Roman Polański on the set of "Oliver Twist", 2005, photo: East News
Selected photos, posters and archival footage from the private collections of Roman Polański and his friends, Roman Polański. Actor, Director the exhibition showcases the filmmaker’s artistic accomplishments and his private life
Creator of Knife in the Water, Tess, Bitter Moon, The Pianist, The Ninth Gate, Oliver Twist, Death and the Maiden, and the more recent Carnage from 2012 and the 2013 Venus in Fur. "What distinguishes the films of Roman Polanski", as the British Film Institute's which held a retrospective of the director's films, Geoff Andrew says, "is the expressive precision of his filmmaking style." Revolving around highly diverse topic material, film and theatre director, scriptwriter, actor and producer Roman Polanski typically bases his plot on a few protagonists isolated from their surroundings. This method, more usual in the theatre than in movies, makes it possible to follow the evolution of characters and mutual relationships in laboratory-like conditions, allowing the viewers to study human nature, a subject in all Polański's films. "The world he evokes is unstable, marked by sudden and shocking tendencies towards violence", as Screenonline writes.
A compilation of photographs, documents, screenplays, props, film highlights and posters which translate his success, an outstanding collection of archive materials from various film sets, materials gathered from the director's closest friends, including Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Kostenko, Gene Gutowski and Leopold Rene Nowak, after Berlin and Düsseldorf, Roman Polański. Actor, Director comes to Dresden's Ignacy Kraszewski museum.
Roman Polański and Adrien Brody on the set of "The Pianist", 2001, photo: Syrena / Reporter / East News
The exposes a collection of over 200 film posters from all around the world, and a compilation of images showing Roman Polański on film sets at work. Captured by the likes of Jerzy Lipman, Andrzej Kostenko, Witold Sobociński, Andrzej Kondratiuk, Guy Ferrandis and Piotr Bujnowicz, the photos were taken throughout Polański’s carreer: from his early etude films made at film school, finishing off with his most recent productions.
The exhibition also includes pictures and short videos of Roman Polański the young child actor. Performing in theatre pieces and lending his voice in radio broadcasts at the age 14. Later he played minor roles in the films of his friends: Andrzej Wajda’s Generation / Pokolenia, Lotna, Innocent Sorcerers / Niewinni czarodzieje, Revenge/ Zemsta, Andrzej Munk’s Bad Luck / Zezowate szczęście, Janusz Morgenstern’s See You, Tomorrow / Do widzenia do jutra. His acting also brought him roles alongside Gerard Depardieu in Giuseppe Tornatore’s A Pure Formality, Michel Blanc’s Dead Tired, Brett Ratner’s Rush Hour 3 and Antonio Luigi Grimaldi’s Silent Chaos.
The well-travelled exhibition (which made its way through Prague, London, Budapest, Burssels, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Toronto) is hosted by Dresden's Ignacy Kraszewski Museum, "a special place on the cultural map of Dresden", Krystyna Namysłowska from the Łódź Film Museum which prepared the exhibition explains, "and an important centre for cultural exchange between both countries". The exhibition received funding from the Polish Ministry for Cultural Heritage and the Polish Film Institute (PISF).
For more information see: Ignacy Kraszewski Museum in Dresden
Thumbnail: Roman Polański in The Tenant, 1976, photo: Mary Evans Picture Library / Forum
Author: based on the original article for culture.pl by BS, translated by MJ 07.05.2013