Roman Polanski (Directors) (Paperback)

~ F X Feeney (Author), (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I like shadows in movies. I don't like them in life."" Roman Polanski"

Product Description

"I like shadows in movies. I don’t like them in life." Roman Polanski Roman Polanski’s ability to wring laughter from the most degrading heartbreaks will carry the same wealth of healthy shocks in a hundred years. He creates a macabre beauty to be wooed by and wondered at. But behind the laughter and the beauty is the ghostly truth that Polanski was orphaned by the Nazis and wandered Poland alone from ages 9 to 13. Consider the isolated intensity that bridges Knife in the Water, Cul de Sac, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, Death and the Maiden and his Oscar-winning masterpiece The Pianist. In each, the omniscient viewpoint feels "childlike" in the least innocent sense: we listen and watch, ever-wary; the truth of what’s been hidden, or is being planned in secret, is always a matter of life and death; one’s survival (even within the playful confines of a fantasy) depends on not missing so much as one detail.

This book has been made with full access to Roman Polanski’s archives.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Taschen; illustrated edition edition (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3822825425
• ISBN-13: 978-3822825426
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #841,719 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive and unbiased look at Roman Polanski's career and life, April 14, 2006

By	Donna Di Giacomo (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Leave it up to the rest of the world to be able to look at Roman's career and life objectively and not dwell on one unfortunate and unnecessary thing that he did nearly 30 years ago.

F.X. Feeney and editor Paul Duncan obviously spent a lot of time combing through numerous archives to come up with the many beautiful movie stills that grace these 192 pages. It may not seem like a lot for your money but appearances are indeed deceiving.

While the information and quotes are rehashed from Roman's 1984 autobiography "Roman," and other sources, it was presented in such a way as to make it fresh and interesting.

But the most refreshing facet of this book is that the author and editor refrained from writing about Roman condescendingly or passing judgment on him. They just presented the facts and ran beyond beautiful movie stills alongside the info. If only more biographies could be as objective ...

This covers Roman's life from birth to the making of last year's "Oliver Twist" so this is updated and comprehensive.

Highly recommended. - Donna Di Giacomo

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars behind the curtain ..., December 17, 2005

By	FrizzText "frizz" (Wuppertal) - See all my reviews

Roman Polanski, born on August 18th, 1933, - he is a sinner and simultaneously unquestionably a genius. He is alarmingly chaotic and passionate, he acts as a macho and is wounded so extremely and deeply at the same time, that in his films it is often only an atmosphere of fear. He survived Poland occupied by the Nazis in the second World War like by a miracle: While both his mother and his father were taken away in concentration camps, he made himself to hide again and again. Psychologists call this power "resistance", which makes it possible for certain people to lift themselves up from the ash and to beat the dust off the clothes. Polanski lost his Mrs Sharon Tate (and an unborn baby) at the Helter-Skelter massacre of the Manson commune. Then losing his balance he stumbled into the net of a 13-year girl. The treatment by the American justice induced Polanski to leave the USA and to get local in Paris. Now there he (aged 70) lives together with his substantially younger wife Emmanuelle Seigner (leading role in his film "Bitter Moon"). Polanski was optimistic and anxious, arrogant and reckless, ironic and traumatized. The experiences of his early youth helped him for his newest cinema plant, that one about the sad childhood situation in the England of the Charles Dickens. Once Polanski noticed: "For as far back as I can remember, the line between fantasy and reality has been hopelessly blurred." Polanski indeed describes himself indirectly by the film topics which he chooses: Therefore we have to regard a hybrid character mixture of a Robin Hood with a Mac Beth, an outrageous Idi Amin mixed with a mother Theresa-type. The book of F. X. Feeney about Polanski shows us a world behind the curtains of the too briefly advisable keep-smiling interviews, it reveals something of the tricks which may help one, to overcome defeats and tragedies, depriving encirclements and downfalls by climbing tricks: This book is almost more interesting than some of the available films of Polanski ...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In my estimation this is THE book on Roman Polanski, July 15, 2006

By	Scott Bradley (Los Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

F.X. Feeney's ROMAN POLANSKI showcases the most perceptive and insightful career overview of this complex and contradictory director that's ever been published. Based in comprehensive research and exclusive access, Feeney - one of our finest critics - gives us an exhaustive, but never exhausting, look at the remarkable life and career of one of cinema's greatest artists. Maybe the best entry yet in Taschen's lovely directors series, ROMAN POLANSKI by F.X. Feeney is essential reading for both the discerning cineaste and the enthusiastic movie buff, neither too scholarly nor too pop, beautifully balancing a thoroughly thoughtful and scholarly critical view with an unabashed love of Polanski's work. Can't wait to see Feeney's take on Michael Mann!