Polanski films gain renewed Swiss attention

Even as movie director Roman Polanski remains a prisoner in his Gstaad chalet, his films are receiving more attention than ever in the country where he maintains a secondary residence.

Wearing an electronic bracelet, Polanski, 76, remains trapped in his mountain home, awaiting a legal process in Switzerland to determine whether he should be extradited to the United States to face a 33-year-old sexual abuse case.

Meanwhile, his latest film, The Ghost Writer is set to appear in Swiss cinemas on Wednesday and the Swiss Film Archive (Cinémathèque Suisse) on Monday launched a month-long retrospective of his feature films.

His most recent release won a Silver Bear award for best director at the 60th International Berlin Film Festival last month.

The film, starring Ewan McGregor, Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams and Pierce Brosnan, has a screenplay that is eerily reflective of Polanski’s own predicament.

The movie “happens to be about a public figure, once hugely admired, now disgraced, fearing extradition and prosecution and confined to virtual house arrest in a vacation spot for rich people,” writes Peter Bradshaw, film reviewer for Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

The parallels are certainly striking.

The 128-minute film revolves around a ghost-writing journalist (McGregor), hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister (Brosnan), who uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy.

The former PM is living in the palatial digs of his American publisher, facing the threat of never being able to return to his native land because of a war-crime investigation.

The similarities to Polanski’s own situation have not escaped the attention of critics,but the film has also received acclaim as an entertaining thriller and work of political satire.

The French-Polish director remains under house arrest in Gstaad, an Alpine resort in the canton of Bern known for attracting wealthy residents, including the likes of Julie Andrews and (in years past) Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

He has been there since late November 2009 after posting a 4.5-million-franc bond folliwng his arrest in September by police in Zurich at the request of US authorities.

Ironically, it was earlier Swiss critical acclaim that got him into this situation.

He was visiting Switzerland to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival.

The American justice department is pursuing a case that dates from 1977 when Polanski was arrested for unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

Fearing a term in jail, Polanski fled the US just before he was about to be sentenced, seeking refuge in France, where as a French citizen he was protected from extradition.

He is married to French actress Emanuelle Seigner, who was seen in his chalet with their two children when Polanski arrived from Zurich amidst much media interest three months ago.

Reaction to Polanski’s predicament in Switzerland has been mixed, with some people believing he should face the consequences for his actions.

Others are more sympathetic, noting the numerous tragedies in his personal life, including the sensational murder of his second wife, Sharon Tate, in Los Angeles and a childhood in wartime Poland, where his mother perished at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

In deciding to pay tribute to Polanski with its retrospective series, Cinémathèque Suisse was not making any judgment about the director’s private life, communications director Wink Angelrath told Swisster.

“I think our director Frédéric Maire wanted to remind us that he is a very great film maker, even if the media is talking about other things,” Angelrath said.

“He is a film maker more than anything else,” she said.

The archive is showing all 18 of Polanski’s feature films made prior to Ghost Writer, in addition to two shorts.

The films to be screened include Knife in the Water (1962), his first long film produced in Poland.

Others include The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), a parody of vampire films, shot in England, and other more famous films such as Rosemary’s Baby (1968), his first major success in the US, starring Mia Farrow, and Chinatown (1974), Tess (1979) and The Pianist (2002).

The Cinémathèque, located in the Casino de Montbenon, has two theatres with a capacity of 100 and 500 seats respectively.

Showings are three times a day, starting at 3, 6.30 and 9 pm.

The Polanski series is running through to the end of March.

For more information about the program, which also includes screenings of other films, including a tribute to American film director Tim Burton, check the website.