Barbara Lass

An interview with film director Roman Polanski conducted during his period of house arrest, discussing his life and work.

Roman Polanski lived in Cracow/Krakow during 1936-1955 - almost 20 years of his life. These years formed him to become one of the most popular film directors of the world. The title of the documentary refers to Roman Polanski's autobiography "Roman by Polanski". By the end of 1930's Cracow/Krakow 250 000 inhabitants, about 50 000 were Jews. It was one of the happiest time in young Roman's life. WWII made him leave the Cracow ghetto and he was hidden by a Polish family near the city. After the war till 1955, it was not only the hard Stalin's time but also the time when young Roman discovered his passion for art, especially the cinema. In these times he played in social realistic plays in Young Spectator Theatre and in puppet plays in Groteska Theatre, Cracow. Finally he left Cracow for Lodz in 1955 to study directing at the Film Academy.

Polish socialist and Marxist Rosa Luxemburg works tirelessly in the service of revolution in early 20th century Poland and Germany. While Luxemburg campaigns for her beliefs, she is repeatedly imprisoned as she forms the Spartacist League offering a new vision for Germany.

Ines and Hans try to save their crumbling marriage with a vacation trip. With three children, the grandmother, and some hamsters in the overloaded car to Sardinia.

A German-made film based on one of the most famous German novels by Theodor Fontane. Effi Briest is a socially ambitious, 17-year-old German girl who accepts a proposal of marriage from Baron Geert Von Instetten, a much older diplomat. Unfortunately, neither the Baron's family nor anyone in the secluded town she now calls home accept Effi as an equal. Starved for companionship, Effi begins an innocent friendship with a well-known womanizer that may jeopardize her position as the Baron's wife.

Two guys came to Zakopane to write screenplay and make movie. They are complete amateurs and don't have any ideas. Maybe only one idea is to find actress, but it's not so simple.

A scientist is persuaded by the government to inject himself with the brain fluid of a dying colleague in order to preserve missile-defense secrets. However, he finds that he is now torn between his own wife and that of his dead colleague, who was a Nazi sympathizer.

Marek is a promising athlete sharing affairs with more than one women. One day at masquerade ball his loafing eyes witnessed the most beautiful pair of eyes disguised in black veil of Turkish dress and instantly get him ensnared by her enigma. He follows her, she knows it. She meets him and introduced her as Jowita and told him to wait for her outside the gate. The wait ended in frustration for him and he gets himself obsessed in search of her. Finally at another ball, he meets her again but she said she is Agnieszka and not Jowita, who is her best friend. They became friends and lovers but still those eyes of Jowita remain a mystery. Who is Jowita? An unattainable object of desire or unsolved enigma of subconscious?

An international gang of gun dealers in the USA has stolen the prototype of a laser rifle from a German laboratory. The FBI agent Cormoran is being sent to recover the state-of-the-art and highly effective weapon. But there are some indications that he has defected to the enemy. Since agent 007 is currently on another mission, the chief of intelligence has to fall back on his second best man, the previous number 006. And so the German secret agent John Krim is given the assignment to get the rifle back, find evidence of Cormoran’s treachery and finally eliminate the colleague. Krim’s journey takes him across the ocean, and there he experiences incredible adventures in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Two women get in his way, and Krim can’t be sure whether he can trust them or whether they too are working for the other side.

Van Hekken, an old gangster, arrives in Tokyo to direct a bank hold-up in order to get a very valuable diamond.

1944 : Occupied France. Juliette (Vice) is Wehrmacht General Bamberg's mistress and enjoys a privileged life. Her younger sister Justine (Virtue) is about to marry Jean who is in the Resistance and come to Juliette for help. Both sisters end up at "la Commanderie", where Juliette becomes SS Colonel Schonberg's mistress and Justine is detained with other pretty girls who must satisfy the sexual needs of high-ranking nazi officials. Inspired by "Justine ou les infortunes de la vertu" by the marquis de Sade

A segment of “Love at Twenty” tells the story of a man who rescued a child from a polar bear attack.

Love at Twenty unites five directors from five different countries to present their different perspectives on what love really is at the age of 20. The episodes are united with the score of Georges Delerue and still photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Ulisse is a naive young man out looking for a job after being released from the army. He drops the offer he gets from a group of fascists to go in with the Fossatis, a family of anarchists (unknown to him).

The new science teacher Dr. Julian Olcott with a mysterious past arrives in an institutional boarding school for troublemaker girls. Along the night, the intern Mary Smith, who is blackmailing another teacher - Sir Alfred Whiteman - with some love letters, is slaughtered by a werewolf. The detective in charge of the investigation attributes the crime to a wolf, while her mate Priscilla believes she was killed by Sir Alfred. On the next days, other deaths happen in the school, reducing the list of suspects.

An old man against the public housing project.

To convince the prison warden against releasing him, a middle-aged Polish man recounts his life, one he considers to have been characterized by exceptionally bad luck.

The twenty-one-minute-film is set in a men's public rest room and recounts the day to day existence of an elderly woman who serves as an attendant in the lavatory. As an endless procession of men pass before her, relieving themselves in the urinals, the attendant escapes her reality by daydreaming about the past and the soldier she once loved and the child she bore him.

A short Polish black and white silent movie directed by Roman Polański. The film features two men who emerge from the sea carrying a large wardrobe, which they proceed to carry into a town. Carrying the wardrobe, the two encounter a series of hostile events, including being attacked by a group of youths (one of whom is played by Polanski himself). Finally, they arrive back at a beach and then disappear in the sea.

Ewa Bonecka, a young student about to start school in a new place finds herself without a place to sleep after she is declined a room in a women-only hotel. Helped by a pleasant policeman, Piotr, she tries to find a lodging in the strange town full of thieves and petty troublemakers.