Wednesday, July 9 - Monday, July 14, 2008
Featuring the films of Roman Polanski! (Don’t miss ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED & DESIRED, opening soon at the Coolidge!)
Knife In The Water 
(1962) dir Roman Polanski w/Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka, Zygmunt Malanowicz [94 min]
Polanski’s first feature, made in his native Poland is one of the greatest debuts in the history of cinema, as sharp as the edge of a razor. A couple and a boy they’ve hit with their car go out on a boat in a deserted and pristine lake region, every gesture, every word, and every silence singes and scalds.
Double
Feature w/REPULSIONThe Tenant
(1976) dir Roman Polanski w/Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas [126 min]
Polanski is a master at using claustrophobia to send his characters and his stories to the edge of madness – and, usually, beyond. Polanski himself stars in THE TENANT as an unassuming man who moves into a small Parisian apartment in which the former tenant has committed suicide. He soon comes to suspect that the other residents of his building are trying to drive him to the same fate.
Original Theatrical Trailer
Double Feature w/THE TENANTRepulsion
(1965) dir Roman Polanski w/Catherine Deneuve [105 min]
Polanski's first masterpiece is both a superb depiction of disturbed sexuality and urban loneliness. Deneuve plays a woman left alone in her sister’s apartment and, as she becomes increasingly isolated, she descends into madness while Polanski’s subjective camera follows with youthful abandon.
Original Theatrical Trailer
Friday Double Feature w/THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS; Saturday Double Feature w/CHINATOWNRosemary's Baby
(1968) dir Roman Polanski w/Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer [136 min]
A landmark psychological horror classic that took the genre in a whole new direction by scaring audiences through superb acting, storytelling and direction but without a ‘monster.’ When Rosemary and her husband move into a new apartment in Manhattan, she soon becomes pregnant. After strange incidents begin to unfold, she begins to suspect her attentive, new neighbors’ motivations and to fear for herself and her child.
• Read the Brattle Theatre Film Notes for ROSEMARY'S BABY
Original Theatrical Trailer
Double Feature w/ROSEMARY'S BABYThe Fearless Vampire Killers
(1967) dir Roman Polanski w/Polanski, Jack MacGowran, Sharon Tate, Ferdy Mayne [108 min]
Atmospheric, elegant, gothic… and extremely silly, FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS succeeds in simultaneously creating a sense of dread and poking fun at the conventions of its genre. Dotty old Professor Ambronsius (MacGowran) and his marginally competent assistant Alfred (Polanski) bring their vampire slaying services to an isolated town but they find defeating the bloodsuckers a bit more challenging than expected.
• Read the Brattle Theatre Film Notes for FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS
Original Theatrical Trailer
Double Feature w/ROSEMARY'S BABY Chinatown
(1974) dir Roman Polanski w/Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway [131 min]
This classic neo-noir is set in the rapidly expanding Los Angeles of the late 1930s. What starts out as a run-of-the-mill investigation into infidelity for private detective Jake Gittes (Nicholson) turns into uncovering a murder plot centering around the most precious commodity in this growing desert metropolis… water.
• Read the Brattle Theatre Film Notes for CHINATOWN
Original Theatrical Trailer
Double Feature w/TESS Oliver Twist
(2005) dir Roman Polanski w/Barney Clark, Harry Eden, Ben Kingsley, Leanne Rowe, Jamie Foreman, Edward Hardwicke [130 min]
Polanski’s most recent film is this deceptively straightforward adaptation of Dickens’ classic tale. The orphaned Oliver finds an unlikely family in a gang of pickpockets. In its recreation of Victorian London, the film does what few period pieces can – it makes its time period seem timeless and it makes its characters resonate with today’s audiences.
Official Site & Trailer
Double Feature w/OLIVER TWIST Tess
(1979) dir Roman Polanski w/Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson, John Collin [190 min]
TESS is another spot-on Victorian literary adaptation and Polanski’s last great film before his (arguably) long fallow period ending with THE PIANIST. While OLIVER TWIST takes on the grit of 19th century London, TESS sets its churning tale of loves lost and found, bought and won, in the bucolic British countryside with the luminous 17-year-old-Nastassja Kinski in the lead role.
The Pianist (2002) dir Roman Polanski w/Adrian Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Emilia Fox [150 min]
A remarkable return to form for Polanski, THE PIANIST is a stunning achievement. This multiple Oscar winning film tells the story of a man (Brody) trying to eke out an existence in the abandoned and hostile Warsaw Ghetto during WWII. Otherworldly yet clearly grounded in reality, intensely personal yet compelling and gripping, THE PIANIST is nothing short of a masterpiece.
Original Theatrical Trailer
