The Playlist

Cannes: New Images From Roman Polanski's 'Venus In Fur'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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May 8, 2013 3:25 PM
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5 Comments

News

We're now less than a week away from the Cannes Film Festival rolling out the red carpet, and among the heavy hitters making their way to the Croisette will be none other than Roman Polanski. He's returning with another modest, character driven, largely one location movie and something that appears to be even smaller than "Carnage."

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First Look At Roman Polanski's Cannes Contender 'Venus In Fur' With Emmanuelle Seigner & Mathieu Amalric

By Kevin Jagernauth
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April 25, 2013 6:06 PM
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3 Comments

News

It's always a weird time in the lead up to the Cannes Film Festival, with arthouse news clashing with the latest intel from the summer blockbuster slate. So, keeping that in mind, we're taking a quick break to give you the first look at Roman Polanski's "Venus In Fur."

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The Surprises & Notable Absences Of The 2013 Cannes Line-Up

By The Playlist Staff
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April 18, 2013 11:28 AM
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10 Comments

Festivals

So the 2013 Cannes lineup has finally been unveiled and as usual, there were a fair few surprise inclusions, a fair few snubby exclusions/category decisions, and some mildly oh!-inducing title changes. The majority of our firm predictions made it in (the Coens, Soderbergh, Farhadi, Sorrentino, Gray, Refn, Denis, Coppola among others) but sometimes into surprising sections, while a couple of films we had down as possibilities or longer shots paid off. So now that we know the lineup from G ('Gatsby' -- opening film) to Z ("Zulu" -- closing film) -- and it's a fairly U.S.-friendly list for Jury President Steven Spielberg to preside over -- lets dive right in and talk about the more eyebrow-raising moments from this morning's announcement.

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Watch: Roman Polanski Talks Sharon Tate, Young Women & Exile In Rare 1994 Interview With Diane Sawyer

By Kevin Jagernauth
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March 14, 2013 1:40 PM
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1 Comment

News

"I don't understand, why should I be punished for that penchant that I had for young women?" Roman Polanski asks Diane Sawyer in this rare 1994 TV interview. It's still a very provocative question, and this unearthed conversation with Sawyer from 1994 -- his first TV interview in a decade at the time -- follows the civil suit filed by Samantha Geimer in 1993 which he settled, and comes on the eve of the release of "Bitter Moon." It's a pretty fascinating time capsule of the perception of Polanski at the time.

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Brett Ratner Bringing Unreleased Roman Polanski-Produced Racing Doc ‘Weekend Of A Champion’ To Netflix

By Cain Rodriguez
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March 1, 2013 2:24 PM
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1 Comment

News

With the success of “House of Cards” and the upcoming release of the fabled new season of “Arrested Development,” Netflix is taking dead aim at cable networks. While so far they've stuck with developing series, the streaming company has completed a deal with Brett Ratner -- a man with a questionable filmography and cinephile taste (he's produced docs on Woody Allen and John Cazale, FYI) -- to bring interesting documentaries to a larger audience. The first movie to be part of the deal is the 1971 Roman Polanski-helmed documentary “Weekend Of A Champion.”

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There Was No Love Lost Between Roman Polanski & John Cassavetes: 7 Things Learned About 'Rosemary's Baby' Now On Blu-Ray

By Rodrigo Perez
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October 31, 2012 3:43 PM
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8 Comments

Features

Roman Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby” was a box-office hit upon its release in the summer of 1968. It grossed $33 million dollars off a $3 million dollar budget (adjusted for inflation that’s $221million from a $19 million budget) and it paved the way for horror blockbusters like “The Exorcist” and “The Omen” in the years to come. Made by Polanski at the age of 34, it was the Polish director’s American film debut, and the picture became nominated for two Academy Awards, including a win for Ruth Gordon's deliciously quirky Supporting Role performance as the neighbor from hell. It also earned Polanski his first Oscar nomination for his adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel, which is not bad for a guy that didn’t speak English as a first language.

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NYFF: Marina Zenovich Talks About Her "Complicated" Relationship With Roman Polanski, Discusses Richard Pryor Doc

By Gabe Toro
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September 20, 2012 11:04 AM
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1 Comment

Interviews

Few could have predicted the after-effects of Marina Zenovich’s “Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired.” Analyzing the circuitous legal route of Roman Polanski’s trial and subsequent departure from the United States, the picture actually featured evidence allowing lawyers to re-open the case. Giving momentum to the legal proceedings, the case’s reawakening began a chain of events that led to Swiss authorities nabbing the filmmaker as he touched down for the Zurich Film Festival, beginning a new battle in the courts.

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Roman Polanski To Direct 'Venus In Fur' This Fall, Emmanuelle Seigner & Louis Garrel To Star

By Kevin Jagernauth
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September 20, 2012 10:10 AM
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3 Comments

News

It seems these days Roman Polanski has a thing for plays. Last year he brought "Carnage" to the big screen, an adaption of Yasmin Reza's acclaimed "God Of Carnage," and while he's flirted with a couple of projects since then including "D", about the Dreyfuss Affair, and a period movie about aging, his next effort is another big screen version of a stage production.

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Who Got Snubbed? 10 Directors Who Surprisingly Aren't On The Sight & Sound Top 50 Greatest Films List

By The Playlist Staff
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August 2, 2012 2:02 PM
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37 Comments

Blogs

So many auteurs, so little time... It's less than 24 hours since the unveiling of Sight & Sound's once-a-decade extensive poll of film critics to find the quote-unquote greatest film of all time, which for the first time ever, saw Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" fall off the top spot and replaced by Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo." And as ever, the list has already inspired extensive and fervent debate.

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5 Things You Might Not Know About Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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June 20, 2012 12:00 PM
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8 Comments

Features

Is there such a thing as a perfect film? Perhaps. You could certainly argue that personal taste plays into the question of perfection too much -- one man's triumph is another's disaster. And even so, there are so many possible things that can go wrong with a film -- one duff performance, one ill-conceived shot, one poorly-written scene -- that it's almost an impossible task. But dammit if we don't consider "Chinatown" to be as close as you can get to being perfect.

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