There was a time, not so long ago, when Roman Polanski was the elite of the film industry in France, where the director has lived since 1978, when he fled the United States before being sentenced after pleading guilty to illegal sex with a 13-year-old girl.
Despite ongoing scandal and legal cases, the veteran author has thrived as a filmmaker in his adoptive country, celebrated as a life member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts (Academy of Fine Arts) and benefited from half a dozen César Awards, the most recent of which are three, including Best Director, is for the 2019 drama, An Officer and a Spy.
But things are changing. Director César’s recent win, combined with more recent allegations of sexual misconduct, angered French women’s groups and led to the resignation of members of the board of directors of the 21-member organization that oversees César. Polanski has denied the recent allegations of misconduct.
Even as the backlash intensified, “The Officer and the Spy” was a huge hit in France, bringing in more than $11 million.
But now it seems that love for Roman has stopped. The French did not reject Polanski in the same way as the United States, but the relationship is strained. Polanski refused to be interviewed diverse for this article.
Polanski’s upcoming film The Palace, a black comedy set in a luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps resort of Gstaad, where he is currently filming, was unable to find any French funding, as Polanski’s producer, Luca multi-hyphenate Italian. Barbareschi, sighs.
“[To shepherd ‘The Palace’] “It takes a lot of passion and a lot of patience,” Barbarski said, speaking from Gstaad, as “The Palace” — which he says has a budget of €17 million ($17.8 million) — has been running for 15 weeks, with two more to go (see photos from group in this post).
Barbarchi, who also produced “An Officer and a Spy,” said it was difficult to fund “The Palace,” an Italian, Swiss and Polish co-production between Eliseo Multimedia, RAI Cinema, Lucky BOB in Poland and CAB in Switzerland. Some of the other investors disappeared after the movie started shooting.
But he did not expect France to shut down Polanski, and he still hoped the film would be adopted by the French industry.
“I was able to increase production over a year without France because France did not want to invest a euro in Polanski,” Barbarchi says. “This is really granny.”
“If the film is not shown in France, it is a crime,” the producer adds.
Besides France, Barbarchi – who has personally invested more than €4 million in a “palace” that needs to be made up – is also concerned that Polanski’s latest photos may be left out elsewhere. Especially in English-speaking regions such as the UK, North America and Australia, which have all gone through “officer” releases in their cinemas.
“If you think that ‘Officer and a Spy’ movie was not played in any English speaking country, that scares me,” he notes.
Paris-based Wild Bunch, which sells The Palace, is showing a four-minute trailer for buyers in Cannes. They have already made deals with unspecified distributors in Germany and Spain. Now they need to close more.
“The Palace” has a cast that includes German actor Oliver Masucci (“Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets”); French star Fanny Ardant; Mickey Rourke; Monty Python star John Cleese; Joaquin de Almeida, Portugal. Russian Victor Donbrunravov and Fortunato Sirlino (“Gomora”).
The film, written by Polanski and Polish writer/director Jerzy Skolimowski (who has an “EO” at the festival but didn’t attend), is set entirely at the Gstaad Palace Hotel on New Year’s Eve on New Year’s Eve and takes place in less than 24 hours.
Similar to his financing, the film “The Palace” was also difficult to choose. Many actors turned down the roles, fearing that working with Polanski would taint their careers, although “no one said it in those terms,” says Barbarchi, who stresses that he is happy with the crew he has.
“Every movie has its karma. In the end we have the best cast that I could have hoped for,” he says. Although “some of the splits weren’t easy for Roman”, especially by actors in smaller roles.
Most importantly, “they all adored Roman, giving him everything they had,” he notes.
The primary cast for “The Palace” consists of Academy Award-winning music composer Alexandre Deblatt, along with regular Polanski cinematographer Paul Edelman, editor Hervé de Luz, and costume designer Carlo Poggioli (“Little Pope”).
As for the film’s plot, the opulent hotel, the pinnacle of Alpine luxury, “has always been a haven for the best strata of society: the aristocracy, the artists and celebrities, the businessmen and financiers, the hustlers, the crooks and the wannabes,” says Polanski in his director’s notes.
And now it hosts the coolest New Year’s Eve ball in history.
The film is described as “a comedy that shows the naivety, hedonism, corruption and social injustice that lie at the root of today’s world problems”. Observations indicate that the narrative “weaves together many facts, and extends over the entire social spectrum.” “The Palace” is presented as “above all else, a provocative comedy—at times frivolous, at other times frivolous and whimsical, which will leave the viewer with a lingering question: What went wrong?”
Plan to roll “The Palace” for a theatrical release across Europe in November.
But we’ll have to wait to see how big an audience will be.
Roman Polanski on the set of his new movie “The Palace”
Eliseo Multimedia
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