Polanski’s arrest this past Sunday by Swiss officials provides a stirring reminder to everyone, including the Zurich Film Festival, that he is a fugitive from justice. Polanski may be ruminating on his 1979 production of “Macbeth,” a tragedy that shows that all ghosts return to haunt even kings. The life and times of Academy Award-winning director Roman Polanski merit a poetic film adaptation all their own. As a child he survived the Krakow Ghetto. He achieved extraordinary success with the classics “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) and “Chinatown” (1974). In between, tragedy struck when his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was brutally murdered by Charles Manson’s family of followers. In 1977 he pled guilty to charges of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13 year-old girl and then fled the country. As years passed, Polanski continued to make films in Europe, including the World War II autobiographical production “The Pianist”, which took home the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and which won Polanski the Best Director Oscar in 2002.
