A Jewish Boy in German-Occupied Poland and a Jewish Teenager in Early-Communist-Ruled Poland (4.0)

Instead of repeating other reviewers, and dwelling on Polanski's (Liebling's) accomplishments and celebrity status, I limit my review to Polanski's experiences in Poland.

Polanski's childhood was spend near Krakow (Cracow). He avoided the Nazis by staying at the village of Wysoka with the Buchala family (pp. 39-46), where he did farm chores. Apart from being temporarily moved to another village to avoid a German census, and being shot at by a German for an unknown reason (p. 44), his stay was uneventful. He did not feel the need to hide in order to avoid getting denounced as a Jew. To the contrary: He freely played with the gentile boys in the village. (p. 43). When he revisited Poland in the early 1980's, he went to see the Buchalas, and learned from others that they were no longer alive.

The entering Red Army stole from the Poles. (p. 48). The privations of post-war Poles were obvious. Poles engaged in scavenging (p. 49) and, lacking enough clothes, had to wear discarded German uniforms for years. (p. 49). [Although Polanski doesn't develop this further, the circumstances described help illuminate Poles' looting of the places of the murders of Jews for valuables.] He also writes: "Because of the housing shortage, Mrs. Winowski was compelled to take lodgers." [Although Polanski doesn't mention postwar killings, the poverty and housing shortage help the reader understand why some Poles weren't exactly thrilled when Jewish survivors showed up and reclaimed their properties, and why, on rare occasions (600 out of 300,000 surviving Jews), Poles killed them. But note that, despite the extreme circumstances, the vast majority of Poles relinquished the properties without incident.]

While Polanski was a teenager and young adult, the Soviet Communist puppet state was tightening its grip upon Poland's citizens. Polanski reported that people found an outlet for their individualism in such things as athletics (p. 83) and jazz (p. 118). When he revisited Krakow in 1976, he observed firsthand how the priceless architecture of the city had been damaged by the air pollution emanating from the factories in nearby Nowa Huta. (p. 380).

A Life Characterized by Accomplishments and Extremes. (4.0)

When Roman Polanski wrote this autobiography, he was still under a pall of pessimism following the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, 15 years earlier. I imagine that a lot has changed in his life since 1984, considering his remarriage and new family. But "Roman by Polanski" is a very readable, articulate, and seemingly candid account of Polanski's childhood in German-occupied Poland, his youth under communism, his professional struggles and emergence as a coveted talent in the 1960s, when he took up a bohemian lifestyle in Hollywood and London. That was shattered, of course, by the murder of 5 people, including his wife, as his L.A. home by the Manson "Family" in August 1969, an event which is often cited as the end of the freewheeling '60s. Polanski later fled the United States over sentencing irregularities in a statutory rape case, and he offers his view of that situation as well.

Polanski recounts the making of his films in varying degrees of detail, from his student productions in Poland through "Tess". At the time he wrote this book, he was burned out on filmmaking and had returned to the stage to play the part of Mozart in Peter Schaffer's play "Amadeus". Polanski lays out the events of his personal and professional life plainly. He has had an interesting life, accentuated by the stark contrasts between communism and capitalism, poverty and wealth, freedom and persecution. Readers may be more curious about Polanski's character, though. He relished his lifestyle, was accused of rape, and so became the libertine that everyone loves to bash. His driving ambition in everything he attempts and his social values, from his reckless generosity to his many lovers, come across as having shaped his life. And they gave him many interesting stories to tell.

It's All Here (5.0)

Covers his childhood memories of war-torn Poland, reminiscent of "Schindler's List". His struggles as a young director and the heartache of the tragic murder of his wife Sharon Tate and their unborn child. And he even discusses his envolvement with the underaged girl at Jack Nicholson's place, that caused his exhile from the U.S. to this very day. You be the judge. An all-around well written autobiography.

a sinner and a genius ... (5.0)

Roman Polanski, born on august 18, 1933, has written a fascinating autobiography. He is a sinner and a genius, a chaotic man and a passionate, he is a machismo and a vulnerable human being, he overcame the WWII, the Polish ghettos and the Holocaust as a resilient child and he lost his wife Sharon Tate and an unborn child in 1969 by the Manson Group massacre, and on the other hand he overcame (as an adult) a special pattern of machismo-self-destruction (with 13 year old girl accusing him of sexual contact). He had lived a lousy life in Nazi-surpressed Polish ghettos and he had lived with too much pride and arrogance in Hollywood, he was arrested in the United States and nevertheless now he releases movies in Paris (presently married with French actress Emmanuelle Seigner). He is a gifted filmmaker and indeed: a writer, better than any crime-author I know; his book, published in 1984, is not a larmoyant, self-pitiful autobiography alike 1001 others - it is an absorbing story about a personality-mixture-hybrid of a Robin Hood mixed with Mac Beth, an Idi Amin mixed with a Mother Theresa, it is the story of "Roman" P., who started his life 1933 in Paris as "Raymond" P.; the first sentence of his autobiography: "For as far back as I can remember, the line between fantasy and reality has been hopelessly blurred." That became his helping trick to survive some struggles and tragedies, downfalls and comebacks ...

One of the most impressive books ever read (5.0)

I lost my copy of this book years ago and am so glad to have it back. Anyone who admires Polanski's work will love this book. Anyone who questions Polanski's love of life, Sharon, and the World he lives in should read this book. You will understand him in a whole new light. He's amazing. Read this before any other about him. Please!!!!!!