| Roman Polanski: New and
Classic Films
The Polanski Series will also run at
the Aero Theatre September 17 – 24.
Coming off the Oscar-winning achievement of THE PIANIST, and with
his upcoming Charles Dickens adaptation OLIVER TWIST (TriStar Pictures) due in theatres in
late September, director Roman Polanski is hotter than he’s been at any time since
his glory years of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, when he turned out a
seemingly unstoppable series of brilliantly paranoid dramas, thrillers and black comedies,
including ROSEMARY’S BABY, CUL-DE-SAC, REPULSION, THE TENANT, A KNIFE IN THE WATER
and arguably his greatest masterpiece, the epochal Los Angeles noir CHINATOWN. But has he
ever really disappeared? Despite a much-publicized absence from the U.S. due to ongoing
legal issues and the career ups and downs of any major director, Polanski has managed to
weather the tastes of a changing public with surprising grace and nimble intelligence. Now
more than ever, he’s poised to reclaim his position as one of the great post-modern
directors along with Kubrick, Godard, Bergman, Fassbinder and precious few others. To
celebrate the release of OLIVER TWIST, we’re bringing back a short series of some of
Polanski’s greatest films (CHINATOWN, ROSEMARY’S BABY), along with a handful of
his most rarely-screened gems (CUL-DE-SAC, THE TENANT, A KNIFE IN THE WATER).
Saturday, September 17 – 6:00 PM
Roman Polanski’s Latest – Sneak
Preview:
OLIVER TWIST, 2005, TriStar Pictures,
135 min. Following their Academy-AwardŽ winning film THE PIANIST, director Roman
Polanski and writer Ronald Harwood re-imagine Charles Dickens’ classic
story of a young boy who gets involved with a gang of pickpockets in 19th
Century London. Orphaned at an early age, Oliver Twist (Barney Clark) is forced to live in
a workhouse lorded over by the awful Mr. Bumble, who cheats the boys of their meager
rations. Desperate yet determined, Oliver makes his escape to the streets of London.
Penniless and alone, he is lured into a world of crime by the sinister Fagin
(Academy-AwardŽ winner Sir Ben Kingsley) -- the mastermind of a gang of pint-sized
pickpockets. Oliver's rescue by the kindly Mr. Brownlow is only the beginning of a series
of adventures that lead him to the promise of a better life.
>> Also playing at the Aero on September 18.
Saturday, September 17 – 9:00 PM
Polanski Retrospective:
CHINATOWN, 1974, Paramount, 131 min.
Dir. Roman Polanski. Jack Nicholson gives his greatest performance as
1930’s private eye J.J. Gittes, maneuvering through a nightmarish L.A. netherworld of
cheating husbands, stolen water rights, incest and murder, as he desperately tries to save
beautiful Faye Dunaway from her raptor-like father John Huston. Writer
Robert Towne’s magnificent, labyrinthine portrait of Los Angeles has been
widely hailed as the best script of its era.
>> Also playing at the Aero on September 22.
Sunday, September 18 – 6:30 PM
Polanski Double Feature:
CUL-DE-SAC, 1966, U.A. (Sony), 111 min.
One of director Roman Polanski’s most fascinating and criminally underrated
movies of the 1960’s, CUL-DE-SAC is by turns a surreal black comedy, existential
arthouse drama and twisted thriller set in an isolated mansion cut off from the mainland,
where a henpecked husband (Donald Pleasence) and his domineering French wife (the lovely,
ill-fated Francoise Dorleac) are surprised by two fleeing criminals (Lionel Stander and
Jack Macgowran).
An Egyptian Theatre Exclusive!
New 35 mm. Print! THE TENANT, 1976, Paramount, 125 min. Polanski at his best,
and strangest. Here, the director stars in his own film as a mild-mannered tenant,
Trelkovsky, who moves into an apartment where the last inhabitant committed suicide. He
soon comes to suspect that his neighbors -- including Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas and
Jo Van Fleet -- have a similar end in mind for him …
>> Also showing at the Aero Theatre on September 24. |
