Film and the work of Roman Polanski

¶ … Polanski's

The Ninth Gate and the Pianist

Roman Polanski is one of the most prolific modern-day directors and one word that can be used to describe his works is surrealism. Polanski also integrates symbolism and romanticism in his films to achieve certain effects. Polanski's influence on film rises up from the notion that objects and people can be utilized as vehicles for incomprehension and complete understanding. Humanity looks different according to how we perceive it and Polanski offers us the opportunity to perceive in many different ways based and emotions such as desire and longing to fear. Emotion serves as an anchor in his films and we often have powerful objects to which we can attach those emotions. Polanski's powerful direction often results in ingesting aspects of a film long after it has been viewed.

Many of Polanski's films operate from the perspective of the outsider that is seeking information of some sort from an insider. This type of direction indicates that conclusions in films are not necessarily fixed but instead evolve according to the outsider. Signals and signs exist among other signals and signs and they interact with one another to form a dynamic relationship. The unforeseen is significant in this respect and it exists through a variety of techniques including parody, irony, and imitation. Polanski's vision also includes doppelgangers and mirrors where individuals see reflections - either a reflection of him or herself or someone else and because of this dynamic, Polanski can show people from different perspectives. As with most creators of larger-than-life characters, Polanski provides an image, perhaps a victimized one or an insane one, and it is up to us to discern upon what we are looking. In the Ninth Gate, we must decide at what point to believe that our protagonist is learning, or seeing, the truth in his quest. Polanski is not afraid to illustrate the question of human perception and often links this to surrealistic elements in films. How one looks at an object and how it appears may be two different things entirely and Polanski populates his films with characters and objects that are always worth a second and third glance. One particularly powerful scene occurs in the library with the mysterious woman appearing then disappearing. We know she is there behind the bookshelf just as we know that she is above him on the upper floor but second glances cause us to doubt. Alexander Stein asserts that the film takes the "spiritual side of consumption as far as it will go" (Caplan). Polanski is also known for his "penchant for idiosyncratic literary adaptations" (Morrison) and his "tendency to integrate surrealist or visionary imagery into the frameworks of traditional genres" (Morrison 34). The Ninth Gate harks back to a "kind of old-style European sensibility - assumed, paradoxically, to be lost" (34). Morrison observes that how the film "registers what it's really about... is, in the end, a sign of its odd sense of mastery. The technical advancements of the film... are unimpeachable and strangely casual" (45). As we learn from Corso, the quest for information leaves us wondering as the final scene in the Ninth Gate does.

Polanski pays special attention to objects, particularly hands, to emphasize their importance. In the Pianist, Szpilman's hands open and close the film, indicating their value to him and his life. The piano is also a significant object as well. It becomes representative of Szpilman's life and survival. How Polanski chooses to convey the significance of the piano is important. Alexander Stein observes that the piano is something with which Szpilman has an intimate relationship. This can be seen in the scene when Szpilman hides in a room with a piano inside. He cannot make a sound so he sits at the piano mimicking the movement of playing with his fingers dancing above the piano keys. Stein maintains, "Polanski's interpretive choice in so structuring this scene bears consideration... It elegantly communicates Szpilman's unconscious reliance upon his intimate relationship with the piano and the vast repertoire of music stored in his memory as a musical-hallucinatory coping mechanism" (Stein). Another scene that depicts this relationship occurs when the Nazi finds Szpilman in the house and asks him to play. Here we see the connection between man and object and understand how that relationship helped the man keep his sanity. The soldier's reaction is quite compelling in helping us comprehend the magnitude of the relationship. In the Ninth Gate, we can say that Corso's spectacles become a symbol of the man's ability to reason. We must ask if we believe that Corso sees what he thinks he sees. The relationship between individuals and objects is crucial to understanding the development of each film.