Roman Polanski's best cinema lands in La 2 with Chinatown (1974), one of his best works starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway.
The director is one of the geniuses of the performing arts, and if professionally he has had a great time, personally he has known the bitterest side of life. In August 1969, a series of crimes committed by a group of members of the so-called 'Manson Family' ended the lives of seven people in Beverly Hills, including Sharon Tate, Hollywood symbol and wife of Roman Polanski.
They attacked the mansion and, with extreme cruelty, murdered five people that night: Sharon Tate, eight months pregnant with filmmaker Roman Polanski, whose life was saved because she was in London filming The Day of the Dolphin, a film she never finished; her friend Abigail Folger, a coffee company heiress; her boyfriend and Polish screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski; hairstylist to the stars and Tate's ex-boyfriend, Jey Sebring; and Steven Parent, an 18-year-old friend of the gardener who was leaving the home and who was surprised by the arrival of the 'death quartet'.
In 1971, Charles Manson was tried and considered the main culprit as the intellectual author of the murders, sentenced to death. Although it was commuted to life imprisonment due to a change in judicial doctrine.
Tarantino addresses the death of Sharon Tate in one of his films
The influence on popular culture of the serial killer Charles Manson is evident. His last name inspired the name of the band Marilyn Manson and its leader and vocalist. Groups like Guns N' Roses have also covered the murderer. Film and television continue to treat the crimes of the 'Family' with absolute fascination, as is the case with Quentin Tarantino's film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).
Played by Margot Robbie and sharing a spectacular cast with Brad Pitt and Leonardo Di Caprio, they recreate the massacre of that night without actually producing the murder itself on screen.
Barbara Kwiatkowska-Lass, Polanski's first wife
Before Emmanuelle and Sharon, Polanski found love (one of his first) with Polish actress Barbara Kwiatkowska-Lass. They married in 1959 when he was 26 years old, and divorced shortly after in 1962. Just the year before their wedding, the actress starred in the comedy Eva Wants to Sleep, by director Tadeusz Chmielevski, which won the Golden Shell at the Festival. of San Sebastián Cinema.
