40 Roman Polanski Quotes: Cinema Should Make you Forget

Roman Polanski is a towering figure in the world of cinema. In a career spanning 60 years, the prolific and influential filmmaker directed some of the greatest films of the last century including Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Chinatown (1974) and The Pianist (2002).

He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, nine César Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Golden Bear and a Palme d’Or.

In this article, we’ll be sharing 40 of our favorite filmmaking quotes from the Oscar winning film director and producer.

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Roman Polanski Quotes

The thing that gives me the most satisfaction is film-making, and being on the set; that means also making things that you want to do. Every project I do is a dream. Once you start getting involved, you want to do it to your best. I do these things spontaneously – I don’t really care what people think.

My films are the expression of momentary desires. I follow my instincts, but in a disciplined way.

The best films are because of nobody but the director.

When I really love a movie, I don’t want to spoil it by too frequent visits. But I like to come back to certain films, which I admire.

You make films for people, so you enjoy it when it’s a success. Who wants an empty theatre? But you can’t think of that when you’re doing it because you have to satisfy your own artistic taste, and not trying to extrapolate it, asking whether they’re going to like it or not, because it doesn’t work this way, unfortunately.

I want people to go to the movies. I am the man of the spectacle. I’m playing.

Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater.

Finding Film Projects

With each film, i need an artistic challenge so I don’t get bored! I like to tackle challenges.

The older I get, the harder I find it to decide what I should do next. As a young man I was much more innocent. Life seemed endless and I simply said, “Okay: I’m doing this film. Period.” Time has taught me that I have to assume all the responsibilities when I embark on one of these adventures, and today I ask myself, “Do I really have the perseverance? Can I handle everything getting on my nerves?” Making films is a battle and sometimes you get tired of fighting. I simply want to produce good work, and that’s why I have to think I’m the best. Of course this isn’t easy because it’s not necessarily true. But you won’t win if you think you’re a loser.

I think it comes from what I see around me. I love cinema and I see a lot. I do films that I would like to see at a given time, somehow I cater to my own desires. I do things instinctively, even though I’m very analytically-minded as far as other things are concerned, life in general and philosophy. I’m very interested in science, I read more nonfiction than fiction. But as far as my own work is concerned, I don’t analyze until I’m asked a question by actors on the set or by the journalists, when I have to. And I always come up with an answer, but it complicates my life and my work. It’s like the centipede who’s been asked which foot he puts first and which next; he couldn’t walk anymore.

I’m happy when I find a subject that excites me, that gives me a reason to make a film; and I’m still happy when I’m making it because this is my real and true profession.

A movie comes to me like a dish in a restaurant. I pick up the menu and I don’t ask myself why I order something. Of course, there’s a certain element of thinking of my health, but there’s no definite reason for why I choose a dish. At the given time I feel like making a certain type of movie.

Roman Polanski Quotes on Filmmaking

I never think of the camera until the scene has been almost lit. I think the camera is the last thing. You see, to think og the camera first is like tailoring the suit and then looking for a person who will fit it. I’d rather get the person and then take the measurements and make a suit for him.

Attention to detail is something that I have been always very fond of, even when I was doing my first little films at the film school, and even before then when I used to go the cinema, the films that really interested me as the viewer were the ones which had tremendous attention to detail. I think that detail creates atmosphere; and now when I go the cinema sometimes a little detail which is wrong can throw me completely off. When I see a film, let’s say, which happens in the 30s and suddenly I see men with long hair – that spoils the film for me completely because I know that people didn’t wear this type of hairdo until only 10 or 15 years ago. It’s a question of honesty, of not only the film director but any other artist or writer, this attention to detail. In literature, when the writer knows the subject he is writing about, it becomes twice as interesting.

Roman Polanski: Interview from 1976

I think casting is very important. If you have the right type of person for the role, that’s already halfway to the success. You have the idea of the character and you search for an actor who fits that. You see quickly that it’s going to work with some actors and not with others. You make mistakes, but not often. For me, good casting is more important than an actor’s ability. You often look for the best possible actors, that’s true. But if I come across an actor who is perhaps less talented than another, but perfect for my character, then it’s him I’m going to hire.

