Polanski’s Golden Berlin Bear winner traverses the territory of absurdist cinema in what is a sporadically engaging but sharp commentary on power plays associated with psychological sadism and the gender and classist pressures to conform.
Polanski doesn’t seem interested to push his film past the second gear, but it is a stately and handsome work about the Dreyfus Affair.
A mundane affair with two actors, or a strong exercise in building sexual tension? Maybe both.
One of Polanski’s finest post-2000s efforts – this is a first-rate old-school mystery-thriller that sees the master filmmaker at the top of his game.
One of Polanski’s finest films, and a great WWII Holocaust drama about human resilience, and the beauty and power of music to overcome sheer adversity.
Polanski’s greatest accomplishment, and one of the finest American films ever made from the ’70s.
More psychological drama than pure horror, Polanski’s classic will haunt viewers willing to be immersed in its reality.
A Polanski masterclass in psychosexual filmmaking, still effectively chilling and disturbing today as it was—surely a shocker!—back in the mid-‘60s.
