Roman Polanski

Average customer rating:

A Wonderful Movie
Polanski tops himself
First rate film
Adrien Brody's performance is transcendent - beyond compare!
The Pianist

The Pianist
Starring: Adrien Brody , Frank Finlay , Thomas Kretschmann , Maureen Lipman , and Zbigniew Zamachowski
Director: Roman Polanski
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Period Piece | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Military & War | Genres | DVD | Video

International | Military & War | Genres | DVD | Video

DTS | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video

( P ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

Holocaust | Jewish Heritage | Specialty Stores | DVD | Video

Schindler's List (Widescreen Edition)
Life Is Beautiful
Hotel Rwanda
Saving Private Ryan (Special Limited Edition)
A Beautiful Mind (Widescreen Awards Edition)

ASIN: B00005JLT5
Release Date: 2003-05-27

Amazon.com

Winner of the prestigious Golden Palm award at the 2002 Cannes film festival, The Pianist is the film that Roman Polanski was born to direct. A childhood survivor of Nazi-occupied Poland, Polanski was uniquely suited to tell the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and concert pianist (played by Adrien Brody) who witnessed the Nazi invasion of Warsaw, miraculously eluded the Nazi death camps, and survived throughout World War II by hiding among the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto. Unlike any previous dramatization of the Nazi holocaust, The Pianist steadfastly maintains its protagonist's singular point of view, allowing Polanski to create an intimate odyssey on an epic wartime scale, drawing a direct parallel between Szpilman's tenacious, primitive existence and the wholesale destruction of the city he refuses to abandon. Uncompromising in its physical and emotional authenticity, The Pianist strikes an ultimate note of hope and soulful purity. As with Schindler's List, it's one of the greatest films ever made about humanity's darkest chapter. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

Nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and winner of 3, The Pianist stars Oscar winner Adrien Brody in the true-life story of brilliant pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, the most acclaimed young musician of his time until his promising career was interrupted by the onset of World War II. This powerful, ultimately triumphant film follows Szpilman s heroic and inspirational journey of survival with the unlikely help from a sympathetic German officer (Thomas Kretschmann). A truly unforgettable epic, testifying to both the power of hope and the resiliency of the human spirit, The Pianist is a miraculous tale of survival masterfully brought to life by visionary filmmaker Roman Polanski in his most personal movie ever.

System Requirements:
Starring: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Emilia Fox, Maureen Lipman, Jessica Kate Meyer, Julia Rayner, Ed Stoppard
Directed By: Roman Polanski
Running Time: 150 Min., Color
Copyright Universal Studios 2003

Format: DVD MOVIE

Customer Reviews:

A Wonderful Movie.......2007-05-13

This movie is really an exquisite piece. For those of you out there interested in recent history and who appreciate it being told to you in the most vivid and understanding way, will love "The Pianist". As the story unfolds, we see the grusome behaviour that humans can portray and one other, and it brings us to the realization that something as awful as the Holocaust can happen on our planet, and nothing was done about it, or done to rectify the situation, unitl so many people lost their lives.
I do recommend everyone to sit down and watch this movie as it is both entertaing and enlightening to the fact that something like this should never be repeated.

Hope this Helps ;)

Polanski tops himself.......2007-05-12

should be seen by everyone. no doubt, there are good Germans, there are bad Germans--but what Hitler and the Nazis did should never, ever be forgotten.

some of the scenes are quite painful to witness, as they should be: human beings, absolutely innocent of any wrong-doing, stripped of their dignity, left to starve to death, beaten, shot, seperated from family and loved ones, loaded up on trains to be taken to the death camps...will leave your eyes welling...and this is exactly why the film is a must-see.

you don't have to be Jewish to relate to those who suffered and were put through the living hell.

I applaud Roman Polanski for his impeccable direction.

First rate film.......2007-05-01

An exellent film made even more dramatic in that elements of Polanskis actual life are inclueded in the film. Take the scene where Szpilman is pulled to safety by his old friend who has now become a guard, he runs away but is told by the guard "Dont run" (I assume in order to not raise suspicion) In the book he is told to "Run" These words are actually from Polanskis life in the Ghettos when he was given the chance to flee.

This film has got to be one of the best 2nd world war films you can find, simply because it is one mans story, one 'ordinary' mans story of survival in almost impossible conditions. The German officer at the end is quite rightly a symbol of hope that there is still good in the world.

This film may not have received the same attention as Shindlers List perhaps because while that film is about the collective horrors of the 2nd world war this is more the story of an idividual. Still that takes nothing from the film. 5 stars and highly recomended.

Adrien Brody's performance is transcendent - beyond compare!.......2007-03-20

The other reviews here say it all, and probably better than I ever could. The film is brilliant, Polanski's direction is absolutely perfect, but for me, this is Adrien Brody's masterpiece. I cannot think of any leading performance by a male actor in a film that is better than this. Mr. Brody OWNS this film, and never has an Academy Award been so well-deserved. I hope a 2-disc collector's edition is released sometime and I hope they include Adrien Brody's Oscar acceptance speech, which is also stunning!

The Pianist.......2007-02-19

Supposed to be NEW! Had circular scratches on it upon opening. Would not play. DVD player gave message - "Disc damaged or dirty".

Average customer rating:

The Doors
What were they thinking?
Of books, bibliophiles, and the devil!
Interesting
What happens when you waste a great book, director, and actor

The Ninth Gate
Starring: Johnny Depp , Frank Langella , Lena Olin , Emmanuelle Seigner , and Barbara Jefford
Director: Roman Polanski
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

Suspense | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

Mystery | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

Mystery & Suspense | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( N ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

From Hell (Widescreen Edition)
Nick of Time
Sleepy Hollow
The Man Who Cried
Don Juan DeMarco

ASIN: 6305897786
Release Date: 2000-07-18

Customer Reviews:

The Doors.......2007-05-19

I liked "The Ninth Gate" for its incredibly long credit sequence at the beginning of the film. The music is dramatic as it sweeps through door after door after door, all of which look exactly the same. After about the fourth door, it becomes silly and laughter sets in. It's like listening to an old vinyl record that is skipping, but not getting up to move the needle.

After this, the movie goes downhill a bit, but Roman Polanski puts on a good show. Particularly interesting is the consummation sequence in which his real-life wife Emmanuelle Seigner plays the green-eyed girl & does the deed with Depp to a background of flames. It's not many men who would want their wives to do that, but Polanski's viewpoint has always been unique. He is a great filmmaker. His Best Director Oscar for "The Pianist," nominations for "Chinatown" & "Tess" plus his screenplay nomination for the legendary "Rosemary's Baby" prove the point. Even if 9th Gate begins to get a bit muddled, he has more than fulfilled his promise since his first film "Knife in Water" got a Best Foreign Language Film nomination back in 1963.

Johnny Depp is also usually very interesting to watch. He scored a couple Best Actor nominations for very different roles from "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" in 2003 to "Finding Neverland" in 2004. As book dealer Dean Corso, I found the character's moral ambiguity to make him unattractive. You couldn't really cheer for him; but he was interesting as he worked his way through the maze of facts in this old book mystery.

