Roman Polanski - All His Films Ranked

Short Biography:

Roman Polanski (Born 18 August 1933) is a film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. 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.

His Polish–Jewish parents moved the family from his birthplace in Paris back to Kraków in 1937. Two years later, the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany started World War II, and the family found themselves trapped in the Kraków Ghetto. After his mother and father were taken in raids, Polanski spent his formative years in foster homes, surviving the Holocaust by adopting a false identity and concealing his Jewish heritage. Polanski’s first feature-length film, Knife in the Water (1962), was made in Poland and was nominated for the United States Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. After living in France for a few years, he moved to the United Kingdom, where he directed his first three English-language feature-length films: Repulsion (1965), Cul-de-sac (1966), and The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967). In 1968, he moved to the United States and cemented his status in the film industry by directing the horror film Rosemary’s Baby (1968).

Polanski’s life turned in 1969 when his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, and four friends were murdered by members of the Manson Family.

He made Macbeth (1971) in England and Chinatown (1974) back in Hollywood. In 1977, Polanski was arrested and charged with drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. As a result of a plea bargain, he pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of unlawful sex with a minor. In 1978, upon learning that the judge planned to reject his plea deal and impose a prison term instead of probation, he fled to Paris. As a result, Polanski is a fugitive from the U.S. criminal justice system. After fleeing to Europe, Polanski continued directing. His other critically acclaimed films include Tess (1979), The Ghost Writer (2010), Venus in Fur (2013), and An Officer and a Spy (2019).

Here is a rundown of his movies, with the score based on the average from IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes (public votes only) and Letterboxd, from lowest ranked to highest:

Number of Qualifying Films:

Career Average Rating:

7.30

Total Career Box Office:

Total Combined Budgets:

Total Career Profit or [Loss]:

Average Career Return on Every $1 Spent:

22 – Based on a True Story (2017)

IMDb:

5.7

RT Users:

3.5

Letterboxd:

5.32

4.84

Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Top Billed Cast:

Emmanuelle Seigner, Eva Green, Vincent Perez, Dominique Pinon, Brigitte Roüan

SYNOPSIS:

Delphine is the author of an autobiographical novel that has become a bestseller. Exhausted by the promotional tour, just when she feels out of place, paralyzed by the idea of having to start writing again, she meets Elle, a young, attractive, intelligent, intuitive woman who seems to understand her better than anyone.

21 – What? (1972)

IMDb:

5.6

RT Users:

5.0

Letterboxd:

5.12

5.24

Comedy

Top Billed Cast:

Marcello Mastroianni, Sydne Rome, Hugh Griffith, Guido Alberti, Henning Schlüter

SYNOPSIS:

A young American woman travelling through Italy finds herself in a strange Mediterranean villa where nothing seems right.

20 – Pirates (1986)

IMDb:

6.0

RT Users:

5.1

Letterboxd:

5.26

5.45

Adventure, Comedy

Top Billed Cast:

Walter Matthau, Cris Campion, Damien Thomas, Olu Jacobs, Charlotte Lewis, Roy Kinnear

SYNOPSIS:

Marooned on a raft in mid-ocean, a fearsome buccaneer and his young crewman are at the end of their tether when the Spanish galleon Neptune hoves into view. As they clamber aboard, little do the pirates realise that their real trials are just about to begin.

19 – The Ninth Gate (1999)

IMDb:

6.7

RT Users:

5.7

Letterboxd:

6.16

6.19

Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Top Billed Cast:

Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Lena Olin, Emmanuelle Seigner, Barbara Jefford

SYNOPSIS:

Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) specializes in tracking down rare and exotic volumes for collectors. Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) has recently acquired a seventeenth-century satanic text called The Nine Gates- a legendary book written by Satan himself. With The Nine Gates in his possession, Corso soon finds himself at the center of strange and violent goings-on. Not only is his apartment ransacked, it appears that he is being shadowed ferociously by others determined to regain the book.

18 – Oliver Twist (2005)

IMDb:

6.8

RT Users:

6.3

Letterboxd:

6.22

6.44

Crime, Drama, Family

Top Billed Cast:

Barney Clark, Ben Kingsley, Jamie Foreman, Harry Eden, Edward Hardwicke, Leanne Rowe

SYNOPSIS:

Roman Polanski adapts the classic Dickens tale, in which an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.

