Evil and Social Confrontation in Roman Polanski’s Films

The Concept of Evil in Roman Polanski's Films

The concept of "evil" as it relates to religion, mysticism, and the occult is a significant theme in Roman Polanski's works. Polanski frequently uses references to devils and wicked horrors in his visual stories to convey and create terror, excitement, and shock. Visual narratives frequently center on the portrayal of something heinous and horrific in Polanski's movies. In this article, the films "Knife in the Water," "Repulsion," "The Tenant," and "Rosemary's Baby" will be critically analyzed and debated in order to better appreciate Polanski's artistic use of evil and mystical notions. Polanski’s ideas and personal opinions as well as those of his critics will be taken into consideration to draw a larger background for the question which role evil plays in Polanski’s films. Without risking to be seriously mistaken it would be fair to claim that Polanski as a director depends on evil in constructing his cinematic masterpieces due to the fact that almost all of his most successful films work with the theme of evil in some way or another making it a significant basic element of the narrative. Polanski uses evil to make viewer feel anxious, excited, and shocked scaring him with the depth of unknown present in all human beings.

Polanski's Use of Evil for Entertainment

Roman Polanski’s use of evil in his films is, as he himself claimed it, for the purpose of entertainment. Polanski builds his visual narratives and storylines around something forbidden, evil, and offensive. To understand this it is important to keep in mind that most of Polanski’s acclaimed masterpieces are mysteries, thrillers, and horrors (Ostrovska, 34). To work with these genres and subgenres it is almost impossible to avoid interaction with theme of evil. Because thrillers, horrors, and mysteries have a purpose of making viewer scared, disturbed, and horrified the use of evil inevitably becomes a significant part of the mentioned genres’ basic foundations. Thrillers are aimed to give a thrill and make people thrilled. Polanski succeeded most making thrillers. That is why Polanski’s films are so deeply involved with the problem of evil, mysteries, and taboos.

Polanski's Films in Genre Frames

“You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity.” (Polanski, 163)

To put Polanski’s films in genre frames it would be most suitable to call his films thrillers, horrors, and mysteries. In one interview Polanski particularly highlighted the fact that he likes to play with his viewer and sees cinema primarily as entertainment aimed to bring viewer an unforgettable experience (Polanski, 75). Take, for example, “Rosemary’s Baby” where Polanski mixes up everything: religion, witchcraft, mental problems, social criticism, etc. Polanski plays with his viewer constantly keeping him in “terra incognita” territory of unknown. In “Rosemary’s Baby” the viewer does not know till the film’s end whether Rosemary is crazy or if she is manipulated by the secret society of occult fanatics.

“To me, "Rosemary's Baby" is not an entirely serious movie - it can be interpreted two ways. I shot it in such a way that you could consider her as a person with problems and imagining it all. I made it more ambiguous than the book and that's why I never showed the baby.” (Polanski, 89)

Like the main heroine herself is controlled, Polanski manipulates his audience in the same way tricking and playing with viewer’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

“Evil and the Devil are two different things. The Devil is how humans like to imagine evil, with horns and a tail. Evil is part of our personality. I've never believed in occultism or the Devil, and I'm not at all religious. I'd rather read science books than something about occultism. When it comes to cinema, evil is simply a form of entertainment to me” (Polanski, 112)

Polanski uses evil because of the censorship barriers present at the time he was making his first successful feature films being part of a movement now known as New Hollywood. In the middle of 1960s directors and cinema artists still struggled battling the tyranny of censorship. A lot of things now common in cinema were not allowed back then (Bird, 49). Polanski, like Hitchcock, successfully attempted to excite and amaze audience with violence without breaking censorship rules. The key was to use psychological and emotional irritants in order to provoke reaction. Because too much blood or real sexual intercourse were not to be shown symbols, metaphors, and mysteries played a central role in shaping films such as “The Tenant” or “Rosemary’s Baby”. Polanski uses mystery and psychological horror to frighten the audience.

Mystery and Psychological Horror in Polanski's Films

“The Tenant” tells about social bigotry, mental illness, emotional stress, and extreme depressive conditions. “The Tenant” is a story of the man who goes mad because of both his surrounding and his inner conflict (Sandford, 35). By showing a man’s downfall in madness (and a literal downfall from a building, ironically) Polanski entertained the audience with mystery. This is the exact thing present in all films of the so-called Apartment Trilogy of Roman Polanski. Like Rosemary in “Rosemary’s Baby” the main character of “the Tenant” confuses the audience which cannot come to a conclusion whether he is mad or not until the end of the film. In other words a person is shown experiencing a nervous breakdown damaging for himself both physically and mentally.

