― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 14 July 2003 00:50 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 14 July 2003 03:24 (twenty years ago) link
― Tag (Tag), Monday, 14 July 2003 08:00 (twenty years ago) link
― Tag (Tag), Monday, 14 July 2003 08:06 (twenty years ago) link
Speaking of Polanksi, I just finally watched The Pianist. Kind of overdone and sentimental, it seemed to me. Obviously a bid for Hollywood redemption. I guess it worked.
― JesseFox (JesseFox), Monday, 14 July 2003 11:09 (twenty years ago) link
― Tag (Tag), Monday, 14 July 2003 11:17 (twenty years ago) link
I love when Polanski's character comes back from his wacky shopping spree, takes his new shoes out of their bag and does that little, high pitched "What lovely shoes! Wherever did you get them?" conversation with himself . Polanski does "slowly unhinging" really, really well.
What I find so interesting about "The Tenant" is that it works equally well on two levels: as a "Repulsion"-type psychological horror flick and as an often really funny, pathetic black comedy.
It's just a great movie.
― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 14 July 2003 15:33 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 14 July 2003 17:17 (twenty years ago) link
the egyptology references really take the film to a whole other level of creepiness for me. eep!
― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Monday, 14 July 2003 17:51 (twenty years ago) link
― Sean (Sean), Monday, 14 July 2003 18:35 (twenty years ago) link
― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 05:36 (twenty years ago) link
― Fabrice (Fabfunk), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 08:34 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 17:35 (twenty years ago) link
― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 20:42 (twenty years ago) link
― L@@K !! *RARE*!! (nordicskilla), Friday, 15 July 2005 19:30 (eighteen years ago) link
Ah youth.
― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Friday, 15 July 2005 21:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Saturday, 16 July 2005 22:22 (eighteen years ago) link
Claire Cozens, press and publishing correspondentFriday July 22, 2005
The Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski has won £50,000 in libel damages after successfully suing Vanity Fair magazine over an allegation he said made him appear "callously indifferent" to the memory of his murdered wife Sharon Tate.
A high court jury today found in favour of the director of Rosemary's Baby, Tess and The Pianist, who sued over an article in the glossy magazine alleging he tried to seduce a Scandinavian model on his way to Tate's funeral by claiming he could make her "another Sharon Tate".
Polanski said today the claims in Vanity Fair could not go unchallenged.
"It goes without saying that, whilst the whole episode is a sad one, I am obviously pleased with the jury's verdict today," he said.
"Three years of my life have been interrupted. Three years within which I have had no choice but to relive the horrible events of August 1969, the murders of my wife, my unborn child and my friends.
"Many untruths have been published about me, most of which I have ignored, but the allegations printed in the July 2002 edition of Vanity Fair could not go unchallenged."
The article claimed Polanski had tried to seduce a "Swedish beauty" in the fashionable New York restaurant bar Elaine's, delivering a "honeyed spiel" as he slid his hand between her thighs and promised to turn her into "another Sharon Tate".
Giving evidence by videolink from Paris at the start of the four-day libel trial, Polanski said the Vanity Fair allegation was an "abominable lie" that made him appear "callously indifferent" to his wife's memory.
Polanski won permission from the House of Lords to testify from France because he feared he that if he set foot in Britain he would be arrested and extradited to the US, where he has been wanted since 1977 for having sex with an underage girl.
The Vanity Fair editor, Graydon Carter, who was in court throughout the trial, said he found it "amazing" that "a man who lives in France can sue a magazine published in America in a British court".
"As a father of four children, one of them a 12-year-old daughter, I find it equally outrageous that this story is considered defamatory," he said.
Condé Nast, the publisher of Vanity Fair, suffered an early blow to its case after Polanski was able to provide documents proving he had flown directly from his home in London to Los Angeles for Tate's funeral.
The publisher insisted the alleged incident had taken place some weeks later, when Polanski visited Elaine's with the actor Mia Farrow, star of Rosemary's Baby.
But Farrow told the court Polanski had been in no mood for seduction on the night in late August 1969 when she met him in Elaine's, and that he had "brushed off" two women who tried to flirt with him.
She said the gruesome murders by members of the Manson cult were all the film director could talk about, and that he became so upset they had to leave the restaurant and go for a walk outside.
Asked by Tom Shields, counsel for Condé Nast, whether it might have happened after she left the restaurant, Farrow insisted she would not have left Polanski alone.
"I would not have left him in Elaine's unattended without trusted friends ... I wouldn't have left him there alone, I wouldn't have. He was in really bad shape at that time," she said.
In his closing speech Mr Shields tried to persuade the jury that Polanski's reputation was already so badly damaged it could not have been made any worse by the article in the July 2002 issue of Vanity Fair.
"As to whether Mr Polanski's reputation is capable of being damaged, sadly, we would say, it is beyond repair," he said in his closing argument.
Mr Justice Eady told the jury they were not there to judge Polanski's lifestyle, although he said it was for them to decide whether such an accusation was less likely to defame a man who had admitted having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
The judge also directed the nine men and three women on the jury to consider that Condé Nast's legal team had not called as a witness the person at the heart of the case - Beate Telle, the "Scandinavian beauty" Vanity Fair alleged Polanski had tried to seduce.
