Roman Polanski’s comedy “The Palace” leaves a lot to be desired
Published: Thursday, Jan 11th 2024, 11:30
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After its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Roman Polanski's "The Palace" made a lot of negative headlines. And rightly so.
Many awards worldwide testify to the skill of director Roman Polanski. In 2019, for example, "Intrigue", a film about the Frenchman Alfred Dreyfus, who was falsely accused of treason in 1894 for anti-Semitic reasons, received numerous accolades. Polanski masterfully managed to shape the historical material as a reflection of current developments. However, the new film "The Palace" cannot be described as a masterpiece.
Roman Polanski and his team of writers probably had a social satire in mind. "The Palace" is set in a Swiss grand hotel on the night of the turn of the year from 1999 to 2000. The guests are mainly recruited from among the super-rich. They all turn out to be spoiled luxury creatures without any morals, far removed from even a hint of social awareness, devoid of any greatness of spirit. The enterprising hotel manager Hansueli Kopf (Oliver Masucci) tries his hand at taming these beasts in human form.
Embarrassment instead of punchlines
The few comic moments in the film belong to Masucci ("Schachnovelle"). He succeeded in creating a portrait of a multi-faceted personality. Masucci obviously took the character seriously. That's why his comedic sparks fly. World stars such as the Brit John Cleese, the US-American Mickey Rourke or the French actress Fanny Ardant have relied solely on slapstick. Milan Peschel ("Halt auf freier Strecke") has been hit particularly hard. As a lumbering banker, he is only allowed to fidget and grimace. There's not much fun to be had.
But the acting team is not to blame. The blame lies with director Polanski and his screenplay co-authors. Among them is the renowned Jerzy Skolimowski (85), author of Andrzej Wajda's legendary world cinema success "The Innocent Magicians" (1960). The team mainly relied on cheap jokes, such as dog excrement, heart attacks during lovemaking and the presentation of ladies and gentlemen who have obviously fallen victim to money-grabbing plastic surgeons. Many scenes end in embarrassment instead of punchlines.
Negative echo
Since its premiere at the Venice Film Festival last fall, the response to the largely unfunny comedy has been largely reserved to negative. Polanski has received many negative headlines. It is hard to believe that he once created masterpieces such as "The Knife in the Water", "Dance of the Vampires", "Rosemary's Baby", "Chinatown" and "The Pianist".
Polanski has been the subject of sexual abuse proceedings in the USA for over 40 years. Since then, he has mainly lived in France and avoids visiting countries that have an extradition treaty with the USA.
"The Palace" will be showing in cinemas in German-speaking Switzerland from January 18, 2024.
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