Roman Polanski

Features

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Jake

Chinatown remains a stalwart of '70s cinema. The uninspired follow-up 16 years later reminds one that, sometimes, a masterpiece needs to simply be left alone. [22 February 2008]

Part 3: The Stellar ‘70s

When it comes to post-modern moviemaking, everyone stereotypes the Me Decade as the genre's defining moment. In this case -- as illustrated by the 10 films that represent it -- the categorization is more than accurate. [20 June 2007]

Columns

The Demise of Horror Culture?

While the horror classics of 1968 may have indeed revitalized the genre, few today are aware of these movies' impact on the canon...if they acknowledge them at all. [13 May 2008]

Reviews

Repulsion

This is the culmination of two artists upping their personal antes to produce greatness, two burgeoning legends of cinema testing their seemingly-limitless powers. [14 August 2009]

Oliver Twist (2005)

Oliver is an emblem of Polanski's own thematic obsessions: human cruelty, alienation and dislocation, and above all, identity fragmentation. [30 September 2005]

Tess (Special Edition) (1979)

It is the emphasis, in both Hardy's novel and Polanski's skillful adaptation, on Tess as an individual that makes her story timeless. [18 October 2004]

The Tenant (1976)

'I think I'm pregnant,' Roman Polanski coos beguilingly to the mirror in his 1976 film, The Tenant. [14 July 2003]

The Pianist (2002)

Confronted by one horror after another, Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is a startlingly original film protagonist. [2 January 2003]

The Ninth Gate (1999)

Roman Polanski and Johnny Depp. The match seems made in heaven, these two notoriously eccentric, fascinating, and difficult geniuses, plying their crafts, inspiring brilliance in one another. [1 January 1995]

The Ninth Gate (1999)

In The Ninth Gate, perennial provocateur Roman Polanski throws in his contribution to the millennial apocalypse/Armageddon/hell-on-earth films that have recently been such a staple of the action/adventure genre.