{"id":6683,"date":"2009-10-05T03:37:23","date_gmt":"2009-10-05T02:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=6683"},"modified":"2009-11-23T05:05:01","modified_gmt":"2009-11-23T05:05:01","slug":"polanski-poster-irony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2009\/10\/05\/polanski-poster-irony\/","title":{"rendered":"Polanski Poster Irony"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Roman<\/a><\/p>\n

The Roman Polanski<\/a><\/strong> arrest story<\/a> still seems set to run and run (most likely until he gets deported to California) with Hollywood luminaries calling for his release<\/a>, whilst others (i.e. those who have read the disturbing 1977 testimony<\/a> of the girl he had illegal sex with) denounce him in the comment sections<\/a> of websites all over the Internet.<\/p>\n

The whole story reads like a Philip Roth<\/a> novel on steroids, but some\u00a0Polanski movie posters highlighted on The Auteurs<\/a> made me wonder if there was some kind of cosmic subtext to his career.<\/p>\n

In the the 2008 documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired<\/a>, the prosecutor Roger Gunson commented on the recurring themes of the director’s work:<\/p>\n

“Every Roman Polanski movie has the theme [of] corruption meeting innocence over water”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The infamous events of March 1977 could be interpreted in these terms: Polanski (corruption) met Samantha Geimer (innocence) over water (Jack Nicholson’s jacuzzi).<\/p>\n

But do the posters of his films shed any light on the unfolding drama?<\/p>\n

Some of them are ironic, to say the least.<\/p>\n

Repulsion<\/a><\/strong> (1965) had one poster with two hands touching a woman’s body:<\/p>\n

\"Repulsion<\/p>\n

Another had the tagline:<\/p>\n

“The nightmare world of a Virgin’s dreams becomes the screen’s shocking reality!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Repulsion\"<\/p>\n

The Fearless Vampire Killers<\/a><\/strong> (1967) has the image of a vampire about to sink his fangs into a half naked woman in water and, for good measure, carries the warning:<\/p>\n

“Not suitable for children”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

What?<\/a> <\/strong>(1972) had a poster which is almost certain to give any card-carrying feminists pause for thought – a buxom woman is pictured bending over the top of the grinning mouth of a man.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/p>\n

The Tenant<\/a> (1975) <\/span><\/strong>has the eerily prescient words:<\/p>\n

‘No-one does it to you like Roman Polanski’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

If only Samantha Geimer’s mother<\/a> had taken this statement literally.<\/p>\n

Tess<\/a><\/strong> (1979), his adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel<\/a>, has the lengthy tagline:<\/p>\n

“She was born into a world where they called it seduction, not rape”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Tess<\/p>\n

There is also the curious line:<\/p>\n

“She was Tess, a victim of her own provocative beauty”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Was Columbia’s marketing department trying imply something with Polanski’s first film in ‘exile’?<\/p>\n

Frantic<\/a><\/strong> (1988) has the simple three word\u00a0tag line:<\/p>\n

“Danger. Desire. Desperation”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is about as succinct a description of the thirty-two year old affair that I can think of.<\/p>\n

\"Frantic<\/p>\n

Bitter Moon<\/a><\/strong> (1992) has the provocative thud of a Carry On<\/a> movie:<\/p>\n

“A kinky voyage with a head full of steam”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Bitter<\/p>\n

Death and the Maiden<\/a><\/strong> (1994) has the rather poetic:<\/p>\n

“Tonight, mercy will be buried with the past”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps reflective of the anti-Polanski brigade who want to see him brought to justice?<\/p>\n

\"Death<\/p>\n

The Ninth Gate<\/a><\/strong> (1999) has the\u00a0marvellously concise\u00a0statement:<\/p>\n

“Leave the unknown alone”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

But perhaps the most fitting poster of all is for Marina Zenovich’s 2008 documentary, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

“The truth couldn’t fit the headlines”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Roman<\/p>\n

It was presumably intended as a comment on how the\u00a0back room\u00a0legal shenanigans were obscured by the initial media representation.<\/p>\n

But given the ongoing twists and turns of the case that led to HBO editing the documentary before it aired last year<\/a> and the startling admission by a key interviewee that he lied in the film<\/a>, it seems a more pertinent\u00a0statement\u00a0on how the story continues to confound, repulse and fascinate those who try to explain it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is there an ironic subtext to the posters of Roman Polanski’s movies?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,8],"tags":[1153],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}