Fondazione Prada

Roman Polanski

22 May - 25 Jul 2015

ROMAN POLANSKI
My Inspirations
22 May – 25 July 2015

The flexible, multi-functional spaces of the Cinema host “Roman Polanski: My Inspirations”, a 2015 documentary interview by Laurent Bouzereau presented for the first time ever to the public on this occasion and accompanied by a selection of films. The filmmaker Roman Polanski conducts a voyage down memory lane from his first encounters with the filming, lights and illusions of cinema, evoking emotions that have remained with him over the years.

Starting from his experiences in the theater, the filmmaker identifies a series of films that helped forge his fantasy, and which create a range of models to draw upon, as well as formal solutions he can appropriate. Polanski describes the way in which his experience as a spectator lies at the origin of archetypes that have become constant points-of-reference in his work as a cineaste.

For the filmmaker, the choice of addressing these themes became an occasion to trace his creative path, driven by a desire to help fostering the understanding of the films that he has created and share with the general public his passion for masterpieces of the past that risk being forgotten today.

Over the course of the interview, the director provides new possible interpretations of his films and sheds light on a network of correspondences and unexpected similarities.

In addition to the documentary, the program for ‘Roman Polanski: My Inspirations’ includes a series of screenings of the filmmaker’s films, shown together with the movies that inspired them, for example Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles) with Rosemary’s Baby (1968); Odd Man Out (1947, Carol Reed) with The Pianist (2002) and The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967); or 8 1⁄2 (1963, Federico Fellini) together with Cul-de-sac (1966).

The festival has been realized in collaboration with British Film Institute: Fleur Buckley, Rod Rhule; Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia–Cineteca Nazionale: Emiliano Morreale, Laura Argento, Antonella Felicioni; Filmoteka Narodowa: Tadeusz Kowalski, Paweł Łuczyn ́ ski; Hollywood Classics: Julia Kelly; Lobster Films: Maria Chiba; Łódz ́ Film School: Dariusz Duz. yn ́ ski; Paramount Pictures: Andrea Kalas, Larry McCallister; Park Circus: Nick Varley, Phil Kennedy; Pathé Distribution: Elodie Dupont; RP Productions: Françoise Piraud; Rti: Rosaria Ventura; Tamasa: Laurence Berbon.