[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/roman_polanski.jpeg]]

->''"I am widely regarded, I know, as an evil, profligate dwarf."''
-->-- from his autobiography ''Roman'' (1984)

Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (né Liebling; born 18 August 1933) is a(n in)famous French and Polish director, producer, and actor, whose own life story is just as fascinating (and depressing) as his films.

Polański was born in Paris to UsefulNotes/PolishJews. When he was four, the family returned to Kraków less than three years before the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII German invasion and occupation]] of UsefulNotes/{{Poland}}. His parents were subsequently deported into concentration camps, and his mother was killed in [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust Auschwitz]]. He became a drifter after surviving in the Kraków Ghetto, traveling the country and staying with various families while also supporting himself by acting in local stage shows. After the war, he studied cinema in Łódź in the 1950s, and came back to Paris in the 1960s.

Polański gained acclaim for films like ''Film/KnifeInTheWater'' and ''Film/{{Repulsion}}'', and began a successful Hollywood career. While going far outside his usual material directing and starring in the horror parody ''Film/TheFearlessVampireKillers'', he [[RomanceOnTheSet fell in love with his co-star]] Creator/SharonTate, and they were married soon after in January 1968. Just over one and a half years later, on August 9, 1969, Tate was murdered by the death cult of UsefulNotes/CharlesManson just weeks away from the birth of their first child while Polański was making a film in Europe. Never a very sunny filmmaker to begin with, his movies understandably [[CreatorBreakdown became even grimmer after this]]; he somehow managed to make [[Film/Macbeth1971 a film]] of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' even darker than [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]]'s original.

Another turning point for Polański came in 1977, when he was arrested in Los Angeles and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Polanski_sexual_abuse_case charged with drugging and sexually assaulting]] 13-year-old Samantha Geimer (née Gailey), whom he was photographing for the French edition of ''Vogue'' magazine, following a photoshoot at his friend Creator/JackNicholson's house. (Nicholson was away on a ski trip at the time, while his then-girlfriend Creator/AnjelicaHuston, who also lived there, had been away from the house and returned to encounter Polański and Geimer as they were leaving together.) As part of a plea bargain, [[https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-polanski-legal1-2009oct01-story.html Polanski pleaded guilty]] and submitted [[http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/how-polanskis-probation-officer-saw-his-crime/ to a stay at Chino State Prison]], where he was released after a 42-day period. When Polański got wind that the judge in the case intended to overrule the plea bargain, return him to prison, and extend his sentence, he fled to France, where he has citizenship. He also sold off his house in the UK and never returned there.

Now unable to enter any country that had an extradition agreement with the US, Polański nonetheless continued making films, which -- with select exceptions (such as ''Film/ThePianist'' and ''Film/{{Tess}}'') -- did not match the critical and financial success of his early career. Contrary to popular belief, Polański only ever made two films in Hollywood (''Film/RosemarysBaby'' and ''Film/{{Chinatown}}''). In 2002, he won his first [[MediaNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDirecting Academy Award for Best Director]] for ''The Pianist''; the statuette was accepted on his behalf and delivered to him by Creator/HarrisonFord, who'd earlier starred in his film ''Film/{{Frantic}}''. In 2005, the American arrest warrant on him became an international one, and four years later, he was re-arrested on it (while at a ceremony to accept another award) and had to finish post-production on ''Film/TheGhostWriter'' from prison.

After Polański had spent several months under house arrest in Switzerland awaiting extradition to the US, the Swiss government announced in July 2010 that they were denying the extradition request, after having apparently encountered problems with the request and considering "national interests"; he was thus free once again. In 2015, a second extradition request with the government of Poland was turned down as well; this decision was appealed until December 2016, when the Polish Supreme Court issued a verdict [[http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/283219,Supreme-Court-upholds-decision-not-to-extradite-filmmaker-Polanski upholding the government's earlier decision and blocking any further attempts to extradite him]]. In the meantime, six different women have come forward to accuse the director of having assaulted them as teenagers. In 2018, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to expel Polański from its membership.