Frank Langella has had a long career from "Diary of a Mad Housewife" back in 1970 to "Good Night & Good Luck" in 2005. As the rich book collector Boris Balkan, he was very cerebral, but lacked a certain evil pizzazz to really make you cheer as he bursts into flames. It felt more like he was pathetically weird. Maybe that was what Polanski wanted.

Lena Olin is such an interesting actress to watch. She makes you feel like at any moment she could do almost anything. She would work again with Depp in "Chocolat" and had a sole Oscar nomination in the supporting category in 1989 for "Enemies: A Love Story." The role of Liana Telfer maximizes her strengths. She goes from making love to Depp to trying to kill him with a hair-trigger temper. Tony Amoni as her bodyguard with the cropped blond hair makes a visual impression.

British stage actress Barbara Jeffords who appeared in films sporadically from "Hamlet" in 1959 to "Madame Bovary" in 2000, makes a memorable appearance as Baroness Kessler, another book collector. The last sequence with her wheelchair banging repetitively into the wall as Corso awakes to find the flat aflame is visually brilliant. James Russo who played Sheriff Poole in one of my favorite films, "Open Range," puts in a good appearance as Bernie the bookseller who doesn't last too long holding onto Corso's rare tome.

"The Ninth Gate" isn't the most dreadful film ever. Polanski is far too good a director for that to occur. But it bogs down in plot details that never really seem to fit together. For instance, how did all the pictures in the books once the three editions came together actually enable Boris Balkan? Or they didn't, which is why he burned up -- and if that's the case, then was the film really all about something that didn't exist? Yet, we see the Green Eyed girl flitting about; so we must conclude that something was going on, but what? Did Depp's Corso become like Mia Farrow in "Rosemary's Baby"? Who knows? After a movie as long as this, it should have been clear. Perhaps we should just go to "Pirates 3" and not worry about it. Next!

What were they thinking?.......2007-05-16

The premise of this film was intriguing, it just got lost in too many long scenes. Depp's acting was flat and the direction seemed off. Not one of his best by a long shot.

Of books, bibliophiles, and the devil!.......2007-04-08

Even though this movie has received its fair share of scathing reviews, I must say I enjoyed it. I read the book too, and yes, the movie does not do justice to the book, nevertheless I found the movie to be entertaining. Johnny Depp is famous for playing understated roles, and here he plays the ruthless book dealer Corso with a measure of indifference, and yet, his character sucks you into the plot as he ventures deeper into a web of deceit & evil. Frank Langella's Boris Balkan is intellectual and possessed of a greed for forbidden things. Lena Olin as the 'grieving widow' with devilish designs is sexy as always, but nothing more. I found the character of the 'guardian angel' who is always getting Depp out of trouble [played by Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner] to be the most intriguing...her glances and looks [esp those eyes] hint at something more sinister underlying the surface.
The score is haunting...one gets the feeling there are malevolent forces at work, and permeable evil throughout the movie. Although some reviews found the movie to be plodding, I didn't...if you are a serious book collector as I am, then you will be able to understand the thrill of the hunt, oftentimes very ardous and slow as you search for that one elusive title...so here Corso's quest in tracking down the other two copies of the Nine Kingdoms & unearthing their secrets...only his quest takes him into a dark, forbidding world filled with devil worshippers, and a stranger who holds the real key to all his questions.

Interesting.......2007-03-31

The reviews are about as interesting as the movie. Most people can find faults with the movie, yet most are intrigued by it at the same time. Some are offended due to religious sensibilities, others are offended because they read the book.

I just find the movie interesting. I find Corso likeable. I like most of Depp's acting, he's usually understated and underrated. His deliveries are always more on the subtle side, a method I highly prefer. And the movie is subtle and low keyed as well. And what a lovely devil. Seems that the devil is not what it's cracked up to be. Of course, in reality, neither is the real devil--namely, there is no devil. This truth, if it were really believed, would come as a complete shock to the majority. How much they would miss him, as he's a part of all of us, just as is the god.

What happens when you waste a great book, director, and actor.......2007-03-09

If you believe in the Devil, and I mean *really* believe in the devil, I can't think of one good reason why you'd want to summon the Devil into this world. At worst, he's purported to be the father of lies, and one of the fallen angels. This means that anything he tells you is suspect, anything he gives you is suspect, and he probably has the power to make you believe in him. Yikes. Not a safe trip. Not a terribly sane trip, for that matter.

Yet that is precisely what Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) desired. He had one copy of "The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadow", and there were three extant. One or all of these books is a forgery, and one or all holds the secret to summoning Satan. He hires Corso (played a bit too understated by Johnny Depp) to research the other texts.

The movie is based on the novel "The Club Dumas" by Arturo Perez Reverte, which I favorably reviewed.

I can't give a similar review to The Ninth Gate for a number of reasons. First, Depp's portrayal of Corso was one dimensional, and Corso was a multi-dimensional character. Whether that's the filmmaker's fault or Depp's I don't know, but Depp's Corso was a dreadful bore.

A mysterious girl appeared and became an ally of his, demonstrating supernatural abilities. We are never given ample evidence as to why she might have had an interest in helping Corso, or in what her abilities might have been (never mind her identity). Yet since this is a character from the book, I know why she was there, I have a pretty good idea who she was (and good job to the author on how he handled that!) and her character's interests and abilities could have been better communicated, with very little difficulty.

Also, in a rather silly departure from the book (departures are fine...I'm not being a book snob), they substitute an average sized platinum-blonde haired black male for a character in the book who was tall, white, and physically imposing. There's nothing that irritates me more than a "quota substitute". I don't think this particular sub had any speaking lines, which makes it that much more of an insult.

I love intelligent thrillers. (I didn't care for The Da Vinci Code.) This was a thriller that spent time in libraries, that examined woodcuttings drawn, perhaps, by Lucifer himself - yet I wasn't engaged.

In 1999, when the film was released, I couldn't sit through it. After reading The Club Dumas and then discovering that there was a connection between the two, I approached the film again, hoping that understanding where the book was coming from would help. It did not. In fact, it raised more questions.

I would give this movie 2.5 stars and round it up to 3; however, I'm reviewing the DVD and the DVD gets a big spanking for not having subtitles. There's no excuse, in this day and age, for a mainstream DVD not to offer subtitles.

Average customer rating:

The REAL horror is in these 5-star reviews.
Stellar acting and creepy atmosphere make this a must-watch!
One of my all-time favorites...
An Inspirational Adaptation of a Satanic Masterpiece
One of my all-time faves!!