He reminded the jury the defence had established that Ms Telle was still alive, and that her whereabouts were known.
In a case notable for the absence of its key witnesses, Polanski made legal history by becoming the first claimant in a libel trial to give evidence by videolink.
Costs in the case are estimated at around £1.5m and today the judge made an interim costs award of £175,000 to Polanski.
I LOVE the picture that goes with this article!http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2003/03/07/polanskiAPsm.jpg
― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:13 (eighteen years ago) link
Am I the only one who, after seeing The Tenant, thought: "So this is where David Lynch got his ideas from."
― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, July 15, 2003 8:42 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
i actually thought this also. good flick
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 21 December 2008 22:20 (fifteen years ago) link
Best movie ever.
― Eric H., Sunday, 21 December 2008 22:33 (fifteen years ago) link
Trailer tag-line is gold: "No One Does It to You Like Roman Polanski!"
I was really looking forward to seeing this but it honestly kind of bored the hell out of me. I loved the absurd comedy sprinkled throughout, but as a psychological thriller it was pretty zzzzz. There just isn't enough sustained tension or a palpable sense of mounting hysteria I guess? A lot of little builds that don't pay off or go anywhere but just become repetitive and tedious. Just felt unsatisfying and ultimately pretty predictable, though *SPOILER* Polanski having to jump out of his window TWICE was hilarious and unexpected *SPOILER*.
Realize I'm likely way in the minority on this one.
― circa1916, Sunday, 7 March 2010 22:50 (fourteen years ago) link
nah. i think it starts well, and it looks a treat, but goes nowhere.
― the archetypal ghetto hustler (history mayne), Sunday, 7 March 2010 22:52 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, it's got some funny ideas and scenes, but I have to admit it was one of those times I really regretted making the trip out to the theater to see it. One of my friends absolutely loves this and is completely obsessed with it - I don't think I can get through six months without him making some kind of Simone Choule reference.
― Nhex, Sunday, 7 March 2010 23:09 (fourteen years ago) link
I don't think I can get through six months without him making some kind of Simone Choule reference
Wish I had some friends who'd claim they were Simone Choule every six months.
― queen frostine (Eric H.), Sunday, 7 March 2010 23:13 (fourteen years ago) link
He's a great dude, but I have gotten tired of hearing about finding teeth in the walls.
― Nhex, Sunday, 7 March 2010 23:24 (fourteen years ago) link
Plus he keeps getting pregnant.
― queen frostine (Eric H.), Sunday, 7 March 2010 23:50 (fourteen years ago) link
I liked how he made Paris a doppelganger for New York. I'm guessing that he wanted to set the film in NYC, but since he couldn't actually film it there...
― henry s, Monday, 8 March 2010 00:58 (fourteen years ago) link
I was really looking forward to seeing this but it honestly kind of bored the hell out of me. I loved the absurd comedy sprinkled throughout, but as a psychological thriller it was pretty zzzzz. There just isn't enough sustained tension or a palpable sense of mounting hysteria I guess?
My reaction too. Don't get the ILX love. Polanski's performance is the best thing in it.
― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 8 March 2010 01:07 (fourteen years ago) link
great film. adjani has zero personality as stella. the tooth! and this woman at the scene near the end, which gave me chills:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2567539/images/tenant.jpg
― calstars, Saturday, 26 May 2012 02:54 (eleven years ago) link
i like this film, tho i remember the english language version having some terrible dubbing
― buzza, Saturday, 26 May 2012 04:26 (eleven years ago) link
When he goes to the funeral and the priest gives the most hilariously morbid speech. ― Tag (Tag), Monday, July 14, 2003 11:17 AM (fourteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Is this sermon real or a hallucination? I always thought the latter, because--correct me if I'm wrong, been years since I've seen this--isn't it supposed to be a funeral? Why would the priest be talking all that brimstone and hellfire stuff at a funeral?
I need to watch this again. It was the last movie I ever saw that legit freaked me out
Still haven't seen Repulsion...
― Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, 6 March 2018 18:50 (six years ago) link
Oh, man. Isabelle Adjani as a 70's Parisian boho chick(*wipes drool*)...
― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, July 14, 2003 11:33 AM (fourteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Settle down there, me from 15 years ago.
― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Tuesday, 6 March 2018 21:39 (six years ago) link
https://78.media.tumblr.com/4820f85087b6de9bfae89f0cdeb2326f/tumblr_osm43zNuGJ1ujgq8ro1_400.gif
― ...some of y'all too woke to function (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 6 March 2018 21:55 (six years ago) link
ravissante!
― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Tuesday, 6 March 2018 23:20 (six years ago) link
I saw this film once years and years ago and it always stuck with me and now I've just read the novel it's based on - it's a really short novel, I read it in an afternoon - and I kind of don't want to see it again. Having Isabelle Adjani as Stella seems like a terrible piece of casting. Polanski as an insignificant little twerp is perfect but for the equally insignificant and ordinary Stella they cast Isabelle Adjani? Fuck off!
I don't actually remember much about the movie itself but Fassbinder's film of "Despair", which came out a year later, seems to cover some similar ground? I probably didn't pick up on how much of it is about anti-Semitism when I saw it first.
― Oh wouldn't it be rubbery? (Tom D.), Thursday, 1 December 2022 15:16 (one year ago) link