Celebrity biographer Sandford (McCartney
, etc.) tackles the life of director Roman Polanski, but only scratches the surface of one of cinema’s most controversial figures. Born in Paris in 1933, Polanski, with his family, moved to Poland in 1936 on the eve of World War II. His mother died in Auschwitz and his father was imprisoned for the duration of the war, leaving Polanski to fend for himself in the Kraków ghetto. He later attended Lódz’s National Film School and began attracting attention for themes that would become his trademarks: voyeurism, sexual tension and latent violence. Polanski took full advantage of the “swinging” ’60s in Paris, London and later America, and developed a reputation as a lothario with an eye for younger women. His life and career in America, which included the classics Rosemary’s Baby
(1968) and Chinatown
(1974), were marred by two pivotal events: the 1969 slaying of his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, by members of Charlie Manson’s “Family” and Polanski’s own arrest in 1977 for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. (Sept.)
