Roman Polanski, or pardon me but your poll is in my neck.

saw frantic last night and really, really enjoyed it. definitely a minor work and not surprised by half of the posts itt being dismissive, but i had a blast watching it. tuomas' post upthread about the killer premise is otm; simple concept and a very natural, deliberate unfolding of evidence and plot advancement, always just enough for him to go on searching, like there's never any moment when harrison ford just wallows in despair or loses any momentum, he's always taking a cab to the club advertised on that pack of matches he found in his wife's luggage, taking keys of coke in a bathroom stall in order to bribe the drug dealer for a tip. and he's a total square, too, despite some creepy slow-panning camerawork in scenes before the wife disappears there's no hint of any turmoil or vice. anyways yeah cool movie

Rosemary's locations:

http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=1135

Promised myself that I was retiring Rosemary after my last viewing, but somebody bought me the Criterion for Christmas, so I felt I should watch it again. Haven't looked at the extra disc yet.

Afterwards, I went online to see if All of Them Witches was a real book, and if I could get hold of a decently priced copy. I'm not the first person to do so--Google Autotype kicked in before I finished. Turns out it's not--it's on Wikipedia's list of fictional guide books found in movies. Very convincing.

Anyway, before long, I found this for sale on AbeBooks: Woody Allen's first edition copy of the novel, with a personal inscription from Ira Levin. Only $795 (plus shipping):

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=5859005428&searchurl=sortby%3D1%26tn%3Drosemary%2527s%2Bbaby

The '60s.

There is a two-month BFI retrospective. I don't get why there is a need for this? The sixties stuff gets a fair odd screening, and its not like anyone needs to see fkn Chinatown again.

i've not seen chinatown on the big screen before, so am tempted by that (though i chose to go see Nothing Sacred there last night instead). i'd imagine its going to sell a bunch of tickets, and finance their more obscure projects.

No doubt it will sell tickets, but part of the point of public subsidy is to not have to worry about bums on seats all the time.

I'm not saying "two month Vertov groups screenings" plz. However Polanski is p/well known. I'm sure Chinatown could get the odd screening as part of the 'Passport to Cinema' series.

i agree, but i've not doubt that even with the public subsidy that bums on seats is still a big issue (especially since i'd imagine that public subsidy has shrunk in the last two and a half years). and something as relatively mainstream as a polanski season (or, specifically, an extended run of chinatown) will also serve to draw in cinemagoers who perhaps aren't aware of the BFI and all that it does - a gateway drug, if you will.

I'm going to see quite a few of these and saw chinatown on fri for the first time in the cinema having seen it many times before and I enjoyed it more than ever and was affected by it more even than the first time I saw it despite now being v familiar with its plot and action and maybe there's something about it being newly restored (they're showing it at curzons and maybe elsewhere as well as bfi) so maybe that was part of the spur for the season oh and I saw his tess of the d'urbervilles in the film festival and that was newly restored too so I'm happy they're doing it and excited to see more because I like them.

the collection of polanski posters at the NFT is really excellent and well worth a look

I recently came across this in an old Playboy:

http://s.ecrater.com/stores/54333/4b848bf86c0f5_54333n.jpg

Product placement in regards to the ad Cassavettes appears in within RB.

While I agree w/ xyzzzz to some extent - Polanski's films are not that difficult to see, and maybe the BFI should be funding more obscure or deserving revivals - the new digital print of CHINATOWN does look absolutely stunning. Seen on the big screen, Polanski's constant use of over-the-shoulders shots really amplifies the film's sense of paranoia - of not being in full possession of the facts - even tho' as an actual mystery it's kind of a bust (who doesn't guess that John Huston is the bad guy p much as soon as he appears, esp as there are no real other suspects)

but how is he the bad guy is in the unraveling.

I'm just fine w/ seeing a 35mm print on the big screen anyhoo. #dinosaur

The unraveling is not just how he is the bad guy, but that the bad guy wins. With ease and confidence and disconcerting jolliness.

meh he's not that jolly when whatshername gets her head blown off

He's practically licking his slobbery chops.

whenever I see an old film w/ one of Huston's wives, Evelyn Keyes, I think of him saying "Evelyn, pleeeeease."

