the cinema & showcases many of the films that provide his lasting legacy to the medium.

Feb 20 - 7:00pm

Dance Of The Vampires

Roman Polanski (1967) 108 mins PG

Polanski directed, produced, wrote & starred in this lavishly mounted & breathtakingly droll mixture of comedy & horror. Bumbling Professor Abronsius & his hapless assistant Alfred (Polanski) attempt to destroy a family of Transylvanian vampires. With Sharon Tate as Polanski’s prophetic love interest & Alfie Bass as a Jewish vampire immune to the protective symbols of Christianity. This is Polanski’s original longer cut, before it was edited down for release as The Fearless Vampire Killers.

Imported 35mm print.

* Screens as part of the Roman Polanski Season.

Feb 20 - 9:00pm

Rosemary's Baby

Roman Polanski (1968) 137 mins M

Through a succession of seemingly normal occurrences Rosemary (Mia Farrow) descends into the belief that the child she bares is in fact the son of Satan. Writer-director Polanski unnervingly conveys a uniquely unsettling vision of evil in this striking adaptation of Ira Levin’s best-selling modern horror novel. Featuring a superb cast headed by John Cassavetes as Rosemary’s husband, the catalyst for the diabolical plans of a coven of neighbourly Satanists (including Ralph Bellamy, Elisha Cook, Jr. & Ruth Gordon in her Oscar-winning role).

Feb 27 - 7:00pm

Macbeth

Roman Polanski (1971) 140 mins M

In August 1969 the Charles Manson “family” murdered Polanski’s pregnant wife & 3 of his friends in his LA home. 2 years later he made this film, a bloody adaptation of “the Scottish play” melding striking period detail with murky, muddy realism, & refusing to assign any semblance of nobility to its title character. A bleak, profound & very moving exploration of humanity & all its burdens. With Jon Finch & Francesca Annis.

Imported 35mm print courtesy of Sony.

Feb 27 - 9:30pm

Knife in the Water

Roman Polanski (1962) 94 mins PG

With a cast of just 3 actors, Polanski’s 1st feature is marked by a strikingly dramatic use of silence, “speaking” eloquently nevertheless of the tensions & desires that drive the characters & that operate just beneath the personalities they try to project. This film, co-written with Jerzy Skolimowski, clearly established Polanski as a filmmaker to be reckoned with, winning top honours at the Venice Film Festival & an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

March 5 - 7:00pm

Three Shorts & a Wardrobe

(Two Men and a Wardrobe)

Like much of Polanski’s work, these shorts focus on the dark side of human behaviour while maintaining a relatively light-hearted mood through the childlike behaviour of their protagonists.

Two Men & a Wardrobe (1958) 15 mins. A darkly comic fable, with surreal overtones, in which two men emerge from the ocean, but find only disillusionment.

The Fat & the Lean (1961) 15 mins. A quavering little servant, in this bitterly comic parable, waits on an overbearing boor of a man.

Mammals (1963) 11mins. This veritable "Waiting for Godot in the snow” is a fundamental abbreviation of Polanski’s cinematic vision & take on life.

March 5 - 7:50pm

Tess

Roman Polanski (1979) 190 mins

Polanski’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles features Nastassja Kinski in the title role of a young peasant whose chances of happiness are thwarted by a series of unfortunate twists of fate & the repressive Victorian morality of the time. Dedicated to Sharon Tate, who reportedly suggested the project to Polanski, the film takes on an eerie symbolism as the themes of modernity, alienation & bodily, specifically female, sacrifice are addressed. Winner of 3 Academy Awards.