Roman Polanski: My inspirations (2015)

The flexible, multi-functional spaces of the Cinema host “Roman Polanski: My Inspirations”, a 2015 documentary interview by Laurent Bouzereau presented for the first time ever to the public on this occasion and accompanied by a selection of films. The filmmaker Roman Polanski conducts a voyage down memory lane from his first encounters with the filming, lights and illusions of cinema, evoking emotions that have remained with him over the years. Starting from his experiences in the theater, the filmmaker identifies a series of films that helped forge his fantasy, and which create a range of models to draw upon, as well as formal solutions he can appropriate. Polanski describes the way in which his experience as a spectator lies at the origin of archetypes that have become constant points-of-reference in his work as a cineaste. For the filmmaker, the choice of addressing these themes became an occasion to trace his creative path, driven by a desire to help fostering the understanding of the films that he has created and share with the general public his passion for masterpieces of the past that risk being forgotten today. Over the course of the interview, the director provides new possible interpretations of his films and sheds light on a network of correspondences and unexpected similarities.