Rosemary's Baby
Starring: Bill Baldwin , Walter S. Baldwin , Roy Barcroft , Ralph Bellamy , and Sidney Blackmer
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Horror | Cult Movies | Genres | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Horror | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Science Fiction & Fantasy | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( R ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

The Exorcist (The Version You've Never Seen)
The Shining
Poltergeist
The Omen (Collector's Edition Steelbook)
Carrie (Special Edition)

ASIN: B00003CXCF
Release Date: 2000-10-03

Amazon.com essential video

Psychological terrorism and supernatural horror have rarely been dramatized as effectively as in this classic 1968 thriller, masterfully adapted and directed by Roman Polanski from the chilling novel by Ira Levin. Rosemary (Mia Farrow) is a young, trusting housewife in New York whose actor husband (John Cassavetes), unbeknownst to her, has literally made a deal with the devil. In the thrall of a witches' coven headquartered in their apartment building, the young husband arranges to have his wife impregnated by Satan in exchange for success in a Broadway play. To Rosemary, the pregnancy seems like a normal and happy one--that is, until she grows increasingly suspicious of her neighbors' evil influence. Polanski establishes this seemingly benevolent situation and then introduces each fiendish little detail with such unsettling subtlety that the film escalates to a palpable level of dread and paranoia. By the time Rosemary discovers that her infant son "has his father's eyes" ... well, let's just say the urge to scream along with her is unbearably intense! One of the few modern horror films that can claim to be genuinely terrifying, Rosemary's Baby is an unforgettable movie experience, guaranteed to send chills up your spine. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

The REAL horror is in these 5-star reviews. .......2007-06-24

For God's sake people, someone please tell me what you've found the least bit entertaining or interesting about the way this film was made.
Just explain it to me, really.

What is it about this much-acclaimed horror classic that you like so much?
Not that I was expecting any blood, guts, or gore from it, but at least some level of magnetism, you know? It simply doesn't gain attention. Hell, it doesn't even seem to ask for it at all. I actually had to force myself to follow it all the way through. I know the relationship between movie and audience has to be sort of give and take, but come on.

Even after surviving an entire first hour of incredible boredom with only a few hints of suspense, I tried to convince myself somehow that the idea was not about suspense or strong storytelling, but about maybe the - oh I don't know - the... The... you know, the... the fact that it's a classic, and people are really crazy about it, so keep watching.

And I did. I used whatever amount of patience I had left to keep going, just following that lonely woman in that lonely appartment wondering about those weird occurrances that seem to suggest something creepy is about to happen... but not in a way that would make me give a damn.

Next thing you know, I finally arrive at the movie's finale, which is where things really start to pick up and by the time they do, it's all over.

Now, I'm not gonna be closeminded about this and call the movie a complete waste of time, since it's done a helluva job in making me appreciate all the other silly, empty-headed horror movies I've seen that are nowhere as dead as this one.

But I will kindly ask those of you who have rated this big bore with more than one star to explain to me in detail what it is about it that got you? Seriously, at which point exactly did the movie stop you from squirming in your seat and wanting to punch holes through your livingroom walls?

It must've been some killer drug, man...
in which case, ignore my question, and please share some with me.

Stellar acting and creepy atmosphere make this a must-watch!.......2007-06-04

I have watched Rosemary's Baby a couple of times over the years, yet it still retains its elements of creepiness, horror, and never fails to send chills down my spine. This is one of the rare instances where the book [of the same name by Ira Levin] is faithfully adapted for the big screen [thanks to director Roman Polanski]. The story itself is about a young couple, Guy and Rosemary Woodhouse who lease an apartment in an old complex. Rosemary [played by a very young and sweet Mia Farrow] finds she is pregnant but fears for herself and her unborn baby, convinced that sinister forces are intent upon taking away her baby.Her character's naivete is altogether credible and elicits our sympathy. Her husband Guy [John Cassavetes] is an aspiring actor who unbeknownst to Rosemary is actually part of the evil conspiracy. The supporting characters shine too...Ruth Gordon plays the role of the sinister Minnie Castevet with a mixture of grandmotherly concern and evil manipulations that come off convincingly. This movie was made in an age where CGI effects were unheard of, and yet the horror is palpable, we all feel the menace and evil lurking in the shadows of Rosemary's apartment. Atmosphere is used to good effect here, and coupled with great acting, this is one of the all-time horror classics.

One of my all-time favorites..........2007-05-20

Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes are perfect as Guy and Rosemary Woodhouse in this dark and riveting horror story. I love that the movie portrays the horror of Rosemary's situation, without ever going graphically over-the-top like so many of today's horror stories do. We never even SEE Rosemary's Baby!!

Also love the neighbors, Roman and Minnie (Ruth Gordon is amazing!), and the setting is just outstanding. I can't say enough good things about this movie.

**One little note...did you all know that the original choice for Rosemary's husband was Robert Redford, but he was committed to another project at the time? Imagine the direction his career might have taken if he had portrayed the duplicitous Guy Woodhouse...would he still have attained his sex symbol status?

An Inspirational Adaptation of a Satanic Masterpiece.......2007-04-24

Like many people I read the novel before seeing the film. As expected, it was spooky, but not so much for the thrills. What I found uncanny was the fact that Roman Polanki's film version of "Rosemary's Baby" played out EXACTLY the images & scenario I saw in my mind when reading the horror masterpiece. You know how people say about a film adaptation, "It was OK, but not as good as the book"? Well, nobody said that about "Rosemary's Baby." The strange events & coincidences surrounding the making of the film are legendary.

One of the great aspects about the film is that evil is presented as taking the appearance of the oridinary, the everyday & commonplace. The witch's Coven is made up of frail looking, rather silly & incompetent senior citizens. The male head of the group fumbless serving cocktails, is self-effacing--but behind this assumed facade...sheer malevolence!

Mia Farrow's performance is awesome in her portrayal of defenseless innocence trapped by powers she can't understand.

Ruth Gordon steals every scene as Mrs. Witch.

Rosemary's Baby SOUNDTRACK

One of my all-time faves!!.......2007-04-12

I especially love the scenes "Chocolate Mouse" and "This is No Dream..."

Average customer rating:

Don't compare Polanski's Oliver to Lionel Bart's.
Highly Underrated -- Kingsley is King!
Pretty good...but not the best
Good movie about the classic novel!
A Great Film

Oliver Twist (2005) [Region 99]
Starring: Barney Clark , Jeremy Swift , Ian McNeice , Richard Durden , and Timothy Bateson
Director: Roman Polanski , and Laurent Bouzereau
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( O ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

The Constant Gardener (Widescreen Edition)
Proof
Pride & Prejudice
Capote [Region 99]
Flightplan (Widescreen Edition)