I'm just fine w/ seeing a 35mm print on the big screen anyhoo. #dinosaur

i'm w/ you - when the print is good condition and the projectionist knows what they're doing, there's something very rich and warm about big-screen film projection. but, in my primarily London-based revival cinema experience, those two conditions are rarely met. given the choice, wld def opt for a new digital print over a bashed-up old film version with scratches, splices, sound drop-outs etc. i suspect that the digital restoration of La Grande Illusion that the BFI toured last year was the best that that film has EVER looked - and it made it seem stunningly 'present' and alive.

there's nothing worse, however, than seeing a DVD projected on a very big screen.

but how is he the bad guy is in the unraveling.

^^^

What's Tess like anybody - three hours, Nastassia Kinski, etc.?

https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/ArticleMedia/Images/WhatsOn%20images/February%202013/Roman%20Polanski/tess_01.jpg

Haven't seen it since I was a senior in H.S. I remember thinking it was gorgeous but kind of dull.

Yeah I'm thinking this is just the kind of one-off this season was for really (would zone out if it was on TV), also on a sat afternoon - might be what I need.

haven't seen it since i was 16 or 17 and gorgeous but slow as hell covers my memory of it. having said that i've a lot of time for slow as hell so

Yeah, I'm pretty sure my H.S. senior self would not have sat still for Bela Tarr.

But this felt dull more in a Out of Africa way.

i do think Polanski's maybe over-reverent of the source material and maybe there's a slight pointlessness to the way he beautifully films countryside which isn't Hardy countryside but i feel like i could mope my way thru this again quite happily, it's pretty dreamy iirc

yah it screened @ a college near me like a month ago. it's good but long + bleak; the end sequence @ stonehenge is dope

tess is great and the moment its resolution is revealed pretty lolsome

I've ended up seeing most of the bfi run thus far

pasolini retrospective mar/apr - is this any more appropriate?

lol

I'll er plead the 5th on this qn.

Pasolini is another director whose films, by and large, aren't that difficult to see on DVD etc, but again, prob worth catching some of them on the big screen (PIGSTY is a good'un)

Totally, while I love Pasolini more etc might be more interesting in the context of other Italian film at the time. No idea, but would good to screen a point of new POV to see his films through which was my point above.

Might catch one of the docs or a short film programme.

Noted women's studies expert Roman Polanski weighs in:

You might not suppose Roman Polanski and the 87-year-old Jerry Lewis had a great deal in common, but today the director followed Lewis' suggestion that broad comedy is inappropriate for women actors by complaining that aiming for female equality is "a great pity".

Speaking at the Cannes film festival of his latest film Venus in Fur, the 79-year-old Polanski said that "trying to level the genders is purely idiotic." "Offering flowers to a lady has become indecent … The pill has greatly changed the place of women in our times, masculinising her. It chases away the romance in our lives."

I can see how he could still be a film-maker of merit, but why anyone would credit his opinions on women to be worth printing is entirely beyond me.

Guess Mia Farrow really was the auteur behind Rosemary's Baby after all.

yeah, that's creepy stuff. rosemary's baby is still one of the best movies ever though, and i am down with attributing that as much to mia farrow as to polanski.

Love that those statements came from the guy whose finest moment in cinema came from dressing himself up in drag and announcing, to the camera: "I think I'm pregnant."

9th gate has been on showtime constantly lately. The scene with the old woman collector in Italy on the hoveround is creepy

Millennials and their PC shit about stoopid thingz artists say really on overload this week

Cool post.

If Dennis Perrin had responded to it with a painfully unfunny tweet you probs would have thought it cool.

Also anyone who uses "PC" unironically is a cunt, perhaps you didn't get the memo?

Or perhaps you did, I don't know.

Millennials and their PC shit about stoopid thingz artists say really on overload this week

― ballin' from Maine to Mexico (Dr Morbius

you meant to say "Generation X," right?

The PC APB MIA from Morbs' PO.

Also anyone who uses "PC" unironically is a cunt

That's rather sexist, you malodorous twat.

you meant to say "Generation X," right?

i dunno, which does that dummy Rich Juzw1ak belong to?

I'm missing the connection here.