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Roman Polanski (Directors) |  | Author: F X Feeney
Creator: Paul Duncan
Publisher: Taschen
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
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Seller: smeikalbooks_london
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 550986
Media: Paperback
Edition: illustrated edition
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.7 x 8 x 0.6
ISBN: 3822825425
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.430233092
EAN: 9783822825426
ASIN: 3822825425
Publication Date: January 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"I like shadows in movies. I dont like them in life." Roman Polanski Roman Polanskis 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, Rosemarys 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 whats been hidden, or is being planned in secret, is always a matter of life and death; ones 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 Polanskis archives.
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| Customer Reviews:
 a review. December 2, 2006
Brian Lange (Chicago, IL)
I am a huge Polanski fan. That's the #1 reason I picked up this book.
The reason I give this three stars, maybe four... is because a lot of the information contained within the book (a good 50% + of written content) is simply a synopsis of each film. From his short films & Knife in the Water, all the way up to Oliver Twist. Frankly, I don't need the majority of the book to summarize movies that I already own. Even if you haven't seen some of the films, spoilers are revealed. Ones you probably could do better without.
The other half of the writing, is quite nice. It talks about what Polanski did immediately after the film and the steps he took into starting his next. All the 'in between' stuff. His way of thinking, his struggles, of course his tragedy, and other issues of the like. The book is written chronologically, so the author finds nice segues from film to film. It is also separated rather well, so reading it in sections is not a problem at all.
Overall, this is not a bad buy. It is a relatively inexpensive item with nice photographs and stills from the movie. There are some interesting facts contained within... however, if you are looking for a really informative book you might look elsewhere. This book is painfully easy to read and I personally knew most of the facts written in it already. It probably makes for a nice gift item to the younger crowd who has an interest in a particular director. It also makes for a good collectors item, so if you're a fan... by all means purchase this book. However, I favor the Roman Polanksi Interviews over this book.
 In my estimation this is THE book on Roman Polanski July 16, 2006
Scott Bradley (Los Angeles, California USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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!
A comprehensive and unbiased look at Roman Polanski's career and life April 15, 2006
Donna Di Giacomo (Philadelphia, PA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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
behind the curtain ... December 17, 2005
FrizzText (Wuppertal)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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 ...
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