ASIN: B000C20VU0
Release Date: 2006-01-24

Amazon.com

If Charles Dickens were alive to see Roman Polanski's faithful adaptation of Oliver Twist, he'd probably give it his stamp of approval. David Lean's celebrated 1948 version of the Dickens classic and Carol Reed's Oscar®-winning 1968 musical are more entertaining in some ways, but Polanski's rendition is both painstakingly authentic (with superb cinematography and production design) and deeply rooted in the emotional context of the story. Both Polanski and Dickens had personal experiences similar to those of young Oliver (played here by Barney Clark) -- Polanski in the Nazi-occupied ghettos of Poland during World War II, and Dickens during his hard-scrabble youth in Victorian London -- and this spiritual kinship lends a certain gravitas to the tale of a tenacious orphan who escaped from indentured servitude in London society and is taken in by Fagin (Ben Kingsley) and his streetwise gang of pickpockets. As the evil Bill Sykes, who exploits Oliver for his own nefarious needs, Jamie Foreman is no match for Oliver Reed (in the '68 musical) in terms of frightening menace, but even here, Polanski's direction hews closer to Dickens, while the screenplay by Ronald Harwood (who also wrote Polanski's The Pianist) necessarily trims away subplots and characters for the sake of narrative economy. All in all, this Oliver Twist rises above most previous versions, and with the benefit of Kingsley's nuanced performance, Polanski arrives at a compassionate conclusion that captures the essence of Dickens' novel in a way that viewers of all ages will appreciate for many years to come. --Jeff Shannon

Description

Roman Polanski directs the classic Charles Dickens story of a young orphan boy who gets involved with a gang of pickpockets in 19th Century London. Abandoned at an early age, Oliver Twist (Barney Clark) is forced to live in a workhouse lorded over by the awful Mr. Bumble, who cheats the boys of their meager rations. Desperate yet determined, Oliver makes his escape to the streets of London. Penniless and alone, he is lured into a world of crime by the sinister Fagin (Academy-Award® winner Sir Ben Kingsley) -- the mastermind of a gang of pint-sized pickpockets. Oliver's rescue by the kindly Mr. Brownlow is only the beginning of a series of adventures that lead him to the promise of a better life.

Customer Reviews:

Don't compare Polanski's Oliver to Lionel Bart's........2007-05-18

This is obviously much darker than the musical, and therefore closer to Dickens. Where affection could be developed for Ron Moody as Fagin, I found Polanski's Fagin competely repellant; leering corruption -if that was what the actor was trying to convey, full marks to him.

It was a worthwile watch and Rachel Portman's score was delightful.

Highly Underrated -- Kingsley is King!.......2007-05-08

This little-noticed gem came and went quickly from our screens. It deserves another look. Polanski has teased out a faithful, compelling retelling of the Twist story, and has populated the film with memorable characterizations.

Particularly wonderful is Leanne Rowe as Nancy, and of course Ben Kingsley really steals the movie as the nuanced, deeply conflicted Fagen.

The camera work is superb, London is recreated in all its tawdry, highly stratified glory, and the brisk pace moves this film along much better than earlier versions of the Dickens' classic.

I love this film; it is surprisingly entertaining and a fine entry in the Polanski canon.

Pretty good...but not the best.......2007-04-13

Not bad. It's nice to see some of the details of the novel rendered clearly on film. The character of Nancy is particularly well done and wholly believable. But David Lean's version is superior as film making and much more watchable. It's a better film. Be sure to see it too. Why anyone likes the musical made from this story is beyond me!

Good movie about the classic novel!.......2007-03-11

I am the fan of "Roman Polanski". I watched the movie from the theatre and now I broguht the DVD too! It is a movie about the life and adventure of a kid and I really enjoy the movie although it only focus on a few key actors. You should also watch the special features from the DVD. I own the 2 Disc version.

A Great Film.......2007-02-17

I had trouble getting to see this movie in the theatres. It was only in the first run theatres about 1 week and when I went to see it at the cheap theatres, the projector had broken down and they weren't showing it that day. It left soon after. Watching this movie on DVD, I am stunned that it didn't get better showings or press. This movie is great and it deserved better treatment than it got. Yes, I love the David Lean version too, but that doesn't lessen the impact of this film. I liked it better than The Piano and it could turn out to be one of Roman Polanski's greatest films. One of the great under appreciated films.

Average customer rating:

Deneuve Tour de Force
Keep the mind games coming!
A different kind of horror
slow descent into madness
I figured it out......

Repulsion
Starring: Catherine Deneuve , Helen Fraser , John Fraser , Yvonne Furneaux , and Hugh Futcher
Director: Roman Polanski
Manufacturer: ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMS INC.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( R ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Tenant (1976) (Ws Sub)
Belle de Jour
Don't Look Now
Rosemary's Baby
The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me but Your Teeth Are in My Neck

ASIN: B0007GAG42
Release Date: 2005-02-08

Amazon.com essential video

Roman Polanski was still a newcomer to the world of cinema when he unleashed this unforgettable exercise in skin-crawling terror. Repulsion was the Polish director's first film in English, but that hardly mattered: much of the movie is as wordless (and as weird) as the silent Nosferatu. The young Catherine Deneuve plays a Belgian girl stranded in '60s London, a shy beauty with no social skills. When her sister leaves their shared flat, Deneuve goes gradually, quietly, completely mad. Her world becomes Polanski's paintbox, as the devilish director distorts reality via a series of surrealistic touches (grasping hands that protrude from elastic walls) and out-and-out murderous horror. Very few films cast the kind of eerie spell that this 1965 classic achieves, and it clearly points the way toward Polanski's Rosemary's Baby. As with most of the director's work, what is unsettling is not the overt violence, but the terrifying sense of emptiness and isolation, and the boiling unease inside one's own mind. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Deneuve Tour de Force.......2007-06-17

When this preeminent Polanski movie came out in its DVD edition, the cover blurb labeled it as being about a woman who is sexually repressed, who is disgusted by sex. I avoided it because of that description. I thought it would turn out to be just another cautionary tale for women who aren't sufficiently responsive - ready, willing, and available at all times. But that characterization of the movie is totally misleading. Promoters probably just wanted to work the word "sex" into a prominent place on the DVD cover. The movie is actually about a woman who has a more general social phobia, and who becomes increasingly imprisoned by her reluctance to engage with the world on any level. Polanski was ahead of his time in tackling such a theme, in the days before OCD was a commonly diagnosed syndrome.

So although a lot about the movie is very modern, in another sense, Catherine Deneuve's descent into madness reminds me of Charlotte Gilman's classic Victorian-era short story, "The Yellow Wall Paper." This famous short story puts us inside the head of a woman going slowly insane as she's mesmerized by the swirls of pattern in the wallpaper of the bedroom where she's confined. Deneuve almost single-handedly carries this movie tale of a woman similarly transfixed. There isn't exactly Hitchcock suspense here, but most viewers will probably experience a cringing anxiety about how much Deneuve's neurosis will bleed into raw psychosis as the film progresses.

Before I saw the movie, something about its title always struck me as being likely off-key and ungrammatical. Shouldn't it be "Revulsion?" Like the passive/active difference between infer and imply - it seemed as if "Revulsion" would capture a person's recoil from intrusions by the outside world, while "Repulsion" would connote an active, even violent, riddance of something that encroaches. After having actually seen this movie though, I realize that "Repulsion" is the right word after all.

Keep the mind games coming!.......2007-06-16

I heard much about Roman's first English-language film for the majority of my life, but I never got around to viewing it until yesterday. I'm sorry it took me so long because what a classic, what a treasure, and what mind games it plays on the audience!

