As unsuccessful as That? (there is also, now unrecognizable and then beautiful, Sydne Rome) o mercilessly like Carnage? “Vulgar”. “Sublime”. “Horrid.” “Grotesque”. “Auteur’s Cinepanettone”. “Masterpiece”… It’s up to you to choose, after having seen it, your definition of The Palacethe latest film by Roman Polanski. Introduced Out of Competition at the 2023 Venice Film Festivalreleased “in passing” in cinemas, arrives tonight on TV and streaming for the first time.
Mickey Rourke in The Palace by Roman Polanski
Where to see ‘The Palace’ by Roman Polanski today 7 April, on TV and streaming for the first time
The 23rd film of 90 year old director can be seen tonight at 9.15pm on Sky Cinema Uno. The film is visible streaming only on NOW and on demand. The film, produced by Luca Barbareschi, is written by Polanski with his colleague and compatriot Jerzy Skolimowski and Ewa Piaskowska. Polanski and Skolimoswki hadn’t worked together since The knife in the waterPolanski’s debut film (1962).
Roman Polanski on set
The cast of ‘The Palace’, 100 minute long patrol
39 “human” interpreters. Plus one penguin and a chihuahua (from Brugherio, Milan). In the castle (the 5* superior The Palace Hotel, a Gstaad in Switzerland). A perfect clockwork/circutondo mechanism (patrols) where everyone (on two or four legs) fits together… The performers and main characters of The Palace I am:
- Oliver Masucci is Hansuli
- Fanny Ardant is the Marchioness
- John Cleese as Arthur William Dallas III
- Bronwyn James is Magnolia
- Joaquim de Almeida is Doctor Lima
- Luca Barbareschi is Bongo
- Mickey Rourke is Bill Crush
- Milan Peschel is Caspar Tell
- Fortunato Cerlino is Tonino
Fanny Ardant
The plot of ‘The Palace’, between jokes and reality
December 31, 1999: millennium bug permitting, Hotel The Palace in Gstaad is about to welcome its regular guests. Very rich and powerful from all over the world, are about to participate in the New Year’s Eve celebration with fireworks at the end of the millennium. The hotel staff, led by manager Hansueli (Oliver Masucci), militarily awaits them.
Fortunato Cerlino, Luca Barbareschi and Oliver Masucci
The French noblewoman (Fanny Ardant) with the beloved dog for companion. The Brazilian doctor (Joaquim de Almedia) with clients/patients (real: very rich “remade” by famous cosmetic surgeons friends of the director). Aging American billionaires Viagra addicts (Monty Python’s John Cleese) with obese new wives 70 years younger.
John Cleese (centre)
Ambassadors, oligarchs, Russian prostitutes listening to their first speech on TV interim president Vladimir Putin (Yeltsin resigned on December 31, 1999, leaving power to his prime minister).
Bongo, ex-Italian porn star (Luca Barbareschi which anticipates Supersex) alternates at the bar with the American Bill Crush (Mickey Rourke). Who hopes for the millennium bug and promises bribes to a naive but rich banker. While a hypothetical never recognized son with a family arrives from Prague…
Add some suitcases that the Russians lock in vault and a box dripping with water from which comes out a penguin. Who is entitled to the only one sex scene from the movie…
Polanski’s ‘The Palace’, reviews: so much hated, so little loved
Boos and laughter. This is how it was welcomed at the press screening The Palace at the last Venetian event. Divisive as never before, the film was not accompanied by its director but by the producer and actor Luca Barbareschi. “Grotesque but deliberately superficial” (The poster). “Ironic, stereotyped and not very far from our beloved-hated Cinepanettoni” (MyMovies). “What from the outside looks like an enchanted Disney castle becomes the ideal battlefield in which to launch the final attack on the upper bourgeoisie” (The ruthless). “Polanski had fun writing a farce” (The paper).
Until: “One hundred minutes without plot, an unrecognizable author. with ideas unworthy of a cinepanettone. Rating: not classified” (Paolo Mereghetti, The Corriere della Sera).
On the opposite side, Gianni Canova: “This is how the millennium ends, thus begins the new time. Under the sign of pandemonium, of carnival, of macabre dance, of the sarabande. Perhaps, under the sign of a grotesque Apocalypse. Gargantuan, immoderate, grinning. With a pace worthy of a slapstick comedy, and with an ability to blend the comic and the tragic which is the soul of the grotesque.
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through whose point of view
fashion is experienced from the inside.
News, curiosities and insights.
To always be updated
through whose point of view
fashion is experienced from the inside.
Polański (90 years old last August) puts the scene the night of the living monsters of the decrepit bourgeoisie of our times with youthful boldness and irreverence. (…) Even in front of the post-human ending which has so irritated and scandalized the beautiful souls, unable to accept the idea that they animals know how to love life (and the Other) much more than us human beings”.
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