Roman Polanski - Pianist, The/ Macbeth/ The Ninth Gate/ Bitter Moon/ Tess

Five films. The Pianist - Winner of two Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Actor as well as the coveted Palme d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, The Pianist is based on the true-life story of renowned Polish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman, who was forced to evade capture by the Nazis in his war-torn hometown of Warsaw. The story begins in 1939 with Szpilman performing classical compositions on the radio as bombs begin falling on Warsaw. As the months pass, the pianist sees more and more restrictions placed upon Polish Jews. But the family remain convinced that the British will come to their rescue. But it is not to be and his family is eventually rounded up to be shipped off to labour camps. Szpilman manages to escape and hides out in various apartments in the city for the duration of the war. Macbeth - Polanski's Macbeth caused an outrage on first release for its realistic and unrelenting violence, which many believed was the result of his wife Sharon Tate's brutal murder by the Manson family. Jon Finch and Francesca Annis are excellent as the murderous couple destroyed by guilt. The Ninth Gate - Roman Polanski's creepy mystery thriller which delves into the realms of the supernatural in search of the gates of Hell. Johnny Depp stars as Dean Corso, a shady New York book dealer who is hired to locate the last remaining copies of 'The Nine Gates To The Kingdom Of Shadows' a demonic manuscript written in collaboration with the Devil. Corso soon becomes obsessed with his task and finds himself embroiled in satanic rituals, theft and murder... Bitter Moon - A reserved English couple, Nigel and Fiona, take a luxury cruise to try to revitalise their failing marriage. During the trip they meet wheelchair-bound American writer, Oscar and his ravishing French wife, Mimi, whose tales of sensuous exploits both enthrall and disgust Nigel. Their bizarre friendship with Oscar and Mimi ends in a tragedy of enormous proportions in this erotic tale of passion and obsession. Tess - Roman Polanski's Academy Award (R) winning interpretation of Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles'. Tess is the daughter of a poor drunken farmer who discovers that he is actually of noble descent. Tess is sent off to live with their proper and wealthy relatives. There, she is seduced by a suave but sinister cousin and bears him a bastard son who dies while still an infant. The backdrop is a morally rigid Victorian England where Tess must carry the shame of her past into her marriage to a minister's son - until she cleanses herself of all guilt in one ultimate act of passion. Nominated for 6 Academy Awards (R), including Best Picture, and won three for its Cinematography, Art Direction and Costume Design (1980).