Some folks here just don't "get it" about this movie, and, since they don't, they certainly will never understand Polanski's handling of his craft.

He doesn't explain everything in his movies, thereby giving the viewer freedom to come to their own conclusions. It also opens the way for people to view his films a second and third time, and beyond, to just try to *begin* to understand what it is Polanski is conveying. I like a bit of mystery whenever I'm in movie-watching mode.

In "Repulsion," we're made to go mad with Carole, whether we want to or not. We live in her world, and it's a unique experience to figure out that world sans a voice-over telling us everything we're eventually going to find out during the course of the film. You wonder why she acts the way she does and why she does what she does. (The movie is *way* more complicated than her going mad from not having sex!)

There's nothing like a good ol' horror flick that gets into psychological mind games. It's something present day horror directors don't practice and/or believe can work anymore: Horror can be effective without copious amounts of blood being spilt, heads being chopped off, or corpses sewn up and put on display.

The psychology of horror is what keeps me coming back for more. "Repulsion" has got my attention! - Donna Di Giacomo

A different kind of horror.......2007-05-09

Stacked up against today's horror flicks, this movie doesn't really fit into the same genre. There's no over-the-top gore elements or overbearing suspense. This is a much more subtle, psychological portrayal of going off the deep end.
The story hovers around a London manicurist who is a neurotic social deviant with a repulsion towards sex. You get the sense of a troubled past, but that is left a mystery.
After her roommate leaves on vacation, the isolation really magnifies her mental problems. The shadows seem to converge on her vulnerability, followed by visions of male hands trying to touch her. She gets more trapped inside her own world, and when men try to enter, they pay with their lives. The murders help her stay disconnected from the world outside her own.
Roman Polanski really manufactures a creepy setting with the black and white images and the sparse dialogue. This is almost a silent picture, words aren't even neccessary. Which is good too, because I found the conversations somewhat dated and hard to follow.
This is an expertly crafted thriller that reminded me of the original Psycho. A spooky good time.

slow descent into madness.......2007-03-11

It's not a five star flick. That's okay. Solid four stars is about right.

RE: transfer. One of the reviewers complained about it. Well, the transfer is not perfect, but it's pretty damn sharp, I thought. Polanski & his co-writer do a nice job overall.

Having said the above, I'll add this is really the type of motion picture that should be seen on a big screen in a movie house to get the full impact.

Nonetheless, I bought the DVD and don't regret it.

I figured it out...... .......2006-12-27

I think this girl is really on drugs. Not sleeping right, Not eating, paranoid, Seeing "Shadow People," Always itching her nose, and itching her arm. She is seen in one scene where she's ironing and the iron isn't even plugged in.
Last scene of movie you see some kind of powder on the ground. Yup this girl was just a speed freak that just lost her mind.
Watch it though, it is still a good flick.

Average customer rating:

ringo
Magic Christian
Mocking Greed and Arrogance
From Different Eyes.
Trippy hippie movie!

The Magic Christian
Starring: Peter Sellers , Ringo Starr , Isabel Jeans , Caroline Blakiston , and Wilfrid Hyde-White
Director: Joseph McGrath
Manufacturer: Republic Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Satire | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Farce | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

What's New Pussycat
The Party
Being There
After the Fox
The Loved One

ASIN: B00007GZQI
Release Date: 2003-01-21

Amazon.com

This 1969 British comedy looks today like a bridge between then-contemporaneous but overlapping styles of comedy, from Terry Southern satire to Goon Show silliness to Monty Python surrealism. Peter Sellers stars as the world's wealthiest man, who sets out with a young ally (Ringo Starr) to demonstrate that people, most especially rich people, will do anything for money. The film is more a series of sketches than an actual story, and some of those get pretty nasty, particularly when a bunch of aristrocrats start feeding from a vat of blood and manure. But in general this is a pretty funny film, and it's great to see a lot of famous and soon-to-be-famous faces on the same screen. Written by Southern, Joseph McGrath (who also directed), Sellers, and Python's John Cleese and Graham Chapman. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

Peter Sellers portrays Sir Guy Grand, the richest man in the world, who happens upon a young orphan in the park and, on a whim, decides to adopt him. Together they set off on a series of madcap escapades, discovering along the way that money will buy anyone, anything their hearts desire.

System Requirements:

Starring Christopher Lee, John Cleese, Peter Sellers, Raquel Welch, Richard Attenborough, Ringo Starr, Roman Polanski

Running time: 101 minutes

Customer Reviews:

ringo.......2007-05-12

strange movie, very dated.
it was better when i was 13. (in the 70's).

Magic Christian.......2007-04-07

This is dark comedy with surprisingly famous actors making cameos thruout the movie. It should be by todays standards listed as 'R' rated for BN/AC/AL but very brief. The overall story line is slow but almost believable. It reflects the 60's with it's theme & music. It was a almost a Beatles style cult film. Everytime I hear "If you want it here it is, come and get it" I think of this film when I saw it in the theatre in 1970. It was fun to go back! Carl age 52

Mocking Greed and Arrogance.......2007-02-18

I don't put much significance on the social commentary of movies, but I enjoy this picture's insulting of human greed and pride. And, it is hilarious while doing it. It doesn't even take itself seriously. I think it is very funny while targeting some of Humanity's worst characteristics.

From Different Eyes........2007-02-11

I saw this movie in the late '60's when it was made. I liked it then. I had not seen it since, but have been contemplating attitudes toward money lately and remembered the movie. It is interesting how 36 years (or so) can change one's perspective. Although the movie did not change (obviously), my attitude toward money has changed. I still have a certain amount of disrespect for money and for selling the days of my life for money. I still believe that people are much more greedy than they need to be. All of these things stayed the same, both in the movie (of course) and in my mind. I now have enough money to meet my basic needs and even a few "wants" that are not needs. When I first saw the movie, I was on the outside, not always knowing if I would have enough to secure basic needs. Either way, this movie is a biting satire and can allow one to step far enough from the current attitudes toward money that one might have and start to explore them from a different perspective.

Even if the viewer does not want to have that deep of an experience while watching a movie, it is interesting to see how many well known people, both living and (now) dead are in one movie; sometimes just walking through in the background, sometimes with important parts.

This movie is part of the culture and should not be missed.

Trippy hippie movie!.......2007-02-07

This is an old favorite of my husband's, so we knew what we were getting into- it was wonderful to find this on DVD (for a very long time, it was VHS only). A fun look into the past!

