Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir

The documentary is an interview. Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in 2009 and then held under house arrest at his home in Gstaad; the film was made during that time. Sitting opposite him is his friend and producer Andrew Braunsberg. Polanski goes through his life: the Kraków ghetto, his mother killed at Auschwitz, getting into cinema after the war, leaving Poland, the murder of Sharon Tate in 1969, and the 1977 charge involving a thirteen-year-old girl. Laurent Bouzereau directs; ninety-four minutes. Polanski had pleaded guilty in that case and left the United States in 1978 before sentencing; Switzerland refused extradition in 2010. The film rests on Polanski's own account; there is no other side present and the questions do not press. It is not an investigation but a life told in his own words.