FRANCE: FILM DIRECTOR ROMAN POLANSKI BECOMES A MEMBER OF FRANCE'S PRESTIGIOUS ACADEMY OF ARTS

Record ID: 388842

  • Title: FRANCE: FILM DIRECTOR ROMAN POLANSKI BECOMES A MEMBER OF FRANCE'S PRESTIGIOUS ACADEMY OF ARTS
  • Date: 15th December 1999
  • Summary: NOTE THAT TIME CODES CHANGE IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS STORY PARIS, FRANCE (DECEMBER 15, 1999) (REUTERS -ACCESS ALL) ( * BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) EXTERIOR INSTITUTE OF FRANCE INTERIOR PAN CUPOLA OF INSTITUTE TO GUESTS WAITING FOR CEREMONY EMANUELLE SEIGNER, POLANSKI'S WIFE DRUMS ROLE AS ACADEMY MEMBERS ENTER POLANSKI ENTERS ACADEMY MEMBERS CLOSEUP POLANSKI WIDE SH
  • Embargoed: 30th December 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA5QKRVDDAT7YQ1CI92SPODREYI
  • Story Text: Renowned film director Roman Polanski has been named a member of France's prestigious Academy of Arts for his contribution to cinema.
    Roman Polanski, the man who showed his inner fantasies and fears in films such as "Repulsion", "Rosemary's Baby", and "The Tenant", was formally admitted to the prestigious 350-year-old Academy of Arts on Wednesday (December 15).
    Polanski chose actor Peter Ustinov, a foreign associate member of the Academy, to give the keynote speech at the ceremony."Times have changed," Ustinov said."A Pole has asked, of his own free will, a Russian to welcome him into the Institute of France.
    Catherine Deneuve, who starred in Polanski's "Repulsion", Marissa Berenson and Fanny Ardant looked on as the director thanked the Academy and paid tribute to his predecessor at the institution, French director Marcel Carn.
    Other members of the Academy of Arts include painter Bernard Buffet and Russian pianist Mstislav Rostropovich.
    Few lives turned into the macabre public spectacle of Polanski's.As a child he escaped Cracow's Jewish ghetto, leaving his parents behind.In 1969 his wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered.Eight years later Polanski was arrested for statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.
    It seems his life, like his movies, hovers precariously on the brink of tragedy.
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