Roman Polanski Interview (1967)

[Music] Roman palansky is 32 he has just completed his fourth feature film The Vampire Killers set in the snow covered mountains of Transylvania he both directs and plays one of the leading Parts Roman palansky was born in France of parents they left there when he was three and went to live in Poland he talked with Bolas suik a Polish film critic also living in London about his work and background I don't know I think I'm I'm a NAD you know but uh I uh I'm really strongly attached to to to polish background I grown up in Poland my mother was killed by uh Germans very soon and my father was taken to the Concentration Camp after 2 years of war and then I was by myself in the beginning with the um friends of my my my father and after friends of this of their friends and Friends of their eventually were the people I didn't know and I was living basically in the country doing the work I didn't have a family life and when the war uh uh was finished and my father came back from the from mou house and when he was a prisoner wanted Remar and I didn't want to live with them and I stay by myself so since six really eight because first two years I was with my father uh uh so six since I was eight I never stayed with my parents I think it certainly mocked me my family was was rather very unartistic and it was rather Bourgeois background you know not working class either so I I can't impress you know a a journalist with this sort of informations one of the first film films I've seen was uh Snow White you know and I think that influenced me enormously forever for and and I as you see it enous uh influence of that in my work like repulsion or you know after during the War I I uh there were a lot of German films in the town when I was in C kov and I loved Cinema I was going to cinema I was selling newspapers so I could have a little money to go to the cinema cinema was very cheap because it was all German propaganda but I didn't understand that you know at this time for me were just you know things happening on the screen and uh I love that even if the people were telling me that I shouldn't go to the cinema because it was even as you remember you were during yes were in Poland you remember the saying which means old pigs are in the cinema yes I always wanted to I didn't know what what does it exactly mean a film director but I always wanted I want I really was was I was trying always to build the you know the projectors and things like that it never worked really because I didn't know Optics well enough you know I mean I did finally achieve it afterward you know but I always thought but I never really believed I would do it when I started you know uh going to the school you know I didn't have any education during the War I hardly could read you know I I was reading books but I I didn't I I never went to school until I was 12 or 13 afterward but when I started you know um going to school I I realized you know that you know this sort of dream which you know I I I'm not able to make real but um I started in theater when I was 14 you know as an actor I didn't have such good parts because it's very R to have you know rare to have a leading part when you were 14 or 15 or 16 but I stayed in the theater for six years the same time I started studying art school you know because I thought I I I always was drawing I and you know even as as a kid and that what my parents really thought I should do and I believed it I I liked it very much and I thought that that's something which is which you can I mean you canot no I mean you something real you know Cinemas seemed to be something very unreal very far and that at least I could do so I when I when I finished the uh art school I started playing in in in in the films little Parts they picked me up from the theater so I was already closer to the cinema and eventually I said I will I am going to to make a film school and there was very difficult because every year they had three or 400 you know young people trying to get in the film School you you needed the high school finished I wasn't good for anything else you know I don't know anything about economics it was no act uh class at this time was on only uh Film Production film Direction and Camera at the Polish film school he found the freedom encouragement and resources to make short films one of them two men and a wardrobe won him several prizes at International festivals and established the germ of a future [Music] reputation [Music] a [Music] n [Music] the precise symbolic meaning of the Preposterous old wardrobe may be obscure but the emotions conveyed are clear whatever it may signify individuality personal values genuine private sentiments there is no room in society for the Wardrobe although violence and callousness are quite [Music] common [Music] [Music] everywhere the two men meet hostility or indifference until finally they take their wardrobe back into the sea the film is ironic but the image is simple and [Music] innocent [Music] in a later short film mammals this time the setting is a simple snow landscape two individuals become locked in a struggle to take advantage of one another each plays on the other's sympathy and sense of human obligation with gradually increasing [Music] cunning [Music] I [Music] [Music] a [Music] a [Music] pansy's work in its freedom and Anarchy seems quite Untouched by the usual polish concerns most leading polish filmmakers seem preoccupied by great National issues the tragic history of Poland and the way it Bears down on private individuals demanding sacrifice I don't know I think I was always considered in the school especially during the the stalinist times when it was very uh dodgy I was always considered as a cosmo cosmopol yes Cosmopolitan and and I was very very often you know on the edge I think I I I I am Cosmopolitan I'm rather proud of it I'm very very very feel very strong against everything which means nationalism and even patriotism knife in the water was pansy's first feature it expands the themes of his short films there is again an open and Moody landscape and against it a few human figures behaving strangely the new element is sex it is for the woman's benefit that the two men try to dominate one another in a tense psychological game SC foreign foreign spee let on poad for for speech [Music] speee fore [Music] forign speech fore spee what interest me more is the you know psychological relationship between the people you know sometimes can be two men even you know I mean love and and sex is one of the most important part of our life I hope you agree with me so for so you know it comes true but you it's not the basic theme of my my my work the French film magazine cayi Cinema said that there is an abstract intelligence at work in your films would you agree with that kind of statement abstract in the abstract intelligence at work you know that's very sophisticated magazine C cema and I I hardly understand what they talking about I mean when they they always made me fantastic reviews I me from from KN in water and repulsion but I must admit I didn't understand a word of it you're not interested in fact in that kind of criticism at all I'm basically very little interested in it repulsion was the first of the three films that palansky has made in England its theme was unusual for him it is the story of a girl going insane haunted by her fears and a feeling that her world is disintegrating it is set in London for panse a new and unfamiliar environment but he was able to use his great technical skill and craftsmanship and that quality of his imagination which makes him select the unusual potentially symbolic features in any [Music] setting [Applause] [Music] for [Music] repulsion displays pansy's extraordinary ability to manipulate the audience's response a know technique and I have always fantastic relationship with the cameraman and all technical people because I talk the the language and I have great help from their side especially in this country intuition everybody has but not not everybody knows how to express it I think I'm professional you know I'm not an amateur in the cinema I think at this stage where Cinema speaks you know I mean since since 20 1928 I think it's an important thing and and I think that we see lot of films where where the soundtrack is something just which makes noise as well as we see but for me some sometimes as important as the as the picture itself as the visual side of the film and I spend a long time on on on [Music] sound [Music] I don't like Cinema very you know I don't I like rather Cinema lie than Cinema truth you know but what doesn't interest me you know it's to you know it's a sort of uh pseudo uh truth about life you know going out on the street and filming cars you know things which which uh which you see with your own own eyes if you are a little bit sensitive I think it's just sort of digested uh um pseudo sensitivity for B you know who feels very much artistic when they see this sort of and you resent in fact B ites I believe yeah very much so I I I hate it because it's basically you know because it's basing on on on hypocrisy you know and Bourgeois morality it's something which they just respect because it exists because they were grown up this way not because they think that it's right you know this dislike of middle class attitudes and manners comes through very clearly in culdesac the second film that palansky made made in England Horus St done it once what you hear me never a a plan that's my [Laughter] gun was loaded of course it wasn't was in the boot of the car how could he loaded it how did you load it eh how eh you only you looked after more careful what do you mean we have to be the stained glass window let's look oh thank goodness that's all it is all it is that's in G stained glass window don't make a drama out of it we replace your window panes window PES stain it's completely ruined and L's been hurt that's the main thing yes that would have been the last straw look I'm make good the damage to your stained glass how could one possibly replace a cupet stained glass window oh that's the way you could take it look we better be off our without look it's quite obvious we in the way aren't we from the moment you set eyes on us you had one thing in your mind and that was to get us off this island quite so to let your filthy little brat get up to his disgusting tricks besides I know well why you came you didn't take me for a fool he knows why you hear that he knows I'm talking about it was the same with Agnes wasn't it KAC is perhaps pansy's best work so far it elaborates earlier themes with an added richness and control it centers around an unconventional couple a retired businessman and his young French wife living in their bizarre home at lindes Van North umberland at the beginning of the film their Curious relationship is disturbed by the even more Curious arrival of a stray American Gangster is anybody there yes me Dicky I took the liberty of using the phone CUA Albert and me are having a little trouble trouble trouble or not you have very strange manners one isn't usually bursting on people without warning especially at this hour one doesn't choose the time one gets into trouble actually I don't know what prevents me calling the police I told you Albert me are having some trouble get it little fairy you pansy's apparent belief is that in any human relationship the question arises of who is to dominate it the grotesque and cruel games that his characters play in a bizarre setting indicate a pessimistic view of the human condition but in Co sa the sophistication and numerous sexual inuendos do not obliterate the innocence and vulnerability of the characters pansy's pessimism is counted by the vitality and richness of the visual images and an almost childlike sense of fun these latter qualities are very apparent in his latest film The Vampire Killers a broad burlesque on the conventions of the horor film after the films like you know knife in the water called the SAG repulsion which are sort of strict and black and white and you know with this sort of close atmosphere I felt suddenly like doing something entirely different you know First comedy second color and then it's rather you know it's also a lot of atmosphere in it you know of this castles and in but it's it's just the opposite of everything I was doing yet it joins my idea I mean join is the thing which I like in the cinema I like to go and see the the scary movie or or you know I like also going to Disneyland or or fan buty you know and take this uh you know how how how do we call it you know the frightening thing