Average customer rating:

A work of collaborative genius; but the darkest of adaptations
Macbeth
Fierce and Visionary
An authentic Macbeth
ROMAN POLANSKI AND WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Macbeth [Region 99]
Starring: Jon Finch , Francesca Annis , Martin Shaw , Terence Bayler , and John Stride
Director: Roman Polanski
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Macbeth / McKellen, Dench (Thames Shakespeare Collection)
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
Richard III

ASIN: B000063JZQ
Release Date: 2002-05-07

Amazon.com essential video

Roman Polanski's adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy remains one of the most infamous for a number of reasons: the copious amounts of bloody gore, its expert use of location settings (filmed in North Wales), and Lady Macbeth's nude sleepwalking scene. Despite its notoriety, though, this does remain one of the more compelling film adaptations of the Scottish tragedy, if one of the more pessimistic takes on the story of Macbeth and his overreaching ambition. If you think the play is normally a bit of a downer, you haven't seen Polanski's bleak version of it, made in reaction to the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, by the Manson "family." Jon Finch (Hitchcock's Frenzy) is an forceful Macbeth, bringing out the Scot's warrior instincts, and Francesca Annis is a memorable Lady Macbeth, but the main thrust of the film belongs to Polanski's and noted British playwright and critic Kenneth Tynan's take on the play: extremely violent, nihilistic, and visceral; this is down-in-the-dirt, no-holds-barred Shakespeare, not fussy costume drama. Pay close attention to the end, a silent coda that puts a chilling twist on all the action that has come beforehand and foreshadows more tragedy to come. --Mark Englehart

Customer Reviews:

A work of collaborative genius; but the darkest of adaptations.......2007-04-14

With the advent of DVDs, I've made it a minor hobby to compare various versions of Shakespeare's plays - especially Othello, Lear and Hamlet. I did not see Polanski's Macbeth until recently but have been aware of it for decades.

In my view this is the single most powerful film adaptation of any Shakespeare play. Though much too intense for children or even most teens, Polanski's artful direction captures the insanity, mysticism, jealousy, hate, and horror of the playwright's most brutal work perfectly. The settings are gloomy but realistic and the acting is uniformly excellent.

If Polanski never made another film, he would still be remembered for vividly capturing the complex intensity of this play. Even jaded modern audiences are emotionally exhausted at the film's end- which is not easy to do in this age of ubiquitous violence and sex.

This is no holds barred Shakespeare; definitely not for the faint of heart.

Macbeth.......2007-03-11

I have been teaching "Macbeth" for 30 years and have used this Roman Polanski/Hugh Hefner film to let my students "see" the play. In fact, my colleagues and I used the videocassette so often that just recently the tape broke. There is much about the production that I like: the authentic 11th century costumes, the acting, the professional delivery of Shakespeare's lines, and the sets. However, I wonder why those who produced this film chose to destroy two of the most famous scenes - Act IV, scene 1 and Act V, scene 1 - with nudity. There is absolutely no sound reason for nudity in either of these scenes. Because of the nudity, I cannot show these two scenes to my high school students. I also cannot show Act IV, scene 2, where Macduff's family is murdered, because of the frontal view of a nude young boy and because of the "murderers" raping some of the Maduff staff. (Wasn't murdering the whole family enough?) I am not aware of another movie version of the play; I would have purchased it instead so that my students could see the entire play.

Fierce and Visionary.......2006-12-15

This is a fierce and visionary interpretation of perhaps the most deceptively simple of Shakespeare's major plays. The elements of bloody ambition, weak kings with wills overborne by steely women, unjust slaughter and revenge are perhaps the most elemental ingrediants for classic tragedy going back to the Greeks. The atmosphere is haunted, half-waking and half-sleeping; the key dialogues brutally simple. The witches' songs linger in your mind from first reading and never go away over your lifetime, like perverse versions of nursery rhymes. Yet most directors who tackle the play, even some of the greatest, come at it like a car hitting ice and go into a careening skid. Bad or also-ran Macbeths just don't cut it, anymore than fakey Halloween costumes.

Truth is, the play is a garden for the imagination, on paper, but a minefield of hidden traps when someone has the audacity to attempt to film it -- something more than even that rare audacity is apparently needed to carry it off. It is possible Polanski's reaction to his wife's own horrific murder provided the extra here, who knows? Perhaps it gave him "eye of newt"? Then toss into the cauldron some $$$ from Hugh Hefner, trying to launder himself from soft core porn king into a major cultural figure ... toe of frog? Well, something exploded in this cauldron, for sure. Its scary as hell and hardly because of the blood.

On a more mundane level, a workmanlike and intelligent actor like Jon Finch, in his prime and with something to prove, delivered a damn lot to the title role. His middle of the road, quasi-Everyman interpretation of the murderous anti-hero adds the real potent element to the brew -- something that leaves you saying, "this could have been me." Francesca Annis, also in her prime, delivers splendidly too, and with all the keen reserve of a confident beauty -- sort of reminds us English speakers of what kind of face (and body) likely launched a thousand ships. Plus add Polanski's guts to show real old crones for the witches, naked as diseased old birds on a winter day. He hardly cared whether your English teacher would laugh. And don't forget the audience -- make the dagger real and palpable, to Lady Macbeth and to us. Just a figment of the imagination? Well, that's just another second rate professor's sorry excuse. This play was not constructed as closet drama, either, and every kid in the English speaking world needs be taught to understand the difference. Macbeth rather was and always shall be a body blow to the mass audience, when delivered properly. Your professor should have told you too that Shakespeare himself freely altered his texts from performance to performance -- one can only imagine what his molten genius would have done if he ever had a camera in his hands. Finally, the majestic use of scenery raises everything to the level of dreamscape worthy of Salvadore Dali, and better than anything any surrealist filmmaker (usually rather closet academic types, finally) ever accomplished. Here, the wedding of waking and sleeping is seamless --just as in Shakespeare's semi-mad, quickly dashed off accidental masterpiece -- perhaps an artistic response to personal tragedy of his own.

In sum, this film has well stood up to the test of time. The contoversies about nudity, Hefner, the Manson gang, and bad boy Polanski are very old news, by now, and ought finally be buried. They never should have mattered anyway, but unfortunately the film was launched in this climate wherein it provided an easy mark to the chattering classes. Nor does Polanski's genius require any excuse -- see his Tess and his Chinatown. The real news is that this is the best Macbeth on film to date.

An authentic Macbeth.......2006-10-26

This is a first-class FILM based on a Shakespeare play. As always, there's heavy pruning of the lines, but what we're left with is well served by the actors, the authentic medieval setting, and the medium of film itself. This MACBETH is gorgeously staged and performed. Is it violent? Sure -- but so are a lot of other films these days. Why should this be different just because it's Shakespeare?

Let's face it: Macbeth is a dark, bloody and -- at its heart -- nihilistic story. Can we really believe that Scotland will live happily ever after just because the usurper is dead? Shakespeare raises that question at the end, very subtly, and Polanski picks up on it. What I particularly liked here was the emphasis on how quickly ambition can poison the mortal mind, and how one's fate can turn in an instant. There's a thin line between good and evil, between the real and the unreal.

My Shakespeare professor back in college ridiculed certain details of the film, such as the mysterious dagger witnessed by Macbeth actually appearing on the screen for the audience to see. The idea, as he believed it, is that the dagger is a merely a product of Macbeth's fevered imagination, therefore WE shouldn't be able to see it. But I like how Polanski makes one wonder what the dagger really is. Is it a hallucination? Or the product of some darker force? Polanski's whole take on the story balances on a question -- what is the true nature of evil?

