ROMAN POLANSKI
(The Inspector)
In 1958, Polanski directed the highly acclaimed short film "Two Men and a Wardrobe," and made three other short films that brought him attention as an important new film stylist: "When Angels Fall" "The Fat and the Lean" and "The Mammals." But it was Polanski's feature film debut with the 1962 thriller "Knife in the Water" that catapulted him to international fame. Winner of the Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival, "Knife in the Water" was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film and was featured on the cover of Time magazine.
He made his English-language debut with "Repulsion" (1964), starring Catherine Deneuve, and then made "Cul-de-Sac" (1965), which won Polanski the Best Picture prize at the Berlin Film Festival. His next film, "The Fearless Vampire Killers" (aka "The Dance of the Vampires") also presented Polanski in a starring role.
Polanski marked his American directorial debut with the horror classic "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay Adaptation. In 1972, Polanski returned to Europe to direct his adaptation (co-written with Kenneth Tynan) of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," and in 1973 he directed Marcello Mastroianni in the absurdist comedy "What?" 1974 marked Polanski's return to Hollywood with "Chinatown," Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay, and nominated for eleven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.
Though proven a master of such quintessentially American genres as the detective yarn and the supernatural thriller, Polanski returned to Europe for the 1976 film "The Tenant." In addition to directing, he played the starring role (having previously acted in "The Fearless Vampire Killers," "What?" and "Chinatown") and co-wrote the script. Working exclusively in Europe since 1977, Polanski next filmed "Tess" (1979), for which Polanski received an Academy Award nomination as Best Director and which also won Oscars for Cinematography, Art Direction and Costume Design.
In 1986 he filmed the adventure spoof "Pirates" which was Oscar-nominated for Best Costume Design. Polanski's next film, the 1988 thriller "Frantic," with Harrison Ford, marked the first starring role of Emmanuelle Seigner, who starred with Peter Coyote and Hugh Grant in his 1992 film "Bitter Moon." Seigner married Polanski in 1989.
On stage, Polanski has directed productions of Berg's "Lulu" at Spoleto, Verdi's "Rigoletto" at the Munich Opera and, most recently, "Tales of Hoffman" in Paris. In 1981 he directed and starred in the Warsaw production of Peter Shaffer's "Amadeus," which he then triumphantly brought to Paris in 1982. In 1988 he created the lead role in Stephen Berkoff's stage adaptation of Kafka's "Metamorphosis," also on the Paris stage.
In addition to "A Pure Formality," and his roles in his own films, Polanski's other acting assignments include "The Magic Christian," "Andy Warhol's Dracula," "Back in the USSR" and "Grosse Fatigue." In 1984 Polanski wrote his autobiography, Roman, which was a bestseller in several languages. His latest feature as director is the film adaptation of Ariel Dorfman's acclaimed play "Death and the Maiden," starring Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley and Stuart Wilson.
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