A fewer days ago Roman Polanski turned 90. Looks like a man 2 decades younger. No uncertainty he is 1 of the best Polish directors in cinema history. Like a young man, I thought he was an enemy. I underestimated what he shot. Ideology has obscured my honest assessment of his achievements.
I changed my conviction after talking to Mate Bohdan Poręba and Mr Janusz Kidawa. They knew Łódź films. It was the mid-1950s. Roman Polański and they spoke about him with large sympathy and appreciation. At the time I learned that Polański felt Polish in contrast to the movie planet in Poland. And he understood perfectly well what a decent man does.
Kidawa told me that erstwhile he and Ryszard Gontar shot the movie "Sprawiżewiszy" in 1968 about the Polish population's rescue of Jews, the French paper tried to persuade Polanski to criticize the film. He refused, although it would be environmentally viable for him. He besides never joined the ritual hunt for Bohdan Poręba.
In 1977, during a photograph shoot commissioned by Vogue Hommes magazine, he slept with underage model Samantha Gailey. Of course, it's a crime and I'm not going to defend it. He was arrested, and he suffered a scandalously low sentence. His trial in the United States was not fair. 3rd parties had access to evidence. Polanski escaped from the United States. The environment in which Polanski rotated during that time most likely affected life errors. However, unlike many another known people, Polanski understood his mistake and was able to confess his guilt publicly. In my opinion, he has repented many times.
Gigant of cinema — ‘Knife in Water’, ‘Freight’, ‘Mother’, ‘Fearless Vampire Slayers’, ‘The kid of Rosemary’, ‘Chinatown’, ‘Loctor’, ‘Tess’, ‘Gross Gods’, ‘Nine Gates’, ‘Pianist’, ‘Oliver Twist’, ‘Slaughter’ or ‘Officer and Spy’. I can't choice the best Polanski movie. The most crucial from a political point of view and historical courage is surely the "Pianist".
And finally, I remembered the last movie about Polanski. The documentary "Polanski, Horowitz. Hometown" was recorded in Krakow. It was created after the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem granted the title “The Righteous Among the Nations” to the household from Wadowice, which saved Polański. He truly wanted it. The film's convention is that Roman Polański and world-famous photographer Ryszard Horowitz walk and tell about their childhood, the business period and the time of the extermination of Polish Jews. No large words, no more tragedy. They say what they remember – honest and friendly. And as it is customary in Poles of moses origin, they end up walking on the marketplace eating Polish shaving and drinking it with beer. They're talking to the another tasters of this drink. Could it be more familiar?
Łukasz Jastrzębski
photo public domain