Finally, I want to address all those affronted viewers who have been shaken to their core by what seems to be the most horrific sight of all: the images of naked older women. Please. Get a grip. Those are just bodies. Maybe if Hugh Hefner had really been in charge we'd have had nubile Playboy bunnies standing in as the witches but, alas, he was just the money man, not the director.

Polanski's witches were actually another authentic detail -- even back in those days, the idea of old women going "skyclad" was a sure sign of evil. Nine hundred years later, people's perceptions haven't changed a bit.

ROMAN POLANSKI AND WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.......2006-10-08

Bloody well good, and bloody! Roman Polanski's violent, location accurate version of Shakespeare's murderous Macbeth and his lady, seems a natural, insightful interpretation for the 20th Century. So true to Shakespeare's original work, and so indebted to fine cinema.

Average customer rating:

Not Masterpiece Theater- but well done
Achingly sadly beautiful
Genealogy gone berserk
Not such a special edition
One of the most beautiful films ever, faithfully told.

Tess (Special Edition) [Region 99]
Starring: Nastassja Kinski , Peter Firth , Leigh Lawson , John Collin , and Rosemary Martin
Director: Roman Polanski
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Period Piece | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Special Editions | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video

Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Reds (Special 25th Aniversary Collector's Edition)
Repulsion
Oliver Twist (2005) [Region 99]
Howards End - The Merchant Ivory Collection

ASIN: B0002O7XVI
Release Date: 2004-09-28

Amazon.com essential video

Roman Polanski adapted Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles and came up with this moody, haunting film starring Nastassia Kinski as the farm girl who is misused by the aristocrat for whom she works and who is then caught in a marriage where her initial happiness soon turns to grief. Fans of the novel may feel unpersuaded by Polanski's effort to marry Hardy's Dorset vision with his own fascination with psychosexual impulses toward survival, but the film is an often stunning thing to see, and Kinski's sensitive, intelligent performance lingers in the memory. --Tom Keogh

Description

First time on DVD! Academy Award®- winning timeless adaptation of Thomas Hardy's classic romance! A rural clergyman in 19th-century England tells a simple farmer that he may be descended from the illustrious d'Urberville family. The farmer sends his daughter Tess to check on a family named d'Uberville living in a manor house less than a day's carriage ride away. However, her so-called cousin purchased his ancestral name and coat of arms. Tess plays her own game of illusion when she finds, loses, and finds again her true love. Starring: Nastassia Kinski, Peter Firth. Directed by Academy Award® winner Roman Polanski (The Pianist, Best Director - 2002).

Customer Reviews:

Not Masterpiece Theater- but well done.......2007-05-28

While taking artistic liberties from the novel , Polanski's Tess is a very entertaining and beautifully filmed movie. The settings and costuming recreate the feeling of Hardy's Wessex as well as any filmed version of his works ever has.
Nastassja Kinski was beautiful in the role and although her acting can be somewhat wooden at times she does make a memorable Tess. The rest of the cast make up for her shortcoming by providing outstanding performances.
The pace tends to slow in certain parts of the film but if you are a fan of period films loosely based on classics you can do worse than spending some time watching this.

Achingly sadly beautiful.......2007-05-01

I didn't read the novel so I have no comments about the accuracy of the adaptation. I had no problem understanding it. (Some reviewers said that it was necessary to read the book in order to follow the film.) I had no problem, either with the length. In fact I was glad it was so long; I wanted to get "the whole story" not a compressed version.

The photography, as others have mentioned is exquisite. It's worth seeing again, with the sound off, just to see the gorgeous country shots.
The music was perfect too--just right for the mood of the film--not too intrusive.

Nastassja Kinski was perfect as Tess. I can't imagine anyone else playing the role. All of the other principle actors were just right and gave excellent performances. How we loved the divine Angel until his rejection of Tess on their wedding night!

The whole film is gorgeously earnest and deeply felt. The only reason I subtracted one star is that the story is just so damned depressing! Knowing what we do of Polanski's life, one can see how he'd be attracted to such material, but for me...I would have preferred some happiness and joy for poor Tess.

Genealogy gone berserk.......2007-01-25

I like to think of the novel's premise as genealogy really going to someone's head. When John Durbeyfield is informed by the town historian that his family used to be a noble one (and the original name was "D'Urberville"), he sends his daughter Tess (Teresa) to rich relatives in the English countryside for financial help. It's there that she meets with Alec D'Urberville, effectively beginning a downward spiral for everyone concerned.

As always, one can trust a book adaptation in Roman Polanski's more than capable hands. He faithfully adapted Ira Levin's "Rosemary's Baby" in 1968 and Roland Topor's "The Tenant" in 1976 before tackling Thomas Hardy's 1891 novel "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" in 1979.

It's common knowledge that Roman adapted the book to honor Sharon Tate's memory (it was reportedly the last book she read. She put a copy on his night-table with a note suggesting that it would make a good movie). The continuous personal attacks on him are really unnecessary (and, f.y.i., they make the attacker look really dumb ... especially when their missive is a grammatical masterpiece).

For having just learned English during preparation for her role in the title part, Natassja Kinski managed very well. She conveyed the vulnerable and melancholy Tess appropriately. At times during the course of the movie, one can almost feel themselves being sucked into Tess's depressing vortex, snapping out of it with her ... only to fall right back in again.

Leigh Lawson played a right-on Alec D'Urberville. He was the monster I envisioned Alec to be while reading Hardy's novel. Peter Firth as Angel was also excellent in his role. Roman nailed the English countryside dialect and he always does a fantastic job with Victorian England scenery (he repeated that success with 2005's "Oliver Twist").

Roman did an excellent job, as always, with "Tess of the D'Urbervilles." The book could be adapted a thousand times after his version and they still couldn't match up to his vision. Roman took Thomas Hardy's always depressing vision and turned it into a beautiful movie (for further proof of Hardy's depressive novels, check out his final book, "Jude the Obscure").

The DVD and Book collection series was a great idea to try to get people to read the classics alongside the movie.

"Tess" is a must-have for the DVD collection. - Donna Di Giacomo

Not such a special edition.......2006-12-17

Columbia's DVD of Tess is doubly disappointing - not only is it a disappointing transfer but it's also the cut version of the film, which tends to lose a little heart and more than a little irony. There's still much to admire, from the beautiful Scope cinematography and Phillipe Sarde's superb score to Polanski's feel for time and place (even if it is shot in France rather than Wessex) and, ironically, sexual prejudice, although Nastassja Kinski never really convinces in the lead and Leigh Lawson's despoiling cad seems constantly on the verge of twirling his moustache. The murder still seems a plot contrivance, although it does throw in one great moment of vintage Polanski with a spot of blood on the ceiling.

Still, at least the 72-minute documentary is very good.

