The best Roman Polanski’s drama movies

Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski

18/08/1933 (90 años)
Roman Polanski (born 18 August 1933) is a Polish-French film director, producer, writer and actor. Born in Paris to Polish parents, Polanski relocated with his family to Poland in 1937. After surviving the Holocaust, he continued his education in Poland and became a critically acclaimed director of both art house and commercial films. Polanski's first feature-length film, Knife in the Water (1962), made in Poland, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He has since received five more Oscar nominations, and in 2002 received the Academy Award for Best Director for his film, The Pianist. He has also been the recipient of two Baftas, four Césars, a Golden Globe and the Palme d'Or. He left Poland in 1961 to live in France for several years, then moved to the United Kingdom where he collaborated with Gérard Brach on three films, beginning with Repulsion (1965). In 1968 he moved to the United States, immediately cementing his burgeoning directing status with the 1968 groundbreaking Academy Award winning horror film Rosemary's Baby. In 1969, Polanski's pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered while staying at the Polanski's Benedict Canyon home above Los Angeles by members of the Manson Family. Following Tate's death, Polanski returned to Europe and spent much of his time in Paris and Gstaad, but did not make another film until he filmed Macbeth (1971) in England. The following year he went to Italy to make What? (1973) and subsequently spent the next five years living near Rome. However, he traveled to Hollywood to direct Chinatown (1974) for Paramount Pictures, with Robert Evans serving as producer. The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, and was a critical and box-office success; the script by Robert Towne won for Best Original Screenplay. Polanski's next film, The Tenant (1976), was shot in France, and completed the "Apartment Trilogy", following Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby. In 1977, after a photo shoot in Los Angeles, Polanski was arrested for the sexual abuse of a 13 year old girl. He was charged with rape but pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor. To avoid sentencing, Polanski fled to his home in London, and then moved on to France the following day. He has had a U.S. arrest warrant outstanding since then, and an international arrest warrant since 2005. Polanski continued to make films such as The Pianist (2002), a World War II-set adaptation of Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman's autobiography of the same name, which echoed some of Polanski's earlier life experiences. Like Szpilman, Polanski escaped the ghetto and the concentration camps while family members were killed. The film won three Academy Awards including Best Director, the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, and seven French César Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. He then released the successful films Oliver Twist (2005), To Each His Own Cinema (2007), and The Ghost Writer (2010), completed while under house arrest. In September 2009, Polanski was arrested by Swiss police, at the request of U.S. authorities, when he traveled to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival. In October 2009, the U.S. requested his extradition; however, on July 12, 2010, the Swiss rejected that request and instead declared him a "free man" after releasing him from custody.
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Chinatown

Chinatown
8.1/10
Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

Repulsion

Repulsion
7.6/10
Beautiful young manicurist Carole suffers from androphobia (the pathological fear of interaction with men). When her sister and roommate, Helen, leaves their London flat to go on an Italian holiday with her married boyfriend, Carole withdraws into her apartment. She begins to experience frightful hallucinations, her fear gradually mutating into madness.

The Tenant

The Tenant
7.6/10
A quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in France where the previous tenant committed suicide, and begins to suspect his landlord and neighbors are trying to subtly change him into the last tenant so that he too will kill himself.

An Officer and a Spy

An Officer and a Spy
7.2/10
In 1894, French Captain Alfred Dreyfus is wrongfully convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Devil's Island penal colony.

Knife in the Water

Knife in the Water
7.4/10
  • Genre: Drama
  • Release: 09/03/1962
  • Character: Young Boy (voice)
On their way to an afternoon on the lake, husband and wife Andrzej and Krystyna nearly run over a young hitchhiker. Inviting the young man onto the boat with them, Andrzej begins to subtly torment him; the hitchhiker responds by making overtures toward Krystyna. When the hitchhiker is accidentally knocked overboard, the husband's panic results in unexpected consequences. This was the first feature directed by Roman Polanski.

Quiet Chaos

Quiet Chaos
6.8/10
  • Genre: DramaRomance
  • Release: 01/02/2008
  • Character: Steiner
Pietro is a successful businessman with a wife and a daughter. One day he helps his brother save two women from drowning at the beach. When he returns home he finds that his wife has died. Now Pietro has to take care of his daughter, Claudia. When he drives her to school soon after, he decides to wait for her all day in front of the school, and soon that's what he does every day.

