New film tells the ‘real story’ of Roman Polanski’s life

A NEW film about controversial director Roman Polanski will be “opinion changing” and allow audiences to hear about his turbulent life in his own words, its director said yesterday.

The 90-minute documentary tells Polanski’s life story, from his childhood in the Krakow ghetto, the death of his mother and murder of his pregnant wife Sharon Tate, through to his arrest for sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Director Laurent Bouzereau said the film, which he has brought to this year’s Cannes Film Festival, would challenge people’s perceptions of Polanski and his life.

“They know the stories the media want them to know, or they’ve heard something and therefore they make an assumption,” Bouzereau said. “But really only he knows the story. Only he knows how to tell the story.”

Polanski’s life is itself the stuff of a great Hollywood movie. The director, now 78, pleaded guilty to having unlawful intercourse with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in the US in 1977.

He fled the US on the eve of sentencing and was re-arrested in Zurich in 2009, then spent months in prison and under house arrest but avoided extradition.

Previously, he endured great personal tragedy – his wife, American actress Tate, was eight and a half months pregnant when she was murdered in 1969 by followers of Charles Manson.