July
25
Rush Hour 3: Ratner Casts Polanski as Sadistic Cop
One of the most delicious things in Brett Ratner's breathlessly fun summer comedy "Rush Hour 3" is a cameo by film director Roman Polanski. The director plays a sadistic French cop who does unmentionable things to our hapless heroes, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, that they will never forget. The fish-out-of-water theme that worked so well on the first two comedies works perfectly in Paris, where the city gave Ratner carte blanche on the locations, including the Champs Elysees and the Eiffel Tower. It opens August 10.
Polanski, who directed one of the only funny Chacun Son Cinema entries, is getting a mini Lincoln Center restrospective this summer. The Film Society is showing four classic thrillers by Polanski at the Walter Reade Theater on Monday, July 30, and Wednesday, Aug. 1. The series features the director’s cult favorite The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) and all three classics in his infamous Apartment Trilogy: Repulsion (1965), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and The Tenant (1976).
Polanski was born in Paris in 1933, and moved to Krakow, Poland, in 1936. Less than four years later, his father arranged for him to escape from what had become the Krakow ghetto. Surviving many close calls during World War II, the budding artist turned his enrollment in a technical college into a rudimentary film course, making several theatrical and film appearances before being accepted into the Lodz film school. Polanski’s first feature, Knife in the Water (1962), was the first major postwar Polish film without the war as a theme, and it led to Polanski’s first nomination for an Academy Award®.Using the film’s success as a ticket West, Polanski made his next films in Britain—including Repulsion (1965) and Cul-de-sac (1966)—before traveling to Hollywood, scoring major hits with Rosemary's Baby (1968), Chinatown (1974) and The Tenant (1976).
A decade of success for Polanski was overshadowed by tragedy. In 1969, Charles Manson’s gang murdered his wife Sharon Tate and three friends. In 1977, Polanski was arrested for drugging and seducing a 13-year-old girl. Faced with the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence in the United States, he jumped bail and fled to Paris.
His films since have consistently met with controversy, if occasional praise. Tess (1979), based on Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles, was a critical success. 2002’s The Pianist proved to be Polanski’s watershed, earning three Academy Awards® including Polanski’s first for Best Director.
Single screening tickets for Four By Roman Polanski are $11 for adults, $7 for Film Society members and students with a valid photo ID and $7 for seniors at weekday screenings before 6 p.m. They are available at both the Walter Reade Theater box office and online at filmlinc.com. Additional information is available by calling (212) 875-5600.
Schedule at a Glance (Detailed Program Information Follows)
Monday, July 30
6:15 pm Rosemary's Baby, 136m
9:00 pm The Tenant, 125m
Wednesday, Aug. 1
6:15 pm Repulsion, 104m
8:30 pm The Fearless Vampire Killers, 108m
Summer Chills: Four by Roman Polanski
Detailed Program and Schedule Information
The Fearless Vampire Killers
Roman Polanski, US/UK, 1967; 108m
Wed Aug 1: 8:30pm
Roman Polanski’s typically offbeat take on the vampire genre is a send-up of the Hammer Films style. On the hunt for vampires, Professor Abronsius (Jack MacGowran) and his apprentice Alfred (Polanski) head to Transylvania, where Alfred becomes infatuated with the tavern keeper’s daughter, Sarah (Sharon Tate). When Sarah is abducted and the eccentric duo accept the invitation to stay with the mysterious Count von Krolock (Ferdy Mayne), the bedlam truly begins.
Coming off the success of Repulsion, The Fearless Vampire Killers was mounted on a lavish scale and shot in succulent Metrocolor by the great Douglas Slocombe (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Lion in Winter). Never fully realized in its original release, 16 minutes were cut and re-dubbed to accommodate the studio/exhibitor double-bill policy. This print is the uncut version, the way its fearless creator always intended it to be.
Repulsion
Roman Polanski, UK, 1965; 104m
Wed Aug 1: 6:15pm
In the first film in Polanski’s apartment trilogy, Carol (played by 20-year-old Catherine Deneuve) is a young virgin both repelled and attracted by the idea of sex. When Carol’s sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux) leaves on a holiday to Italy with her married boyfriend (Ian Hendry), Carol is left alone. Isolated at work too, she shuts herself up in their apartment, and becomes a slave of her own paranoid fears. Polanski and cinematographer Gilbert Taylor (Dr. Strangelove, Star Wars), shooting in perfect black and white, alternate between the hip/bustling mid-’60s streets and pubs of London to the nightmarish apartment full of shadows, dark corners, and haunting corridors. Followed the next year by Cul-de-sac, Polanski used this remarkable period in his filmmaking career to springboard into larger, studio-backed productions.
Rosemary’s Baby
Roman Polanski, US, 1968; 136m
Mon Jul 30: 6:15pm
Based on Ira Levin’s best-selling novel, Rosemary’s Baby is the second entry in the apartment trilogy. Guy and Rosemary Woodhouse (John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow) take a sprawling pre-war apartment on Central Park West and begin a loving, post-honeymoon relationship. But something’s not right with the way Guy begins acting, or the couple’s elderly neighbors. Little by little, Rosemary becomes aware that her apartment harbors evil and has a terrifying supernatural past.
One of the finest horror films ever made and considered by many to be a masterpiece, Rosemary’s Baby stands out as the biggest box office hit of 1968. The tremendous supporting cast includes Ruth Gordon––who won the Oscar® for Best Supporting Actress––Sidney Blackmer, Ralph Bellamy, Maurice Evans, Patsy Kelly and a young Charles Grodin. The film catapulted Polanski into the Hollywood elite, resulting in another classic for Paramount, 1974’s Chinatown.
The Tenant
Roman Polanski, France/US, 1976; 125m
Mon Jul 30: 9:00pm
Polanski stars in the final part of the apartment trilogy as the quiet and unassuming Polish expatriate Trelkovsky. He rents an apartment in Paris where the previous tenant committed suicide. Before long, his new neighbors––played by an international ensemble cast including Isabelle Adjani, Shelley Winters, Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van Fleet and Lila Kedrova––take him and us on a bizarre journey through paranoia, madness, mystery and hysteria, ending in one of the most nightmarish climaxes of ‘70s cinema. With stunning cinematography by Sven Nykvist and a menacing score by Philippe Sarde, The Tenant caused a near-riot to get in when it screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1976. It still is a big-screen must-see.
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"The director plays a sadistic French cop who does unmentionable things to our hapless heroes, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, that they will never forget."
One can only wonder if it involves Quaalude-spiked champagne and anal rape. Polanski is truly a class act.
Posted by: Armin Tamzarian | July 25, 2007 at 03:45 PM
Polanski's appearance is "delcious?" And if Manson plays Polanski in a future bio-pic that would be absolutely tasty, I reckon.
No, you're right, Tucker's line after Polanski's "unmentionable" treatment, "My butt hurts," is a really noble step forward in American cinema and humor. I hear in Ratner's next film O.J. Simpson cameos and makes a joke toward a blonde actress, and in her laughter she retorts, "Oh, you! You kill me!"
Posted by: KaraokeFanboy | August 08, 2007 at 05:46 PM