Polański remarried to French actress and singer Creator/EmmanuelleSeigner (who is 33 years younger than him and starred in several of his films) in 1989. They have two children, including actress Creator/MorganePolanski.
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!! Filmography:
[[index]]
* 1955: ''Pokolenie'' (''Film/AGeneration'') (actor only)
* 1957: ''Morderstwo'' (''A Murderer'')
* 1957: ''Uśmiech zębiczny'' (''Film/AToothfulSmile'')
* 1957: ''Rozbijemy zabawę'' (''Film/BreakUpTheDance'')
* 1958: ''Dwaj ludzie z szafą'' (''Film/TwoMenAndAWardrobe'')
* 1959: ''Lampa'' (''Film/TheLamp'')
* 1959: ''Gdy spadają anioły'' (''Film/WhenAngelsFall'')
* 1961: ''Le Gros et le maigre'' (''Film/TheFatAndTheLean'')
* 1961: ''Ssaki'' (''Mammals'')
* 1962: ''Nóż w wodzie'' (''Film/KnifeInTheWater'')
* 1964: ''Les plus belles escroqueries du monde'' (''Film/TheBeautifulSwindlers'')
* 1965: ''Film/{{Repulsion}}'' (first English-language movie)
* 1966: ''[[Film/CulDeSac1966 Cul-de-sac]]''
* 1967: ''Film/TheFearlessVampireKillers''
* 1968: ''Film/RosemarysBaby''
* 1971: ''Film/{{Macbeth|1971}}''
* 1973: ''What?'' (also known as ''Film/DiaryOfForbiddenDreams'')
* 1974: ''Film/{{Chinatown}}''
* 1976: ''Film/TheTenant''
* 1979: ''Film/{{Tess}}'' (adapted from ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles'')
* 1986: ''Film/{{Pirates}}''
* 1988: ''Film/{{Frantic}}''
* 1992: ''Film/BitterMoon''
* 1994: ''Film/APureFormality''
* 1994: ''Film/DeathAndTheMaiden''
* 1999: ''Film/TheNinthGate''
* 2002: ''Film/ThePianist''
* 2005: ''Film/{{Oliver Twist|2005}}''
* 2007: ''Film/ToEachHisOwnCinema''
* 2010: ''Film/TheGhostWriter''
* 2012: ''Film/{{Carnage|2011}}''
* 2013: ''Theatre/VenusInFur''
* 2017: ''Film/{{Based on a True Story}}''
* 2019: ''Film/AnOfficerAndASpy''
* 2023: ''Film/{{The Palace|2023}}''
[[/index]]

!! Roman Polanski's films contain examples of:

* AuthorAppeal: Polanski ''loved'' skiing, and Robert Evans managed to coax him into meeting him with the thought he could direct ''Film/DownhillRacer''. [[BaitAndSwitch Instead, Evans tossed him some script]] named ''Film/{{Chinatown}}'', and the rest was history.
* BlackComedy: ''What?'', ''The Fearless Vampire Killers, Carnage'' and even ''Rosemary's Baby'' are filled with jet black humor.
* TheCastShowoff: He's fond of skiing and can ski quite well. In ''Film/TheFearlessVampireKillers'', he did his own stunts.
* CreatorBreakdown: Many of his works became darker after the [[UsefulNotes/CharlesManson Manson "family"]] killed Creator/SharonTate and her unborn baby.
* DownerEnding: This tendency became even more pronounced after [[CreatorBreakdown Sharon Tate's murder]], with ''Film/{{Chinatown}}'' as one of the most famous examples.
* HumansAreBastards: The basic sense one gets from his movies.
** He has frontally tackled antisemitism twice, in ''The Pianist'' and ''An Officer and a Spy'', the former about the genocide committed by the Nazis and the latter about ugly conspiracy theories in the French army in the late 19th century.
* MagnumOpusDissonance: Polanski's favourites of his films are ''Film/CulDeSac1966'', ''Film/TheFearlessVampireKillers'', ''Tess'', and ''Death and the Maiden'', none of which would fall into what are considered by the public as his best works, such as ''Film/RosemarysBaby'' and ''Film/{{Chinatown}}''. ''The Fearless Vampire Killers'' is especially preferred by him because it dealt with recreating a pre-war [[UsefulNotes/PolishJews Jewish culture]] that had been part of his childhood but was no longer there in Europe due to UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust and because it starred his deceased wife Sharon Tate.
* OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt: He admitted to making ''Film/{{Repulsion}}'' (a racy horror flick about a woman's fear of men driving her insane) solely to have enough money to make ''Film/CulDeSac1966''.
* PlayingAgainstType: Many of the films he appears in are dark and gritty, but his minor role in ''Film/RushHour 3'' is comedic (albeit of the BlackComedy variety).
* RapeAsDrama: This crops up in a number of films, ''Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, Tess, Death and the Maiden''.
* RomanceOnTheSet:
** He and Creator/SharonTate fell in love during the making of ''The Fearless Vampire Killers''.
** He and his second wife Creator/EmmanuelleSeigner met during the making of ''Frantic''.
* SignatureStyle: ''Strongly'' averted. While some of his movies do share similarities in terms of themes or shooting style (''The Tenant'' and ''Rosemary's Baby'' being some of the prime examples), you'd probably be hard-pressed to find anything that the highly symbolic, slow-paced ''Knife in the Water'', intense if accessible neo-noir ''Chinatown'' and the light-hearted adventure-filled ''Pirates'' would have that would point to Polanski being at the helm of all three.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: A number of his projects went on hold or never got made:
** When Robert Evans first got in touch with him, he wanted Polanski to direct ''Downhill Racer'', noting that his fondness for skiing would make it fit him. Polanski got interested in the second property which Evans had included as a Plan B, the galleys of ''Film/RosemarysBaby'', which Polanski was more interested in.
** He was in pre-production for a thriller called ''The Day of the Dolphin'' when he received news of the [=Tate-LaBianca=] killings. He dropped out immediately and abandoned the project. The film was eventually released in 1973 directed by Creator/MikeNichols.
** Polanski had planned an adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita''.
** Polanski was originally tapped to direct ''Film/WhiteDog'', but his 1977 rape charges led to him fleeing the US just before shooting was due to commence. The film was put on hold as a result, and when it was finally picked up again in 1981, Creator/SamuelFuller was hired as the project's new director.
** Before making ''Film/TheGhostWriter'', Polanski planned to make a film about the Pompeii disaster based on Robert Harris's novel of the same name. A 2007 Actors Strike led to the production being cancelled and made them focus on another project. The entirely unrelated ''Film/{{Pompeii}}'' made later likewise put a damper on that project.

!! Portrayals in fiction:

* The comic book ''[[ComicBook/{{XIII}} XIII Mystery: Little Jones]]'' has a film director named [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Norman Boltanski]] who married a blonde actress named Sharon. It's about the only things close to reality, as the murder of that Sharon happens by said director's hand, strangling her to death after finding out she cheated on him. The passion murder is then disguised by shadowy government agents as a racist attack by the Black Panthers in an attempt to undermine them, with no equivalent or mention of the Manson Family anywhere.
* He is played by Polish actor Rafał Zawierucha in ''Film/OnceUponATimeInHollywood'' along with Creator/MargotRobbie as Sharon Tate. To say that Polański's estate [[DisownedAdaptation didn't approve]] of the film (via Emmanuelle Seigner voicing it out in the media) would be an understatement.
* In the video game ''{{VideoGame/Whiplash}}'', one of the Genron employees is a man named Roman Polanski. We never learn much about him, but he's apparently one of the department chiefs, and Redmond seems to have a history with him. After he is defeated in a boss fight, Redmond quips "It's Chinatown!" While he doesn't look like the real Roman Polanski, the ''Chinatown'' reference seals it. Considering his role as a villain, this is likely a TakeThat.
* In the dub of the second episode of ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'', Roman is said to have been released from prison just so he could direct a movie Panty's starring in.
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