One of the most beautiful films ever, faithfully told........2006-10-24

Every once in awhile a film comes along that it should only be spoken of in hushed tones. Roman Polanski's TESS is one of those films. To place it in context, there are moments in the film DR.ZIVAGO that are some of the most beautiful on film... they are a stark relief to the majority, which is snow covered and bleak. , Being set in lush countryside, 80% of TESS is that gorgeous, making it one of the most visually beautiful films ever made. It won Geoffrey Unsworth & Ghislain Cloquet 1981's Best Cinematography Oscar. (Unsworth died of a heart attack ½ way through production.) It also rightfully won for Art Direction and Costume Design.
Like DR.Z., this film tells the story of the downfall of a lower class girl who has neither the schooling or upbringing to fight for herself, in Hardy's unrelenting sad story (written after he had become depressed in the wake of reading Darwin, and saw the dying way of life that industrialization was bringing about).
Natassja Kinski is luminous and looks a bit like Sharon Tate, and reminiscent of young Ingrid Berman here, in look, but also very much in persona and even her voice. Now wonder it has been hard for her to follow this film. Few roles could match it, few productions have gelled this completely. Peter Firth as her misguidedly moral husband is perfectly matched with her, and they both give richly felt performances.
The musical score is soaring and melancholy, the costumes are just right, whether they be the muddy field workers or the finery of a fallen woman, and the shades of class within different farms are delineated here, too, in costumes and set, and the golden days of the happy farm to the grey skies of the sad. All elements are in perfect accord in this literary adaptation that necessarily cuts a few scenes from the novel, but keeps the story amazingly intact.
I've read the book twice. The BBC did a Miniseries of TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLE'S in the late 1990s, and while it's length maintains some of the details of the story, neither it's somnambulent leading lady nor it's visuals can compare to the wonderful performance here of Kinsky, and the constantly awe inspiring visuals, scene after breathtaking scene.
Polanski tells us that Tate had given him this book, as she had been told it would be perfect for her. He did not read it until after her death, so this film is a fully realized bittersweet chanson d'amour. A classic of cinema in every sense of the word.

Average customer rating:

Every element fits as they should in good art works
One of my all-time favorites/A No Spoiler Review
Minor Polanski
An ending you'll never forget
Be happy with what you have...

Bitter Moon
Starring: Hugh Grant , Kristin Scott Thomas , Emmanuelle Seigner , Peter Coyote , and Victor Banerjee
Director: Roman Polanski
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Black Comedy | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Death and the Maiden
Tenant (1976) (Ws Sub)
Repulsion
Sirens
Frantic

ASIN: B00008YLV7
Release Date: 2003-06-03

Amazon.com

Unquestionably one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Roman Polanski (Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby, The Pianist) turns his talents to the realm of sexual perversity and its emotional toll. While on a Mediterranean cruise, Nigel and Fiona (Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott Thomas) find a young French woman named Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner) crying in a bathroom. Mimi's paraplegic American husband Oscar (Peter Coyote) forces Nigel to listen to how Oscar and Mimi fell in love--as well as how they discovered kinky erotic games and finally arrived at a curdled, mutual sadism. Bitter Moon veers erratically from salacious erotica to black comedy to clumsy psychodrama, but individual scenes have a definite punch. Coyote chews the scenery with glee, Seigner (Polanski's wife, adding a hint of lurid autobiography) flounders moodily, and Grant seems miscast, but Scott Thomas gives the movie some actual dignity. --Bret Fetzer

Description

A comtemporary drama about an American in Paris who falls in love with a young French woman and how their relationship deteriorates into sexual extremes.

Customer Reviews:

Every element fits as they should in good art works.......2007-03-06

A story within a story on a cruise ship - the surface story is of a `seven year itch'. A staid and respectable, childless British couple celebrating that volitile aniversary, are heedlessly advised (in regard to the husband anyway) by an Indian sage that children are better marital therapy than a cruise to India. Lust takes over the seemingly conservative Brit played perfectly by Hugh Grant and makes a fool of him. Yes this happens to men all the time.

On said cruise the British couple run into the sexy French siren and her crippled, older, storytelling husband who latches on to the Brit husband to tell his never-published autobiographical novel slash cautionary tale. And as for the interior story of the writer and his French obsession, it shows how`greediness' for hedonistic fantasy can lead to dark, sadististic or at least regrettable behavior. Suffice to say, everyone learns this lesson in their own way in the end.

A subtle theme here is the portrayal of the failed writer, who buys into fantasy too strongly and tries to make life imitate art until both his life and art fall short of any success, (this, like the lust in the male seven year itch, is another truism - failed artists often go too far into fantasy forgoing realism which ultimately causes frustration and failure) other than telling his story orally to one mere chump on a cruise who completely misses the point and is ready to cash in his perfectly respectable life for a brief scandalous trist in the very manner that made the cripple such an abomiable obnoxious loser. Much like the Siren song from Homer (who was also cruising the Mediteranian, wasn't he?)

Great score by Vangelis too, capturing romance and tragedy in one theme.

One of my all-time favorites/A No Spoiler Review.......2007-01-19

I happen to be fairly picky, and I don't like a lot of movies. This, however, is definitely jockeying for position as my #1 all time favorite. I first saw it ten years ago, during a library movie night that I'd ran with a friend. We saw a preview for Bitter Moon during another movie and it looked fun so we rented it. When it ended, the whole audience sat in silence for about two minutes. We were frankly shocked by the ending...it was absolutely NOT what we had expected.

Bitter Moon is about a couple who go on a cruise to India to celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary. Almost immediately, they meet Mimi, who almost effortlessly weaves a spell around the husband, Nigel, played by Hugh Grant. He's restless and eager for diversion, a fact that doesn't escape the notice of Oscar, Mimi's wheelchair bound husband. Almost immediately, Oscar begans to play a game with the besotted husband, offering him Mimi if he'll only listen to their tale first. And Nigel is immediately sucked into their wild yet desolate and depraved world, with occasionally darkly hilarious and inevitably devastating consequences.

I thought the cast was incredible for this film. Emanuelle Seigner, playing Mimi, seems to get most of the criticism in the reviews. Admittedly she's no Meryl Streep but she brings a vulnerability to the role of Mimi, even when the vixen's at her worst. Hugh Grant is a bit stiff as Niles, but it suits the part well. Peter Coyote is a sneering fiesta of bitterness and hilarity, and Kristen Scott Thomas steals the show as a wife determined not to be played for a fool.

Make sure the kids aren't around and spare an evening for this one-it's worth it.

Minor Polanski.......2006-12-17

Bitter Moon is minor Polanski, an overlong but enjoyable black comedy about sexual obsession. It's not particularly deep, but it is occasionally very funny (the poodle and the toaster are particular highlights), with Polanski constantly aware how close to comedy the sexual act is in all its more desperate variations. Perhaps its this sense of pervading black humor amid the emotional sadism that prevents the finale from having the sting it's aiming for, but it's an interesting voyage.

An ending you'll never forget.......2006-09-01

I find that the true measure of depth for a movie is evident in its' projected em