Speaking of the European and American horror films, it is impossible not to mention one of the most influential directors of the world cinema -Roman Polanski. He created many impressive films, filled with suspense, drama, and with a touch of avant-garde. Herewith, Polanski never stuck on a certain genre, making completely diverse pictures.
Roman Polanski was born in 1933 in Paris, in a Jewish-Polish family. When he was 3 years old, his family moved to Poland and settled in Krakow. During the World War II his mother was killed. Polanski had to hide his roots from the Aryans, and barely survived the terrible years of the German occupation. Later Polanski reflected this period of his life in his best film (according to him), "The Pianist".
Shortly after the war, Polanski began working in theater, television and radio. In 1953, he played his debut film role at one of the most influential Polish director - Andrzej Wajda - "A Generation". Due to Wajda, Polanski had the opportunity to go to a film school.
Starting from the mid-1950s Polanski shoots a series of short films which combined black humor, avant-garde and suspense. Polanski demonstrated his peculiar director’s skills, focusing on details and elegance in these short films already.
Polanski's first feature film is "Knife in the Water".
A young boy, a hitchhiker, is picked up by a couple in love, which subsequently leads to a love triangle.
"Knife in the Water" is a terrific chilling picture which keeps you in incredible suspense throughout the film. This is one of the best psychological thrillers in cinema history.
"Knife in the Water" was the first foreign film, received "Oscar", allowing Polanski to move to England, where he continued his great film experiments.
The first English-language Polanski film is "Repulsion" (1965).
The main character is a very beautiful manicurist named Carole. She is mentally disturbed, but any of the people surrounding her do not know it. She is afraid of male touches and hugs. When her sister left the apartment for a few days with her lover, Carole falls into the abyss of a nightmare, getting in the maelstrom of her horrible fantasies. She’s haunted by visions being raped, and how someone's arms pulling out of the walls, to take possession of her. All this leads to the most disastrous consequences.
The role of Carole was brilliantly performed by charming Catherine Deneuve, who, like Polanski, was a native of Paris.
"Repulsion" is truly ingenious, masterfully filmed psychological thriller about a disturbed mind. The film has a clear influence of Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological opus, "Psycho" in particular. But unlike Hitchcock, Polanski does not explain the causes of the protagonist’s insanity, making the bizarre images of Carole’s sick imagination even more eerie and frightening.
Carole's obsession is primarily concerned with complexes of sexual nature, from which we can conclude that their cause was rape at an early age.
In "Repulsion" there’s masterfully built the theme of loneliness and alienation, which is inherent to the films of the great director. Polanski was able to show the nature of madness from the inside, which has never been done before. As director Stuart Gordon said about this film: "It's a kind of visualization of madness".
"Repulsion" was success both with the audience and the critics. The film won several awards, including "Golden Bear".
Afterwards Polanski shot the black comedy "Cul-de-sac", starring Donald Pleasence and Catherine Deneuve’s sister - Françoise Dorleac.
