JamesG
09-28-2011, 02:06 PM
Roman Polanski Returns to Zurich for Ovation After Arrest
By Sharon Knolle
Posted Sept 27th 2011
Two years after he'd been arrested in Zurich, Roman Polanski received a 10-minute standing ovation at the Zurich Film Festival as he accepted a lifetime achievement award.
"Better late than never," he said on finally being able to accept the award in person.
In 2009, he was placed under house arrest when he arrived in Switzerland and nearly extradited to the U.S. for outstanding sexual assault charges.
The 78-year-old is also the subject of a "secret" new documentary that had its world premiere at the festival.
In the documentary, called Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir, he narrates his own life story, up to and including his extradition trial. It was shot during his house arrest by Laurent Bouzereau, who specializes in "making of" documentaries on films from Avatar to Jaws.
Roman Polanski publicly apologized to Samantha Greimer, the woman he sexually assaulted 33 years ago, in the new documentary, "She is a double victim: my victim and a victim of the press."
The Greimer case takes up only a small portion of the film. The bulk is dedicated to Polanski's childhood in German-occupied Poland, including his escape from the Warsaw ghetto and his early life and career.
The film is mainly Polanski himself talking, with occasional questions and reflections from Braunsberg and short clips of Polanski's films, particularly the 2002 Oscar winner The Pianist.
It is also unlikely to sway anyone on the fence in the Polanski case.
The film -- one long, wide-ranging conversation between Polanski and his old friend and colleague, producer Andrew Braunsberg -- makes no claim to objectivity. It repeats charges of legal manipulation and corruption in the original 1978 trial that were first brought up in Marina Zenovich's 2008 doc Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which first reignited interest in the case.
But it does not bring any new evidence or revelations to the table. Instead, what Bouzereau's film offers is Polanski's version of the story of his life.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/roman-polanski-apologizes-woman-assaulted-documentary-240875
By Sharon Knolle
Posted Sept 27th 2011
Two years after he'd been arrested in Zurich, Roman Polanski received a 10-minute standing ovation at the Zurich Film Festival as he accepted a lifetime achievement award.
"Better late than never," he said on finally being able to accept the award in person.
In 2009, he was placed under house arrest when he arrived in Switzerland and nearly extradited to the U.S. for outstanding sexual assault charges.
The 78-year-old is also the subject of a "secret" new documentary that had its world premiere at the festival.
In the documentary, called Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir, he narrates his own life story, up to and including his extradition trial. It was shot during his house arrest by Laurent Bouzereau, who specializes in "making of" documentaries on films from Avatar to Jaws.
Roman Polanski publicly apologized to Samantha Greimer, the woman he sexually assaulted 33 years ago, in the new documentary, "She is a double victim: my victim and a victim of the press."
The Greimer case takes up only a small portion of the film. The bulk is dedicated to Polanski's childhood in German-occupied Poland, including his escape from the Warsaw ghetto and his early life and career.
The film is mainly Polanski himself talking, with occasional questions and reflections from Braunsberg and short clips of Polanski's films, particularly the 2002 Oscar winner The Pianist.
It is also unlikely to sway anyone on the fence in the Polanski case.
The film -- one long, wide-ranging conversation between Polanski and his old friend and colleague, producer Andrew Braunsberg -- makes no claim to objectivity. It repeats charges of legal manipulation and corruption in the original 1978 trial that were first brought up in Marina Zenovich's 2008 doc Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which first reignited interest in the case.
But it does not bring any new evidence or revelations to the table. Instead, what Bouzereau's film offers is Polanski's version of the story of his life.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/roman-polanski-apologizes-woman-assaulted-documentary-240875