‘No one wanted it’: This French distributor bought Polanski’s new film without seeing it

Roman Polanski’s next film will be released on French screens. It will hit theaters on May 15, 2024 in France. The announcement was made this week through its French distributor, the small outfit Swashbuckler, which usually specializes in re-releasing legacy films.

Since its creation, this distribution company has applied for the first time to release a new and unreleased film in cinemas in France: Roman Polanski’s Palace, which was screened out of competition at the last Venice Film Festival.

If a film cannot be presented at the Cannes Film Festival because it has already been selected at another festival earlier, the distributor has chosen a date that coincides with the 2024 edition of the festival. The Palace will be released on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. FYI, the Cannes Film Festival will start the day before, on May 14, 2024.

Release date in the middle of the Cannes Film Festival!

Point out that it is on this date, May 14, 2024, that we will know about the trial involving Roman Polanski against the actress Charlotte Lewis. The latter accuses the 90-year-old director of defamation. For information, this British actress is one of the women who condemned the director’s action. He claims to have been “sexual violenceBy the director, in the early 1980s, when he was 16 years old. The verdict will be delivered on May 14, 2024.

I chose this date because there were hardly any movies scheduled that day

Contacted several media including ParisianSwashbuckler Films distributor Sébastien Thiveirat clarified the date. “I chose this date because there were hardly any movies scheduled that day“.

He also spoke about his reasons for acquiring the distribution rights to the controversial film due to Roman Polanski’s lawsuits. “Nobody wanted it. Cabal against him. Polanski, the last genius of cinema, is still alive, and my job is to fight for film screenings“.

We learn with wonder variety that the distributor had optioned this film without having seen it before.

“Of course it’s funny!– he says at the microphone France Inter.

Back in the columns of Le Parisien, Sébastien Thiveirat explains that he was able to acquire the film at a very low price. “When I saw that no one wanted Polanski, I jumped. I offered the producer a price with my funds and he agreed without negotiation.”

When I saw that no one wanted Polanski, I jumped

He adds: “I was so sure I wasn’t going to get the film, I was almost ashamed of the price I offered… when maybe if I had offered less, it would have been accepted!“.

The exact amount is not known, but it will be close to the price of a “legacy film”, ie.It is ten times cheaperthan a new feature film.

24th feature film, made less than 3 years after J’accuse’s controversial debut.

Polanski is Roman Polanski’s 24th feature film. Filming took place in 2022 in Switzerland at the 5-star Gstaad Palace Hotel.

The story takes the form of a closed session: in a large hotel, on the evening of December 31, 1999, at the dawn of the new millennium, a cross-section of several clients and staff of this establishment located in the Swiss Alps.

Fanny Ardant, John Cleese and Mickey Rourke in the cast

Fanny Ardan, John Cleese and Mickey Rourke are among the most famous personalities in the cast. The actor is played by German actor Oliver Masucci, as well as Portuguese actor Joaquim de Almeida.

After the postponement of filming (previously announced to start in the fall of 2021), the first applause took place in the month of March 2022, a little more than 3 years after the release of the French accused.

The film has already been released in several European countries, starting with Italy on September 28. It was presented without competition in Venice in September 2023 and It was warmly received by critics. He will arrive in France 8 months later, on May 15, 2024.