17 – Frantic (1988)

IMDb:

6.9

RT Users:

6.4

Letterboxd:

6.76

6.69

Crime, Mystery, Thriller

Top Billed Cast:

Harrison Ford, Emmanuelle Seigner, Betty Buckley, Dominique Pinon, John Mahoney

SYNOPSIS:

While attending a medical conference in Paris, Dr. Richard Walker (Harrison Ford) is horrified when his wife, Sondra (Betty Buckley), is abducted from their hotel room while he is taking a shower. Using his limited knowledge of French language and culture, Walker must navigate the bureaucracy of French law enforcement and ultimately, with the help of street waif Michelle (Emmanuelle Seigner), infiltrate Paris’ criminal underworld in order to discover what really happened to his wife.

16 – The Ghost Writer (2010)

IMDb:

7.2

RT Users:

7.0

Letterboxd:

6.92

7.04

Mystery, Thriller

Top Billed Cast:

Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams, Tom Wilkinson

SYNOPSIS:

When a successful ghostwriter, the Ghost (Ewan McGregor), agrees to finish the memoirs of Adam Long (Pierce Brosnan), England’s former prime minister, his publisher assures him it’s the chance of a lifetime. Instead, he begins to uncover evidence that suggests his late predecessor knew a dark secret about Lang and may have been murdered to prevent it from coming to light.

15 – The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)

IMDb:

7.1

RT Users:

7.5

Letterboxd:

6.60

7.07

Comedy, Horror

Top Billed Cast:

Jack MacGowran, Roman Polanski, Alfie Bass, Jessie Robins, Sharon Tate, Ferdy Mayne

SYNOPSIS:

Vampire hunter Professor Abronsius (Jack MacGowran) and his faithful assistant, Alfred (Roman Polanski), are traveling across Transylvania when they stop to rest at a suspicious-looking inn. That night, they witness the innkeeper’s daughter, Sarah (Sharon Tate), being whisked away by Count von Krolock (Ferdy Mayne), an obvious vampire, and pursue him to his nearby castle. They break in, only to be invited to stay by the unfazed count, and plot to rescue Sarah and destroy their murderous host.

14 – Carnage (2011)

IMDb:

7.1

RT Users:

6.6

Letterboxd:

7.50

7.07

Comedy, Drama

Top Billed Cast:

Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly

SYNOPSIS:

When some roughhousing between two 11-year-old boys named Zachary and Ethan erupts into real violence, Ethan loses two teeth. Zachary’s parents, Alan and Nancy Cowen (Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz), meet with Ethan’s parents, Penelope and Michael Longstreet (Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly), to try to smooth things over. However, what starts as a polite meeting among adults descends into finger-pointing, tantrums and insults. Based on the play “God of Carnage” by Yasmina Reza.

13 – Venus in Fur (2013)

IMDb:

7.1

RT Users:

7.2

Letterboxd:

7.18

7.16

Drama

Top Billed Cast:

Emmanuelle Seigner, Mathieu Amalric

SYNOPSIS:

An enigmatic actress (Emmanuelle Seigner) may have a hidden agenda when she auditions for a part in a misogynistic writer’s (Mathieu Amalric) play.

12 – Cul-de-sac (1966)

IMDb:

7.0

RT Users:

7.8

Letterboxd:

7.00

7.27

Comedy, Drama, Thriller

Top Billed Cast:

Lionel Stander, Donald Pleasence, Françoise Dorléac, Jack MacGowran, Iain Quarrier

SYNOPSIS:

When on-the-lam crook Richard (Lionel Stander) and his injured partner-in-crime, Albie (Jack MacGowran), seek shelter in a remote castle by the sea, they find themselves confronted by the owners — George (Donald Pleasence), an eccentric and weak retiree, and his oversexed wife, Teresa (Françoise Dorléac). Richard seizes control of the castle, but, as the criminals are pulled further into the isolated world of the strange couple, a volatile test of wills ensues.

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Roman Polanski - All His Films Ranked

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