Roman Polanski’s Italian producer Luca Barbareschi used the Venice press conference for The Palace, Polanski’s latest black comedy, as an opportunity to blast U.S. streamers for not backing the controversial director.
Noting that Polanski’s back catalog, including such films as Chinatown, The Ghostwriter and Rosemary’s Baby, is carried on many U.S. platforms, he chastized the streamers for not investing in the director’s latest production.
“I don’t understand why all the platforms: Paramount+, Amazon, Netflix, have Polanski’s [older movies] that are making millions for them,” he said. “Why won’t they produce Polanski’s new movie?”
The Palace is set at Switzerland’s Gstaad Palace luxury hotel and examines the interactions between the hotel’s serving staff and the phenomenally wealthy guests in the run-up to a New Year’s Eve party to ring in the new millennium of 2000. Mickey Rourke, John Cleese, Fanny Ardant, Oliver Masucci, Joaquim de Almeida and Milan Peschel are among The Palace‘s ensemble cast. Polanski, who is still a fugitive from U.S. justice, did not attend the Venice festival but Barbareschi addressed the press on Saturday, along with The Palace co-stars Ardant, Masucci, De Almeida and Peschel.
Barbareschi, who also co-stars in the film, said it was “very difficult” to find the financing to make the €21 million ($22 million) movie. “Polanski is not easy [to finance],” he said. Several European distributors have pre-bought the film — French sales group Goodfellas has announced deals for most European territories, including for Vértigo Films in Spain and Weltkino in Germany — but one major territory has proved uncommonly difficult to close.
“There is a hole — France — in the middle of this film,” Barbareschi said.
French distributors have to date passed on the movie, a first for Polanski, who lives in France and whose films have delivered dependably good box office there. His last feature, An Officer and a Spy, which premiered in Venice, grossed nearly $12 million in the territory. But the premiere of Officer and a Spy in 2019 put a renewed focus on the director’s past. In 1978, Polanski, who will turn 90 this year, pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. Before he could be sentenced, he fled the country and has remained a fugitive from U.S. justice ever since.
An Officer and a Spy won the Grand Jury prize in Venice and Polanski went on to win best director at the 2020 Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars. French actor Adele Haenel, the star of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, stormed out of the Cesar ceremony in protest and there was an industry outcry over the decision.
The backlash against Polanski has meant many distributors are wary of acquiring his films. An Officer and a Spy was not released in any English-speaking countries and The Palace has no distribution in place for the U.S. or the U.K.
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