Oliver Masucci congratulates Roman Polanski: “Fit as a fiddle!”

Oliver Masucci (54) plays a leading role in “The Palace”, the new film by Roman Polanski (90). The film will have its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September.

Cinema star Oliver Masucci writes exclusively in BILD to Polanski on his 90th birthday.

I just got off the phone with Roman Polanski and congratulated him. 90 years old and fit as a fiddle, in the “Ramones” look with a leather jacket and a T-shirt that says “La vie devant moi” (engl.: life lies ahead of me).

I’m going to see him tomorrow. And we watch our movie “The Palace” together. He said it was a tow, hard work, he spent three years on the film.

I met Polanski when he was 88 years old. We went skiing for a whole day in Gstaad. He was popular. Everyone greeted him. At lunch he fell asleep briefly and took his nap. And then he was fit again and we continued down the black slope.

We filmed each other and had fun together. He is friendly and his story is complex. He told it to me so that I could form my own opinion.

Especially when there is so much written and talked about people, I want to know what they are like.

He is an open person who can also talk about the unpleasant sides of his life. About his guilt, which he confessed to, and the strokes of fate that afflicted him: Shortly before the outbreak of war, he moved from Paris to Poland and his parents were taken to a concentration camp. The massacre at his home by the Manson gang, the death of Sharon Tate.

He said: “It might all be a nice story at the dinner table, but to live through it is hard”. It might be a nice story over dinner, but it’s hard to live through…. And laughed.

I was happy to see that Samantha Geimer, his “victim” at the time, as he calls her, and who no longer sees herself as a victim, gave him a big interview, sat on his lap and said: “The man has paid his debt to society.” The picture of the two was taken by her husband.

In everything that has happened, Roman Polanski has retained his sense of humor, which certainly has Jewish origins.

I really wanted to work with him and get my own picture of the person. As an artist, he is one of the few grand masters of cinema still alive. And I was able to experience first-hand how alive he is.

His films have accompanied and touched me throughout my life. He created milestones in the art of cinema. I haven’t seen all of them, but many more than once. Everyone knows some of his films. I even got to tease Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, one of the greatest films of all time, in another Polanski film: There’s a porn star in The Palace who breaks her nose skiing, and I say to him: “You look like this actor with the bandage on the nose. Which film was it…? I don’t remember.” (Eng.: “You look like that actor with the band-aid on his nose. What movie was that again? I don’t remember…”) And nobody remembers the film anymore. Neither does the actor.

Roman Polanski himself says that art helped him to live on. And he certainly also of art.

*Oliver Masucci (54) stars in “The Palace” by Roman Polanski (90). The film celebrates its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival.