Roman Polanski Blogathon, Aug 18-Sep 2,2013

Roman Polanski,  a name  that  conjures up so many images in mind.

• Mia  Farrow, discovering the horrifying  truth about her baby  in Rosemary’s Baby.
• Adrian Brody  running distraught on the streets of Nazi occupied Warsaw, sole survivor of a massacre in The Pianist.
• Jack Nicholson’s nose being sliced off, in one of the most gruesome scenes ever in Chinatown.
• Faye Dunaway’s revelation at the end of  Chinatown.
• The erotic dance between Kristin Scott Thomas and Emanuelle Seinger in  Bitter Moon.

Watching a Roman Polanski movie, there is always a high possibility that you could have emerged from it stirred and shaken. Polanski is one of those directors, who still relies on story, script, characterization and interplay, to hook the audience. His movies do not contain 3D or special effects  or aliens invading the earth, what they do contain are a solid storyline, characters in flesh and blood with all their flaws and the human drama  played out.  If Polanski shocks, it is due to the sheer horror of  what is there in the scene, be it  the ending of Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby or that scene in  Pianist, where a Nazi officer, casually dumps a wheelchair bound old man over the balcony in The Pianist. For me Polanski is one of the greatest directors ever, with a body of work, stretching over 5 decades, ranging from the 60’s to the 2010’s.  And  this man has covered a whole lot of genres,  from horror( Rosemary’s Baby, Repulsion, Ninth Gate)  to  noir( Chinatown) to erotic( Bitter Moon) to thriller( Frantic, The Ghost Writer) to Holocaust( The Pianist). Not to forget his  adaptations of  literary works like Oliver Twist, Macbeth, Tess of D’Ubervilles.

In a tribute to one of my favorite directors, would be hosting the blogathon from August 18( his birthday) to Sept 2,2013.  This site had earlier hosted blogathons  on  Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Howard Hawks,  and  recently Sydney Pollack. And now will be hosting this  blogathon on  Polanski.

How to contribute to Blogathon?

• You could post any of  your  pieces, articles  on Roman Polanski’s movies, life, career, and share with us.
• Reviews of Polanski’s movies,  exploration of themes,  interviews with him, anything related to him.
• And yes promote this at your  blog, using one of the pictures given below with a link to the blogathon.

And yes  please feel free to mail me at ratnakar.techie@gmail.com.