Quote of the Day/Week- Roman Polanski

For the second week in a row, we are quoting famous film directors with controversial personal lives. Last week, we quoted Woody Allen. But, the reason for this is not because we live controversy (ok,so we did say we would run to Costa Rica if Mitt Romney was elected president a few entries back), but because Roman Polanski, the subject of this week's quote, like Allen, is an Oscar-winning filmmaker. We are quoting Academy Award-winning film directors this month even though our personal favorite movie director Stanley Kubrick never won one! (Yes, not even for "2001:A Space Odyssey").

Currently, in some small-market art houses, Polanski's latest film "Carnage" with three Oscar winners (Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster and Christoph Waltz) and John C. Reilly is now screening. The film has already been screened in large markets.

The film director was born in Poland, and now resides in France.

Polanski won an Oscar for his film "The Pianist" (2002).

Here is Polanski's quote (the above image is of him acting in his own film "Chinatown" (1974)):

"Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater."

SIDEBAR: The Film Forum in New York will be screening a very interesting film (well, we haven't seen it for ourselves) from Iranian director Jafar Panahi entitled "This Is Not a Film" starting on Feb. 29.

The film, co-directed with Mojtaba Miratahmasb, was entirely shot on a cell phone and a DV camera. Sine Panafi is under house arrest for his politics and not allowed to make films in Iran, he had the film hidden in a cake and sent to France for festival screenings. It became a huge sensation at the Cannes Film Festival.

Panafi is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers in Iran; his credits include "The White Balloon" (1995), "The Circle" (2000) and "Offside" (2006). His current film is an autobiographical documentary about isolation.

My friend Bilge Ebiri, a New York-based film critic proclaimed "Offside" to be the best film that was released in the United States in 2007. That film was about two girls in their late teens/early twenties try to sneak inside to see a soccer game. In Iran, women are forbidden to go to soccer games. Though we believe Irish women were allowed to see their national team play a game in Iran several years ago.