It’s easy to direct while acting – there’s one less person to argue with.

To the audience it doesn’t really matter how much the director struggled with an actor. It’s the result that counts.

I sometimes cry in the moments that are not necessarily dramatic or Image I sometimes cry in the moments that are not necessarily dramatic or tragic in the films, often because of the music. I wonder whether it’s the music that has that effect on you in this film.

You have to show violence the way it is. If you don’t show it realistically, then that’s immoral and harmful. If you don’t upset people, then that’s obscenity.

I don’t really know what is shocking. When you tell the story of a man who is beheaded, you have to show how they cut off his head. If you don’t, it’s like telling a dirty joke and leaving out the punch line.

Polanski on his Films

If ever I see one of my films on television, I have a hard time sitting through it, because it seems like all the sins of youth. Truly, I don’t think I did my picture yet. I don’t feel like I did anything that was totally satisfying to me.

The first time that I felt that I really had got it technically smooth was Rosemary’s Baby (1968). The first time I made a film that would make me happy because I felt the humour and the tone the way I like it was The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967). Chinatown (1974) was the first film where I had no struggle throughout the production because I was totally supported by the producer and had everything at my disposal; I was like a racing driver with a bunch of people standing around you and just ready to respond to every gesture.

To me, Rosemary’s Baby (1968) is not an entirely serious movie – it can be interpreted two ways. I shot it in such a way that you could consider her as a person with problems and imagining it all. I made it more ambiguous than the book and that’s why I never showed the baby.

Every film I make represents a departure for me. You see, it takes so long to make a film. By the time you get to the next one you’re already a different man. You’ve grown up by one or two years. Chinatown is a thriller and the story line is very important. There is a lot of dialogue. But I missed some opportunity for visual inventiveness. I felt sometimes as if I were doing some kind of TV show. I thought I had always been an able, inventive, creative director and there I was putting two people at a table and letting them talk. When I tried to make it look original I saw it start to become pretentious, so concentrated on the performances and kept an ordinary look.

Roman Polanski: 1974 Interview

[on Carnage (2011)] With each film, I need an artistic challenge so I don’t get bored! I like to tackle challenges. On this film, it was telling a story that takes place in real time and in a confined space. I’ve made films before in an enclosed space, but not as rigorously self-contained, so this was a new experience. When I was a teenager, I was really struck by Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948), with its strange castle full of stairs, terraces and corridors, and also by Carol Reed’s fabulous Odd Man Out (1947) with James Mason. It’s a film with such a strong impact that I often tried to imitate it later. In fact, my first film, Knife in the Water (1962) was filmed on a boat with three people. So I wasn’t afraid of the constraints of a confined space like an apartment. I find it really exciting, in fact, even if it isn’t easy. Because there were no ellipses, you couldn’t put something in a different place from one shot to another. If someone put a glass on the table it had to be there throughout the picture unless we see it being moved in the action.

I don’t think I made my movie yet. I don’t have one that would give me a real satisfaction. I would not put any one of them on my gravestone.

Roman Polanski [2000]

I think my best work is The Pianist (2002). I think if I were asked what cans of which movies do I want deposited on my tomb, I would say “The Pianist”. But next probably is Chinatown (1974).

Roman Polanski [2007]

The Pianist (2002) was a film that I could make with my eyes closed because I had lived it and everything was still alive in me. I did not ever want to do any kind of autobiographical film about my childhood during the war. But I did want to use that experience in a motion picture on that subject. So throughout the film I use bits and pieces of what I remember. It’s probably my most personal film for the simple reason that I was able to use my own recollections of the period. It was actually more painful to go through the research preparations than it was shooting. However, during the six months of production there were moments that so vividly reminded me of events that I felt very taken aback.

