In Constant Confinement- The Horror and Genius of Roman Polanski

Once a filmmaker has amassed a certain body of work the viewer starts looking closely enough to find the filmmaker’s voice in his work. If being thrust unexpectedly in the middle of odds bigger than his existence was the thing that defined Alfred Hitchcock’s leading man, then desperate men trying to rewrite the fates was the centerpiece of any Martin Scorsese protagonist; Michelangelo Anotonioni focused on men who found it increasingly difficult to communicate in a world that was changing and Bergman’s characters always reacted to what was happening around them. All these filmmakers used the concept of space very well in telling the story but there is no filmmaker who understands physical space as well as Roman Polanski.

Right from his debut Knife in the Water (three individuals in a boat) right to Ghost Writer (a ghost writer cramped in a former Prime Minister’s beach house) Polanski’s characters have been pushed to the limits in restricted environs that include a lonely hill house (Death and the Maiden), a basement (The Pianist), a cruise liner (Bitter Moon) and apartments in London (Repulsion), Paris (The Tenant) and New York (Rosemary’s Baby). What is about Polanski that he understands confined spaces so well? Is it the chequered, to say the least, life he has spent and the things he has witnessed that enable him to understand humans and what space does to them unlike anyone else?

There is something about space that brings out the best in Polanski and the more confined the space the better it gets in the hands of Polanski. The man actually made a trilogy of apartment films so needless to say he does get the notion of space very well! Born in 1933 in Poland as a child Polanski witnessed the persecution of Jews as they were ghettoized in a compact area of the city and silently saw his father being taken away by the Germans. His mother perished at Auschwitz and he hid with Polish Roman Catholic families through the war years even learning to recite most of the Catholic prayers. A young Polanski also survived the horror of being a living target for shooting practice of German soldiers who occupied most of Poland during his growing years. Living out these horrible experiences has enabled him to conjure up truly tangible atmospheres in his films.

Polanski’s apartment trilogy, which started with Repulsion (1965), gives you an idea that familiarity with the location as much as knowing a character is Polanski’s forte. He had spent a little time in Paris after Knife in the Water (1962) but the French attitude towards him made it difficult for Polanski to stick on in Paris. He moved to London and made Repulsion, a psychological horror film that was very reminiscent of early Hitchcock besides Luis Bunnel. The story of a Belgian woman who shacks up with her sister in London might have benefited from Polanski’s horrid time in Paris before he made the film. Following closely he made Rosemary’s Baby (1968), his first Hollywood production which truly established him as an international filmmaker. Polanski set the standard for psychological thrillers with Rosemary’s Baby and that template has been followed pretty much ever since. The story of a woman impregnated by the devil himself Rosemary’s Baby is one of the best films ever made that explores fenced in characters and emotions.

Polanski was, as they say, on top of his game and it seemed that the horrors of his childhood were finally behind him. Who would have thought that he’d have to witness yet another event that would shake him; his pregnant wife Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson family in their own house. For someone who had witnessed the evil that men are capable of, Polanski picked up the pieces and carried on. After his version of Macbeth (1971) he made his greatest film Chinatown (1974), which was almost like an allegory of his own layered life. In 1976 he completed his apartment trilogy with The Tenant (1976) in which he played the lead as well. In the deeply disturbing film a young man, Polanski, shifts into an apartment whose previous tenant tried to kill herself and with each passing day the thin line between the two tenants disappears with the man ending up living the woman’s life.

Polanski fled USA after being charged with sexual assault of a minor. The 43 year old filmmaker pleaded guilty to the charge of unlawful sex with a 13 year old. He served 42 days in jail during a 90 day psychological evolution but once he got out and learnt that the judge was planning on more jail time, even a possible deportation, Polanski fled to Paris. The same city whose attitude towards him he didn’t like became his haven. As a French citizen he wouldn’t be extradited and has been based out of France since then. The constant fear that he has lived in ever since leaves a mark on his film and although much water has flown under the bridge, there are certain actions that can’t be excused. In an interview to Martin Amis in 1979 Polanski suggested that ‘everyone fancies young girls...’ but doesn’t Polanski understand that certain actions, however understandable in his own mind, have no justification.

Years later Samantha Geimer, the victim, sued Polanski and eventually settled out of court in 1993 before publicly forgiving him a decade later. In 2008 a documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired unearthed evidence that suggested that the judge in the case acted ‘illegally’; Geimer even said that the judge harmed her more than the filmmaker but Polanski continues to live in fear. In 2009 the Swiss police arrested Polanski on behalf of the US authorities and even jailed him for two months but nothing came off it. In the same Amis interview Polanski muses that he doesn’t think his existence is extraordinary. The bizarre incidents that happen to him are according to him just his life and from the inside he doesn’t even bother about them. During the house arrest that followed his arrest by the Swiss Polanski edited Ghost Writer (2010) while awaiting the decision on his extradition to the US.

Orson Welles once said that it takes only one great film from a filmmaker to make them live forever and Polanski has at least three depending on how you look at his films. If it’s possible for a viewer to disassociate the filmmaker’s personal existence and observe their work then maybe there’s no one who’s as great as a filmmaker as Roman Polanski. But is it really possible to cloud out a filmmaker’s real existence to appreciate their reel life? Isn’t what happens around the very thing that leaves an impression on an artist’s work…shapes up their persona, makes them who they really are? In that case isn’t Polanski a pedophile? Some like Lech Wałęsa, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former President of Poland, argue that the director "should be forgiven this one sin.” But I have a different opinion than the likes of Walesa, you wouldn’t be saying this if that was your daughter, now would you?

Roman Polansji turned 78 on August 18.

Image: The Interview Magazine