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Polanski
by
Christopher Sandford (Goodreads Author)
The celebrated and controversial Roman Polanski has long been the object of worldwide fascination. Here, acclaimed biographer Christopher Sandford weaves together the rich and complex life of the film director, Holocaust survivor, and exile, based on 200 firsthand accounts. This unique access includes interviews with actors and writers who worked with Polanski, previo
...morePaperback, 400 pages
Published
November 10th 2009
by Palgrave Macmillan
(first published 2007)
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This is a fairly pedestrian biography covering Polanski's life, without much new or insightful, or even any literary flair that could have given it some much-needed energy. The author claims to have spoken to a lot of people for this volume, including several Polanski "insiders" who declined to be named on the Acknowledgements page. Unfortunately, in what seems to be a common modern error with living biographical subjects, he has neglected to speak with his subject directly, who he sa...more
Well-written biography that occasionally veers into hero worship (about Polanski's filmmaking) but is brutally honest about the other parts of his life (growing up in WW2 Poland, his inveterate womanizing, the death of Sharon Tate at the hands of the Manson family, his "date rape" of a 13 yr old girl, etc.).
Obviously Polanski has lead a incredible life, with its intense ups and downs, and it makes for a very interesting read. As a fan of his work and as everyone always have been, fascinated by his personal life and upbringing, I found this bio extremely detailed, but it got quite dull towards the end, once all the main events in his life were covered. Worth a read.
Sub-par rehash of public records and archived interviews. Merely a reassembly of old data, Sandford brings nothing to the party, save an endless stream of "x refused to be interviewed for this book." A snooze.
I learned that 13 sometimes looks like 18. I learned that Polanski rewrote half of "Chinatown" and never got a writing credit. And I learned that I need to see "Tess" again.
If I had to live through what Roman Polanski saw I would be a different person.
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Christopher Sandford has published acclaimed biographies of Kurt Cobain, Steve McQueen, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, and Roman Polanski. He has worked as a film and music writer and reviewer for over 20 years and frequently contributes to newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. Rolling Stone has called him "the preeminent author in his field today....more
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