Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir

Laurent Bouzereau isn't exactly well known for hard hitting questions in his documentaries, but this one takes the cake.

Roman Polanski's friend (that alone should set the alarm bells off) Andrew Braunsberg is the one asking the questions, and it becomes painfully clear why they have a personal friend of Polanski interview him: So he can be asked lowball questions allowing Polanski to rant freely about the supposedly unfair shake he got from the legal system. Not only does the interviewer fail to deliver any follow up questions - he actually aggressively supports Polanski.

Here's what happened: Polanski gave drugs to an underage girl whom he proceeded to rape. Whether she consented or not, as some Polanski defenders claim, is inconsequential as a minor can not consent to sex, thus rape.

How does the interviewer - that is, Polanski's friend - approach this issue? The verbatim quotes are: "... and suddenly you had this experience with Samantha" "... 33 years since the case with Samantha occurred" Not once are the actual details of the case presented. Not once are drugs mentioned. Not once is rape mentioned. It's transformed into an abstract "experience" or "case" that "occurred" with a presumably helpless and passive Polanski as the true victim.

But you can rest assured that Polanski is given plenty of time to lament over how unfairly the justice system treated him, how scary jail was, and how he was forced to leave the country. Poor Roman living in luxury in Europe for the rest of his life! By now the interviewer's lower lip is trembling with sadness, and he several times feels compelled to point out how he so admires Roman for having overcome so much adversity in his life. I was fully expecting this documentary to turn into Brokeback Mountain.

This 90 minute interview, made by a dear friend of Roman Polanski, is especially geared towards the (out of control) personal circumstances Roman Polanski had to live in for all of his life.

The good: the relaxed setting in which these 2 friends are chatting during this interview, creates several emotional moments for Roman Polanski, which would not have occurred, if this had been any other neutral journalist. Roman Polanski is at total ease in this interview and that relaxed mood makes for a very interesting, personal interview.

Any bad? This movie doesnt mention too much about his directing work and is mostly focussed on his personal life: his escape from death during worldwar 2, where he lost his pregnant mother. During the seventies he lost his pregnant wife, due to the horrible Charlie Manson killings. After that he got besieged by the media for a rape trial of a minor fotomodel, who has forgiven him by now, but which judicial consequences still hunt him to this very day.

Admired in Europe, despised in the Usa, Roman Polanski's personal problems have made him more (in)famous than his directing job could have ever done. Although Polanski himself would like to be remembered for making "The Pianist", which is a story about his youth during World War 2, I would like recommend for you the brilliant detective-noir callled "Chinatown" with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway.

Other critics have commented on the way in which interviewer Andrew Braunsberg gives Polanski a relatively easy ride over the incident that defined his career; his arrest in the late Seventies for having sex with an underage girl. What this film suggests is that Polanski has 'done his time,' so to speak for the crime; not only was he prevented from re- entering the United States, but he was detained for several months in a Swiss jail before being finally released. In truth ROMAN POLANSKI: A MEMOIR is less preoccupied with this single incident and more with Polanski's harrowing childhood as he grew up in a Poland overrun by Nazis, faced the indignities of seeing his mother, father and sister taken away; lived in a ghetto provided by the Nazi for Jews in Poland; and then ran away just in the nick of time from a Nazi soldier shooting at him for fun. After a fledgling career as an actor, Polanski went to film school and released his first major work in 1962. Even when he achieved fame, tragedy dogged him; his second wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by Charles Manson, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. While Braunsberg is a sympathetic interviewer, he does not skate over these harrowing details in Polanski's life; for his part, Polanski responds to the questions as comprehensively as he can, even though some of the memories of his life are still hard for him to endure. ROMAN POLANSKI: A MEMOIR allows the director to speak with the minimum of intervention; a few title-cards fill in the gaps not covered by the interview. Definitely required viewing for anyone interested in the career of the great director, as well as those concerned with film history in Europe.

Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir (2011)

**** (out of 4)

This documentary from Laurent Bouzereau has Andrew Braunsberg sitting down with his friend Roman Polanski who discusses the various highs and lows of his life. The majority of the running time is devoted to the major events in the director's life. That being the Holocaust, losing his wife to the Charles Manson family and his rape case that had him leaving America.

If you're a fan of Roman Polanski or at least interested in his story then you'll certainly want to check this out. This is a highly entertaining look at Polanski's life that allows the director to discuss his feelings and memories. He gets quite emotional talking about his mother who was murdered in a gas chamber as well as talking about losing his wife Sharon Tate.

It's rather amazing to see how much happened in Polanski's life even when you don't factor in the movies. Having been involved in WWII, having been involved in one of the biggest stories in American history and then fleeing the country is just a lot for one person. Then, of course, there are the movies.

Some have attacked Braunsberg for being too friendly with Polanski on tough subjects like the rape case but they are friends after all. I don't have a problem with the structure of the picture as I found it to be incredibly entertaining and it's interesting to hear the director talk about various moments of his life as well as comment on some of the films that he made.

Andrew Braunsberg, Pokanski's business partner and friend interviews him about his life, including his time in the Warsaw ghettos as a child, the murder of his wife - Sharon Tate, his charge of statutory rape and of course his film career.

More about Polanski's life and the sometime impact it has had on him films, rather than an analysis of his work. This is a quite revealing portrait of a man who has had more than his fair share of tragedy and controversy. His comes across as intelligent, very open and honest and actually rather good company who has been through the ringer.