Word: polanski
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True classics are, by definition, timeless; we see them again and again because they continue to offer something new. The most rigorous test of artistic achievement ascertains whether a work of art can hold up over time, whether it can still offer meaning to a changing audience. Director Roman Polanski's film "Chinatown" is an interesting case study in the construction of a classic. When "Chinatown" premiered in 1974, the film received outstanding critical praise and ten Oscar nominations. This was enough to make it a success in its time. The question now, twenty years after its premiere, is whether...
...Polanski has adeptly managed to sharpen the pace and buildup of mystery in this slightly convoluted detective thriller. Set in Southern California in the mid-1930s, the film seethes with human greed, political corruption and family scandal, so that it seems that even the land surrounding Los Angeles is tainted...
Bitter Moon. The only thing that was bitter about this Roman Polanski turkey was me, that I had paid the exorbitant amount of money to see it. Hugh Grant gives an absolutely listless performance. I saw Four Weddings and a Funeral again, and I felt better...
...dismay, Maurice pegged him for dramas, and he wound up in a variety of serious Eurofilms including Merchant-Ivory's Remains of the Day. "If they would only give me something lighter," he recalls saying to himself, "I'd be better." Finally, Grant's amusing performance in Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon brought him to the attention of Four Weddings director Mike Newell and led to his screen break in a real comedy...
...review of this film tagged it a "sure bet to become [a] cult item over the years." The surreal disconnection of its random events does give the movie a flavor similar to cult director David Lynch's work (presumably why it has been billed with his "Eraserhead"). But Polanski, both as actor and director, lacks the energy and abandon that have made Lynch's films so successful. Instead of being exhilarating, Trokovsky's illogical behaviour is simply frustrating. For those obsessed with the surreal The Tenantwill be an intruguing period piece. For the rest of us, it's hardly worth...