Palace: Roman Polanski’s ‘Catastrophe’ Canceled in Paris

Roman Polanski’s latest film The Palace comes in a specific context, as we wrote the day before its release. The verdict in Roman Polanski’s trial came down on Tuesday, May 14 (the latter was acquitted in front of actress Charlotte Lewis).

Besides, the film is released in a specific film calendar, as the start of the 77th Cannes Film Festival monopolizes all the attention.

The newspaper Le Parisien revealed a few days ago that Roman Polanski’s film was playing in only 82 theaters in France (compared to 520 theaters for J’accuse in 2019), and among those 82 theaters, one was in Paris.

There is no room in Paris

Ultimately, the film was canceled after only one showing in Paris. Disseminates information Le Figaro who attended this screening at Studio Gallande. The newspaper summarizes: “The Studio Galland director explains that he was “trapped” by the Palace distributor. At the only meeting, the demonstrators appeared in front of the cinema. Like the distributor, very unhappy.“

Le Figaro continues:“I didn’t know about these stories around Polanski.” Hicham Benmohamed, director of the Galland cinema in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, is the only professional scheduled to screen Roman Polanski’s new film The Palace in Paris. But, in the afternoon, its director announced to us that he has finally canceled the film. Hicham Benmohamed claims to be unaware of Roman Polanski’s legal affairs. He considers his programming as “professional misconduct”, “negligence”. He even explains that he was “trapped” by a distributor who “sold me the film”.During this unique Paris screening, the film registered 45 receptions.

An extraordinary distributor

After being selected out of competition by the Venice Film Festival last September, The Palace has been without a French distributor for several months. To the point that some were interested in a potential theatrical release of the film. Ultimately, it was a small outfit called Swashbuckler, which usually specializes in re-releasing legacy films, that started the project to release the film.

What is the palace about?

In the great hotel, on the evening of December 31, 1999, at the dawn of the new millennium, the fate of several guests and the staff of this institution located in the Swiss Alps crossed.

The Palace 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. 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.

Corrosive criticism

Already recently welcomed in Venice (Variety spoke “dead silence“In the room, as Le Parisien recalls), the palace arrives accompanied by icy reviews of its French edition. For the newspaper 20 Minutes, it is “The sinking of the Titanic“.”We are left with the demoralized and sticky impression of witnessing the sinking of a titanic ship without a life-saving board or precious necklace. Like the old uncle jokes we adored as kids and now avoid during over-watered family meals, the film is a painful experience: it doesn’t make you angry, it hurts..”

From the Paris side, we summarize as follows:what is this movie like Big, sweet, fudgy, indigestible meringue. (…) Never funny, this festival of cynicism and vulgarity ends with fragments of glass and confetti
Spoiler:
And in a close-up, the Marquis’ dog dutifully sodomizes the penguin“.

In 20 minutes we can also read: “Even if we’re brought up on the beloved directors and great directors of the past, we quickly realize that Palace is a movie about libidinous old gentlemen that’s a little too focused on scatology and bad-ass jokes to want to make in the 2020s.“

In the premiere: “It’s a film so aggressive, ugly, and misanthropic that you could reasonably argue that Polanski intended it as the middle finger. A skewering designed to rouse the indignation of the movie-going crowd, the self-sacrificing act of the author, who he knows will not leave the stage amid applause, chooses to encourage.“

Roman Polanski’s The Palace, starring Fanny Ardan, John Cleese, Oliver Masucci, hits theaters on May 15, 2024.