In this searing memoir, the author, "the girl" at the center of the infamous Roman Polanski sexual assault case, breaks a virtual thirty-five year silence to tell her story and reflect on the events of that day and their lifelong repercussions. March 1977, Southern California. Roman Polanski drives a rented Mercedes along Mulholland Drive to Jack Nicholson's house. Sitting next to him is an aspiring actress, Samantha Geimer, recently arrived from York, Pennsylvania. She is thirteen years old. The undisputed facts of what happened in the following hours appear in the court record: Polanski spent hours taking pictures of Samantha on a deck overlooking the Hollywood Hills, on a kitchen counter, topless in a Jacuzzi. Wine and Quaaludes were consumed, balance and innocence were lost, and a young girl's life was altered forever, eternally cast as a background player in her own story. For months on end, the Polanski case dominated the media in the U.S. and abroad. But even with the extensive coverage, much about that day and the girl at the center of it all remains a mystery. Just about everyone had an opinion about the renowned director and the girl he was accused of drugging and raping. Who was the predator? Who was the prey? Was the girl an innocent victim or a cunning Lolita artfully directed by her ambitious stage mother? How could the criminal justice system have failed all the parties concerned in such a spectacular fashion? Once Polanski fled the country, what became of Samantha, the young girl forever associated with one of Hollywood's most notorious episodes? Samantha, as much as Polanski, has been a fugitive since the events of that night more than thirty years ago. Taking us far beyond the headlines, this memoir reveals a thirteen-year-old who was simultaneously wise beyond her years and yet terribly vulnerable. By telling her story in full for the first time, Samantha reclaims her identity, and indelibly proves that it is possible to move forward from victim to survivor, from confusion to certainty, from shame to strength.

This is the story of Roman Polanski's career from his early work such as 'Knife in the Water', through to his latest masterpiece, 'Carnage'.

Roman Polanski (born 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor, who stands as one of the most influential directors living today.

Considered by many to be the most beautiful woman of her generation, Sharon Tate remains a fascinating pop icon and a poster child for the 1960s. What struck most about Sharon was her gentle nature and the sheer perfection of her face, but she was far more than just a beauty. The few films she made during her brief career, including Valley of the Dolls, Eye of the Devil, and The Fearless Vampire Killers, have secured her position as a Hollywood legend. Over forty years since her last film, Sharon's spirit and charisma lives strong in the memories of those who knew her best, and her style continues to inspire the worlds of fashion, beauty, art, and film. Sharon Tate: Recollection is a one-of-a-kind celebration of Sharon's life and career, her influence as a fashion icon throughout the world, and in effect presents a sociological portrait of the 1960s -- its youth culture, the sexual revolution, the rise of independent cinema, and Hollywood's changing studio system. In this impressive photo book, Sharon Tate's story emerges through quotes and short essays -- recollections -- by her sister, Debra Tate, as well as by those who knew and have been influenced by her. What emerges from these pages is a stunning tribute to an unforgettable life. Highlights include: A foreword note by Sharon's husband Roman Polanski. An introduction and remembrances by Sharon's sister Debra Tate. Previously unseen childhood photos from the Tate family album. Original quotes and recollection essays written specially for this book by Jane Fonda, Kelly Osbourne, Bert Stern, Michelle Phillips, Patty Duke, Lee Grant, Elke Sommer, Joan Collins, Viva, Tony Scotti and Trina Turk. Retrospective quotes by Truman Capote, Diana Vreeland, Richard Avedon, Dominick Dunne, Warren Beatty, Mia Farrow, Orson Welles, Barbara Parkins, George Harrison, David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner and Kirk Douglas. Rare and classic photographs by David Bailey, Milton Greene, Philippe Halsman, Shahrokh Hatami, Terry O'Neill, Peter Basch, John Engstead, Peter Brün, Neal Barr and Jean Jacques Bugat. Never-before-seen or published images of Sharon in the classic film Valley of the Dolls, digitally reproduced from their original negatives and transparencies specially for this book by the 20th Century Fox archive.

From the outright horror of Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby to the seething corruption of Chinatown to the Holocaust nightmare of The Pianist, the films of Roman Polanski have gotten under our skin. But despite a career full of wicked entertainments and outright masterpieces, the best Roman Polanski story of all remains his own life.

Roman Polanski is one of the great maverick figures of world cinema, with a long career starting in Poland with his short films of the 1950s and running through to the present with Oliver Twist. This collection highlights the bold and dazzling diversity of his work as well as recurrent themes and obsessions.

A new take on an eclectic and controversial director James Morrison's critical study offers a comprehensive and critically engaged treatment on Roman Polanski's immense body of work. Tracing the filmmaker's remarkably diverse career from its beginnings to 2007, the book provides commentary on all of Polanski's major films in their historical, cultural, social, and artistic contexts. Morrison locates Polanski's work within the genres of comedy and melodrama, arguing that he is not merely obsessed with the theme of repression, but that his true interest is in the concrete—what is out in the open—and why we so rarely see it. The range of Polanski's filmmaking challenges traditional divisions between high and low culture. For example, The Ninth Gate is a brash pastiche of the horror genre, while The Pianist is an Academy Award-winner about the Holocaust. Dubbing Polanski a relentless critic of modernity, Morrison concludes that his career is representative of the fissures, victories, and rehabilitations of the last fifty years of international cinema. A volume in the series Contemporary Film Directors, edited by James Naremore

"Polanski is one of the most talented and distinguished of modern film makers. A well-informed cultural traveller, interested in the position of the outsider, he is hard to pigeonhole: he moves easily between mass audience and art-house tastes, between settings and genres; his films, including "Two Men and a Wardrobe", "Cul de Sac", "Rosemary's Baby", "The Pianist" and "Oliver Twist", represent diverse characters and cinematic influences. Like a magpie, he's interested in everything he encounters, but then easily discards his treasures and moves onward. Covering all Polanski's films as director, this welcome book addresses the eclecticism, ambiguity and paradoxes of his cinema, while seeking out the common elements in his films. Ewa Mazierska examines the autobiographical effect of Polanski's films, his characters and diverse narratives, and the place of absurdism, surrealism and the 'double life' of things in his cinema. She looks into the function of music, of religion, power, patriarchy and racism in the films, as well as Polanski's literary adaptations and his use and subversion of film genres. Herself a Polish emigre, she uncovers Polanski's Polish roots and the extent of their influence on the cinema of this mercurial film maker, at large in the world."--