Recently, the famous director Roman Polanski published his latest memoir, "Ne courez pas! Marchez!", in which he recalled his displaced childhood life while fleeing Nazi persecution, and had a conversation with his father across time and space.
The book is divided into two parts. The first half is the director's memories of his childhood life during the war, and the second half is titled "Letters to My Son", written by his father Richard Polanski (Ryszard Polanski). This time, it was translated from Polish into French by the director's longtime friend, actor Piotr Kaminski.
"Don't Run! Walk!" received positive reviews from many French media outlets.
"Daily life is extremely hard, but I don't mind it at all. The child is used to these living conditions, and it doesn't make me sad. The child is sad because he is separated from his parents. This is what hurts me, so I think about the moment when we will be reunited again 24 hours a day. Even when I sleep, I think about it."
In 2006, the Shoah Memory Foundation invited Polanski to write his memories of his wartime childhood in order to leave the most authentic historical page for future generations. While writing the above text, he recalled that as early as 1973, he had also asked his father to write a memoir about the Shoah for him. However, he was busy making movies in Hollywood and gradually forgot about it. Until recently, he rediscovered this memoir that he had never read before. It constitutes the second part of this unique book, and also makes "Don't Run! Walk!" a unique work that brings together two touching and thought-provoking historical memories of a father and son.
Roman Polanski was born in Paris on August 18, 1933, and returned to his hometown of Poland with his parents in 1937. When World War II broke out, the German army invaded Poland, and thousands of local Jews were forcibly imprisoned in the Jewish ghetto, including his family. After that, his father was sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, and his mother, who was four months pregnant, died in the gas chamber of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Roman Polanski (right) and his father Richard Polanski
Richard Polanski later miraculously survived the Mauthausen concentration camp and lived until 1983, when he died of cancer. In his memoirs to his son, he wrote in an almost joking tone: "More than 350 young people were shot, and before they were shot in the back of the head, they were all huddled together to dig a hole. Two people slept on an 80-centimeter-wide bed, hungry, cold, and dirty. Prisoners, Jews who supervised prisoners, and Ukrainians were constantly executed, but Richard came out alive."
Roman Polanski, who was separated from his parents, also had a tragic fate. At the age of ten, he escaped from the ghetto alone, wandering around at first, and then survived with the kindness of a farmer and his wife. In Roman Polanski's autobiography Roman by Polanski, published in 1984, he first recounted these experiences. In this newly published memoir, the 91-year-old has added details of his escape. In the words of the book review article in Le Monde, France, "No matter how serious the sexual violence that Roman Polanski was later convicted or accused of was, it can only be said to be a pity not to read this new book and understand the experience of Roman Polanski, a 10-year-old boy who was imprisoned in the Krakow Jewish ghetto."
In 2020, Polanski won the César Award for Best Director, and actress Adèle Haenel left the ceremony in anger.
Similarly, relevant articles in Le Figaro and Libération also spoke highly of the book, seemingly without taking into account the reality that Polanski has become a controversial figure in the French and even world film industry in recent years. At the French César Awards held at the end of February 2020, actress Adèle Haenel walked out of the ceremony in protest against Roman Polanski winning the Best Director Award for "I Accuse", and many French feminist groups also expressed their support for her. But later on International Women's Day, another 114 French female lawyers published a signed article in Le Monde, pointing out that Polanski "has not committed any actual crimes" in France and should not be treated as a criminal.
In 2003, Polanski won the Academy Award for Best Director for "The Pianist", but he was unable to accept the award in person.
In 1977, the 43-year-old Polanski sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles, California, by forcing her to drink and drug her. After his arrest, Polanski reached a plea agreement with the US prosecutors. However, on February 1, 1978, on the eve of the court's verdict, he fled to Europe and has been wanted by the US government ever since. He has not dared to set foot on US soil since then. Even though his work "The Pianist" won the Oscar for Best Director in 2003, he was unable to accept the award in person.
Roman Polanski attended the premiere of the film "Music Of My Life" at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019. Visual China Photo
As the anti-sexual assault movement gained momentum around the world, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organizer of the Oscars, removed him from the list in 2018. Therefore, to this day, the Hollywood media still regards him as a criminal, which also led to the publication of "Don't Run! Walk!" hardly attracting any attention from the British and American media.