“Knife in the Water” is Polanski’s early masterpiece. This black-and-white comedy-drama is not a kind of movie typical for Polanski. “Knife in the Water” does not have supernatural motifs, occultism, horrors, and shocking thrills. “Knife in the Water” is more like Polanski’s “Cul-de Sac” or “Fearless Vampire Hunters” due to its comedy component. However, “Knife in the Water” also plays with human emotions and the nature of violence. The symbolic knife may, perhaps, represent male’s gender attribute and the two men appear to be in conflict over the single female (Ostrovska, 45). Evil, therefore, being a hypothetical murder due to jealousy can be observed as a sinful activity. Group love, murder, and animal conflict of interests in a tragicomic way are what “Knife in the Water” in its essence is about. Subjects of taboo, for example, adultery, and cheating are also being introduced attributed to human nature by Polanski’s clever artistic genius.

In “The Tenant” Polanski shows social issues which capable to drive a person mad. Being driven insane by his neighbors and excessively imaginative on his own Trelkovsky ends being physically and mentally damaged. This is a horror of usual everyday life – the possibility of society itself and social stress breaking a person down. More than anything else Polanski criticizes society and social assimilation (Bird, 81). Trelkovsky struggles against obsession, gossip, and opinions of other people - his neighbors. This is a classic man vs. system scenario describing a damaging battle for human individualism. Like the characters of Franz Kafka Trelkovsky in “The Tenant” ingloriously fights the system that refuses to acknowledge his existence as a human being. The horror of “The Tenant” is not in its mystery, evil occult implications, and sins such as murder but in the nature of social confrontation that Trelkovsky experiences. Trelkovsky finds himself forcefully involved into the matters he does not want to be associated with. However, Trelkovsky’s character also has its complexities. He is uncertain and does not know what he wants for sure. Therefore, by paying close attention to matters he consciously rejects but subconsciously desires Trelkovsky goes mad. It happens partly because of the activities of those around him and partly due to his own mental weakness and character flaws. Trelkovsky experiences hostile behavior of the neighbors and their inability to recognize him (Sandford, 52). The mystery in “The Tenant” is that about Trelkovsky’s mental condition while the horror is all about his confrontation with others. Because everything ends tragically it can be assumed that Polanski intensified clash with neighbors into a universal battle between personal “me” of human identity and the menace of “others” creating a visually rich existential thriller.

“Rosemary’s Baby” also has features of social satire and psychological thriller. It is not by accident that Polanski’s mystical thrillers are all combined into an ideological trilogy. The Apartment Trilogy which consists of “Repulsion”, “Rosemary’s Baby”, and “The Tenant” is about “I vs. them” confrontation between human individuality and human collective. The trilogy is also about the depth of human sub consciousness (Bird, 69). For Polanski horror is a mean to uncover and observe human fear in reaction to its natural evil sides such as sexual frivolity, obsession, violence etc. Because evil hides in human psyche and devils, murder or sexual violence are only the forms it takes, Polanski uncovers human psyche and shows deeply hidden layers of human nature (Bird, 46). In Trilogy the characters’ fight with themselves and with those around them is central. Main heroes are being ripped apart by the conflict between hidden and present, between allowed and forbidden, between evil and good.

Mystery and Psychological Horror in Polanski's Films

Mystery defined as something hidden to create effect of enigma is an important part of Polanski’s use of evil in his films. To horrify the audience and to grant the experience of shock Polanski manipulates the audience with terrifying effects brought by horror and thrills. In Polanski’s movies a sudden change in editing, lighting, and sound can change ineffective scene into the incredibly intense cinematic experience (Sandford, 77). When Rosemary hears voices sometimes the audience hears them as well and sometimes not, the sound distortions aimed to produce the effect of misbalance and instability. Polanski can frighten without even showing something really frightful. This unique feature of a master helps Polanski in creating tone and feeling of disturbance in his thrillers and horrors. Even by implying that something evil can happen or be present Polanski scares the audience. Same technique was used by Hitchcock in “Psycho” when he used harsh violin accords to symbolize knife cuts and stabbing wounds he could not show directly.

