Imagine a handful of whimsical, even downright neurotic ultra-rich, pampered from evening to morning by a zealous staff whose maniacalness makes you smile. This is not the Palme d’Or won by Sweden’s Ruben Östlund in 2022: The neurotic ultra-rich were on a cruise ship, not in a hotel. This isn’t an episode of The White Lotus either, although the HBO series also features the ultra-rich and their staff in a luxury hotel on an island paradise. This is the plot of Roman Polanski’s new film, as we can discover it, in Italian, including a trailer. In Italian only, as the film will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September. And, a priori, nowhere else.
In this short extract, we discover the happy occupants of a luxury hotel a few days before the transition to the year 2000. While the staff in suits are busy, an occupant – who is reminiscent of Donald Trump – comes to put down his suitcases. Later, Fanny Ardant, curly red hair and a poodle under her arm, worries about the animal, which has been afraid of snow since it was young. The party promises to be grandiose, balloons and lights suggest an unforgettable evening. The passengers of this strange ship, they fear the famous bug of the year 2000.
If the film is expected on September 28 in Italy, it does not yet have a release date in France, or elsewhere abroad. Entirely produced by Italians, a first for the filmmaker, the film did not find funding from other countries. The controversies surrounding Roman Polanski, which culminated in the awarding of the César for best director to the filmmaker for his entire career despite accusations of rape and assault, did not help.
The film thus has little chance of being distributed in the United States, where the director is still under an international arrest warrant for the rape of Samantha Geimer, 13 years old at the time of the events. Four other women have since accused the Franco-Polish director of rape and sexual assault.
In France, Promenade à Cracovie, a documentary in which the filmmaker recounts his experience of the ghetto, released on July 5, has only been shown in two theaters. And it’s no longer showing.
