International Intrigue. The cinema of Roman Polanski

Mole Antonelliana, Torino
24 September8 December 2008
Curated by: Alberto Barbera

A tribute to the film genius of Roman Polanski through a photographic voyage to rediscover the works of this great director, who is of Polish origin but is stateless by vocation. With his films, he has crossed and touched all the west’s nouvelles vagues, from the new Polish cinema to the French nouvelle vague; from England’s free cinema to the new American cinema, before returning to settle in the heart of Europe and rediscover his own roots. But not without first having absorbed all the influences and cultures he has come upon over the years, that have made his cinema one of the most fascinating and multiform expressions of an art form that lends itself to contaminations of forms and genres but never yields to fashions and stereotypes. Polanski is a maestro of modernity who is able to mix a taste for the absurd with surreal humor; a sense of individual anguish with a feel for historical tragedy; Kammerspiel with the fantastic; the discrete fascination of violence with the irresistible appeal of adventure.
The exhibition has been organized in the Temple Hall and along the railings of the Mole Antonelliana: 120 still and set photos by famous photographers and 19 original posters by important artists trace the director’s artistic career. The exhibit also features a plasma screen showing sequences taken from Polanski’s most famous films.

On the occasion of the exhibit a complete retrospective has been organized by the Torino Film Festival for its 26th edition and a book has been published, curated by Stefano Francia di Celle.

 

The exhibit is available to be set up in other locations.