Evil as a Reflection of Human Nature

The presence of evil in Roman Polanski’s film is without any doubt a philosophical question. A sub-thesis here can sound like this: Polanski’s characters represent that evil is hidden in humans and horrible things occur with people and because of people. It is important to keep in mind that Polanski himself rejected supernatural interpretations of his films. Nevertheless, this same person created films about vampires, demonic societies, and ghosts (Polanski, 83). However, behind these superficial distractions lies a truthful account of conflicting human psyche. As is in mythology Polanski uses cultural attributes of evil such as devils, demons, witches, sacrifices to metaphorically represent hidden depths of a person’s sub consciousness. From this perspective devils and witches represents not sins but violent origins of human nature, flaws of human characters, mental conditions, and the nature of society. Polanski successfully uses over-the-edge mysterious supernatural topics as distractions at the same time plotting and executing exciting psychological effect.

Humanity and Evil in Polanski's Films

Philosophically speaking Polanski shows that everything a human should be afraid of exists in himself/herself. In “Rosemary’s Baby” this is shown literally – Rosemary carries her enemy inside herself. The child desired by the society of Satanists is a metaphor for Rosemary’s battle against herself, against the mind which is inside her head, against her own personality. Nevertheless, as the story if two-fold Rosemary also battles outside forces and external enemies. Neither her husband, nor her neighbors support her and from being paranoid Rosemary progresses to madness revealing the final truth – monster in her and because of herself or even the monster of herself. This ultimate revelation is in its essence a central horror of the film.

In “The Knife in the Water” the conflict over the woman is how Polanski portrays human nature. Like all the other films of Polanski this first success can symbolically represent the problem of evil as that of confrontation between the conflicting interests of different people. From this point of view a typical love triangle evolves in a universal struggle of human nature (Bird, 110). If evil appears because of human confrontation it means that society in its essence is a mistake. This leads to Polanski’s criticism of society. The facts of his biography and juridical complexities brought down on him by government only contributed to him portraying society as a root of evil.

Existentialism in Polanski's Films

Polanski’s films described above are all concerned with existential problem and philosophical issues. The main characters experience psychic difficulties and mental issues going through nervous breakdowns (Trelkovsky, Rosemary) but are at the same time victims in their fight against public (Ostrovska, 96). The conflict of ego and super ego is in its nature a central problem of existential philosophy and psychology. This confrontation of identity and society appears in all Polanski’s acclaimed films (Oliver Twist, Pianist, Chinatown). The oppression of the system and the mass of people in society in Polanski’s films is shown to negatively influence human individuality. Nevertheless, Polanski always remind that the horrors he describes are not any less or any more than the horrors of usual human life. Like tragism of Kafka’s characters Polanski’s heroes suffer and fall heroically but unseen to anybody besides the audience.

The Role of Evil in Realistic Films

For Polanski showing evil is a way to make realistic films because humanity cannot be represent if evil is absent – it would be a lie and an illusion. Polanski says: “I don't really know what is shocking. When you tell the story of a man who is beheaded, you have to show how they cut off his head. If you don't, it's like telling a dirty joke and leaving out the punch line.” (Polanski, 34). Therefore, by showing evil Polanski showed more about human nature than if evil would be absent.

Conclusion

All in all, it was discussed that Polanski’s film are united by their representation of evil and by the role evil plays. The messages implied by many of Polanski’s films are concerned with the disturbing side of human nature, its flaws, weaknesses, and sinful features. Polanski used attributes of evil to symbolically represent violent sides of human nature and to undermine the value of society as a concept. In Polanski’s films evil exists in humans and because of human intensifying in the course of human interaction. The characters in Polanski’s film fight themselves and those around them in search for clarity and transparence. Polanski successfully created talented thrillers and mysteries by rejecting to give his audience clarity and transparency and instead keeping the viewer in constant stress and enigmatic trance. For this reasons and because Polanski used evil as a tool of manipulation his films make produce a shocking effect. Polanski uses evil to frighten and excite the audience showing them faulty sides of human nature and dissolving the basics of society. Philosophically and psychologically Polanski’s film create atmosphere of existential disturbance. Without any doubt films of Roman Polanski express meaningful messages and reflect on important ideas. Polanski’s films help to understand better the nature of human psyche and the way people interact with each other.

Works Cited

Bird, D. Roman Polanski: The Pocket Essential Guide. Chicago: Summersdale Publishers LTD – ROW, 2002

Ostrovska, O. The Cinema of Roman Polanski: Dark Spaces of the World. New York: Wallflower Press, 2006

Polanski, R. Interviews. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Sandford, D. Polanski. Boston: Random House, 2012