A Pure Formality

A Pure Formality
7.6/10
Onoff is a famous writer, now a recluse. The Inspector is suspicious when Onoff is brought into the station one night, disoriented and suffering a kind of amnesia. In an isolated, rural police station, the Inspector tries to establish the events surrounding a killing, to reach a startling resolution.

A Generation

A Generation
7.1/10
  • Genre: DramaWar
  • Release: 26/01/1955
  • Character: Mundek
Stach is a wayward teen living in squalor on the outskirts of Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Guided by an avuncular Communist organizer, he is introduced to the underground resistance—and to the beautiful Dorota. Soon he is engaged in dangerous efforts to fight oppression and indignity, maturing as he assumes responsibility for others’ lives. A coming-of-age story of survival and shattering loss, A Generation delivers a brutal portrait of the human cost of war.

Innocent Sorcerers

Innocent Sorcerers
7.3/10
A young doctor who is sought by women meets one that he likes.

Lotna

Lotna
6.1/10
  • Genre: DramaWar
  • Release: 01/04/1959
  • Character: muzyk (nie występuje w napisach)
Set in the beginning of Wold War II, when the Polish cavalry still fought with lances against German troops. LOTNA is about a white thoroughbred horse that passed through various hands in a military outfit.

Back in the USSR

Back in the USSR
4.9/10
During Gorbachev's perestroika, a Chicago student, visits Moscow while the Soviet Union is changing from Communist to Wild West capitalist society. Purely by bad luck, he becomes a pawn in a dangerous cat and mouse game for a precious icon.

A Special Day

A Special Day
6.3/10
a film that premiered at the cannes film festival

Two Men and a Wardrobe

Two Men and a Wardrobe
6.7/10
  • Genre: Drama
  • Release: 22/04/1958
  • Character: Bad Boy
A short Polish black and white silent movie directed by Roman Polański. The film features two men who emerge from the sea carrying a large wardrobe, which they proceed to carry into a town. Carrying the wardrobe, the two encounter a series of hostile events, including being attacked by a group of youths (one of whom is played by Polanski himself). Finally, they arrive back at a beach and then disappear in the sea.

Chassé-croisé

Chassé-croisé
4.4/10
Passionate about music, Julien nevertheless works with a sculptor. One day, he meets young Hermine at a religious bookseller.

Good Bye, Till Tomorrow

Good Bye, Till Tomorrow
7/10
Jacek is a handsome, charming young Pole who belongs to a drama company. One day, in the streets of Gdansk, he meets Marguerite, a beautiful, charming French girl. He falls for her but the young lady is whimsical...

Koniec nocy

Koniec nocy
6.1/10
  • Genre: Drama
  • Release: 21/12/1957
  • Character: Mały
A group of young Lódz hoodlums spends their time shoplifting, partying and drinking heavily, until they are faced with serious consequences of their reckless behaviour.

The Lamp

The Lamp
6.4/10
  • Genre: Drama
  • Release: 01/01/1959
  • Character: A passer-by (uncredited)
In waning winter light, a doll maker works in his shop, a kerosene lamp beside him, a jumble of dolls and doll parts, whole and broken, surrounding him. There are noises, too: a cuckoo clock chirps the workday's end. The artisan completes a repair and leaves, shuttering the shop from outside. Back inside, whispering begins. What else is in store for the shop's seemingly lifeless denizens?

Trzy starty

Trzy starty
6.6/10
  • Genre: Drama
  • Release: 25/10/1955
  • Character: Basia's Brother
Three separate short stories about young athletes who lose their chances of success. Young swimmer - because of unhappy love. Boxer because of a fight with hooligans, for which the judges will disqualify him. But the cyclist must decide for himself what is more important for him: victory or friendship.

Three Stories

Three Stories
4.7/10
  • Genre: ActionDrama
  • Release: 24/04/1953
  • Character: Genek 'The Little'

Magical Bicycle

Magical Bicycle
5.4/10
  • Genre: ActionDrama
  • Release: 25/12/1955
  • Character: Adas

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