P is for Polanski
Polanski casts himself in the role of a Polish office clerk working in Paris who sets up residence in a new apartment only to find the elderly tenants of the building inexplicably hostile toward him. After discovering that the previous renter, a woman, had hurled herself out a window, he becomes obsessed with unearthing her story and increasingly convinced his neighbors are trying to kill him. At once terrifying and funny, the film asks us to ponder whether the tenant is experiencing a mysterious, Kafkaesque persecution or is simply stark raving mad. Sven Nykvist’s cinematography gives this psychological thriller its stunning visual realization.
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Screenings from this program
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Cinema A–Z: Treasures from the Harvard ...
The Last Laugh
Directed by F.W. Murnau, 1924
Live Piano Accompaniment by Yakov GubanovScreening on Film
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Cinema A–Z: Treasures from the Harvard ...
The Last Command
Directed by Josef von Sternberg, 1928
Live Piano Accompaniment by Yakov GubanovScreening on Film
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Cinema A–Z: Treasures from the Harvard ...
Trailers, Trailers, Trailers
Introduction by HFA Conservator Julie BuckScreening on Film