On Other Film Directors

I used to talk on the phone to Stanley Kubrick. These were conversations which would last sometimes for a long, long time. I liked him very much. He was brilliant and bright and it was always so exciting to talk to him because he knew so much about everything. And he said, ‘Don’t you hate that interim period when you don’t know what you are going to do next? Why is it from film to film more difficult to decide what you want to do?’ And I remember I said ‘yes, yes, yes’ but I didn’t know what he was talking about. Because in those times it was so easy for me to choose my next film. But now I know what he meant. One is much more exigeant [French for ‘demanding’] – what is this? Demanding? Because you know it takes so much of your time and energy. It’s like taking a dive. You hesitate before you jump. [2005]

[on François Truffaut and the French New Wave] His passion for Hitchcock and his interest in American cinema must have something to do with his idea of the movies. I think that he had a different basis and a real talent. I liked him as a person and I liked him as an artist. At that period, he was the only French member of the so-called Nouvelle Vague that I would appreciate. Some of the films of the Nouvelle Vague were excruciatingly boring. Most of them were completely amateurish. It was just one of those periods when suddenly people get ecstatic about something which may later prove to be completely worthless or fake. It was a little bit of the emperor’s new clothes.

Polanski on Success and Film Business

[advice to aspiring filmmakers] It’s a question of patience and perseverance. You can’t teach talent, but you can tell someone how to sustain the adversity which is an enemy constantly on set. Whatever type of film you make, it requires a crew, it requires financing, it requires a lot of people around you. And those people – even if they are all with you, even if they are all friendly, and even if they agree with the final result – they still have their personal agendas. They see things differently than you do. They have families and children and girlfriends and they’re horny. So what you really need is to be patient and to be able to stand all those problems.

Every failure made me more confident. Because I wanted even more to achieve as revenge, to show that I could

There are differences between making films in the US and Europe; in America the opportunities are grander but the films are more formulaic and less artistic.

Regarding this tendency of television series or television….big firms encroaching on festivals – it’s beyond my possibility of analysis – I think the future will tell you what’s happening. I don’t think there is a basic threat for cinema because I think that people will go to the movies not because it’s a better sound or better projection or better seats than they have in their homes; they go to the cinema because they can participate in an experience with the audience around them and this is as old as humanity, whether it was Greek theatre or Roman circus or a concert – I remember when those gadgets like Walkman became popular, they were saying, “This is the end of the concerts” – since then we didn’t have crowds like that in history where you have close to a hundred thousand listeners gathering together. People like experiencing things and spectacle together, and I think that’s the main reason why they go to the cinema – it’s a very difficult experience to see, I don’t know, the Borat alone or see it in the cinema, packed with laughing audience.

It’s getting more and more difficult to make an ambitious and original film. There are less and less independent producers or independent companies and an increasing number of corporations who are more interested in balance sheets than in artistic achievement. They want to make a killing each time they produce a film. They’re only interested in the lowest common denominator because they’re trying to reach the widest audience. And you get some kind of entropy. That’s the danger; they look more alike, those films. The style is all melting and it all looks the same. Even young directors – for most of them their only standard of achievement is how well their films do on the first weekend or whatever. It worries me. But then, from time to time, you have a film like The Usual Suspects (1995) or Pulp Fiction (1994), which I enjoyed very much. Whenever you do something new or original, people run to see it because it’s different. Then, if it happens to be successful, the studios rush to imitate it. It becomes commonplace right away. But it’s been like that before, I think. Now, the stakes are so gigantic that they cut each other’s throats. So if most of the films are failures, then those that succeed so spectacularly, so commercially, become the norm. It’s like a roulette for the studios. The problem with it is that it becomes more and more of a committee. Before, you dealt with the studio. It had one or two persons and now you have masses of executives who have to justify their existence and write so-called “creative notes” and have creative meetings. They obsess about the word creative probably because they aren’t.

[on attracting an audience] One can create the most marvellous things, but if they are not accepted, it’s a tragedy. It’s like Van Gogh, who sold only one painting, and in fact to his brother, I believe. This great painter, who is my absolute favourite, lived his life for us, not for himself. I don’t have this ambition; I would like to share my view of the world with others.

Roman Polanski Quotes Final Words

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