Research performed in feminist film theory and criticism has consistently demonstrated the psychological significance of the mistreatment of women within cinema. Extensive studies have examined the distortion of women's images to expose the relationship between the cinematic representation of women and how masculine society views women. This study examined parallels between personal experiences and images of women reflected in the films of Roman Polanski. Several of Polanski's films were viewed, while significant experiences with women which may have shaped the manner in which Polanski chose to portray women was documented. Psychoanalytic feminist film theory was applied to each film and elements of mise-en-scene were examined to provide explanations for why Polanski chose to represent women in film as projections of his thoughts or fantasies. Results exhibited a disturbing amount of evidence suggesting that the tragic details of Polanski's personal life are strangely reflected in the dismal atmosphere of his films.

One specific area of research in the study of film theory and criticism has been analyzing how media portray woman visually and textually to expose a particular ideology of the American culture. In terms of examining the portrayal of women, motion pictures have been one of the most significant forms of media for providing explanations for women's subordination. Movies are one of the clearest and most accessible of looking glasses into the past, being both cultural artifacts and mirrors (Haskell, 1973). As mirrors, motion pictures provide the spectator with visual and textual representations of a culture that merely produced them. DeLauretis (1984) states that "the representation of woman as an image . . . site of visual pleasure, or lure of the gaze is so pervasive in our culture. . . that it necessarily constitutes a starting point for any understanding of sexual difference and its ideological effects in the construction of social subjects" (38). Thus, the silver screen has been one of the most significant forms of media for understanding sexual difference in our culture through analyzing narrative events and visual codes in mainstream cinema. Andrew (1984) suggests that the narrative cinema is designed to exploit the characteristics of our psychic life, most prominently the values of sexual difference which obsess us. He states that "all the resources of the cinema function to promote the pleasures associated with such obsessions and the still greater pleasure of our security that these obsessions are natural, that the fictions of cinema mirror the facts of life" (148).

Recent developments in film theory and criticism have been devoted to placing attention on the distortion of women's images in film and how films stress the psychological and social significance of the mistreatment of women in past cinema. Most of the literature written about women's portrayals in mainstream narrative film suggest the application of psychoanalytic feminist theory to evaluate past cinema. Mulvey (1989) discusses the need to deconstruct cinema through overcoming how the masculine unconscious views pleasure and exposing the fetishistic, narcissistic, scopophilic, and voyeuristic elements evident in mainstream narrative cinema. In Mulvey's article entitled "Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema," she reveals how the unconscious of patriarchal society has attempted to structure film in the past by allowing women to become objects of the male gaze. Mulvey claims that mainstream narrative cinema seeks to subordinate woman and reinforce her position of inferiority. A man's feeling of supremacy is reinforced by the image of woman as a symbol of castration; while the objectification of a woman is merited by her lack of a phallus. Scopophilic pleasure thus results in the objectification and control of the woman being viewed on film. Narrative structure in cinema has been controlled by the active male hero and the passive female heroine. The woman becomes the object of fetishistic gaze by the masculine audience; as the spectator, who identifies with the male hero, gains control of the female through engaging in fetishistic gaze. The man controls the film fantasy and also emerges as the representative of power in a further sense: as the bearer of the look of the spectator, transferring it behind the screen to neutralise the extradiagetic tendencies represented by woman as spectacle (Mulvey, 1984). Mulvey states that "here the function of the film is to reproduce as accurately as possible the so-called natural conditions of human perception" (20).

DeLauretis (1984) explores the link between the relation of masculine viewers to the cinematic and ideological representation of a woman. She discusses how masculine spectatorship results in the production of masculine desire and pleasure through the manifestation of negative, sexist female images in narrative cinema. In discussing how cinematic and cultural meanings are produced by the negative representation of women on screen, she maintains that classical narrative cinema producers are actively involved in the production of negative female images. DeLauretis states that "the dominant cinema specifies woman in a particular order, sets her up in certain positions of meaning, fixes her in a certain identification. Represented as the negative term of sexual differentiation, spectacle-fetish or specular image, in any case ob-scene, woman is constituted as the ground of representation, the looking-glass held up to man" (15). By utilizing Mulvey's ideas, she proposes to deconstruct narrative and masculine viewing pleasure and the production of fetishistic desire through the application of psychoanalysis to resolve issues associated with the narrative process of male identification by analyzing the signification and representation of the female image in the production of narrative and visual codes.

Also taking a psychoanalytic approach to feminist film theory, Doane (1990) discusses how women in cinema are projected as passive objects of male voyeuristic and fetishistic desire through utilizing a variety of cinematic techniques such as framing, lighting, camera movement, and camera angle. Doane notes a definite relationship between the signifier (cinematic representation of a woman) and the signified (image of a woman) in the production of a spectator's viewing pleasure. Spectatorial desire is achieved with the camera in establishing the spectator's position in relation to the woman's image on screen. The image orchestrates a gaze, a limit, and its pleasurable transgression (Doane, 1990). Doane states "a 'plastique pertinent to the camera' constitutes the woman not only as the image of desire but as the desirous image--one which the devoted cinephile can cherish and embrace. To 'have' the cinema is, to 'have' the woman" (44). Thus, spectatorial desire is closely associated with distance, proximity, and spatial configuration between the spectator and the image. In narrative cinema, the woman spectator can undertake either of two positions: active or passive. The passive spectator identifies with the female character, while the active spectator identifies with the male hero within a cinematic narrative in order to acquire distance from the fetishistic and voyeuristic image portrayed on screen. This epistemological function of resisting the female image is referred to as the "masquerade" by Doane. By "masquerading" an image, a female spectator simply recognizes, yet readily denies her sense of self as an object to increase distance between herself and the subordinate image portrayed on screen. Since female spectators view the image portrayed on screen at such close range, it becomes almost impossible for women spectators to fetishize over the image. Doane states "that body which is so close continually reminds her of the castration which cannot be 'fetishized away'" (47).

Gidal (1989) discusses the implications of projecting women as objects of male voyeuristic desire by use of various cinematic techniques such as camera angle and framing in mainstream narrative film. Gidal discusses the need to deconstruct cinema by bringing attention to the distortion of women's images resulting from voyeuristic masculine spectatorial desire achieved through the cinematic viewing process. According to Gidal, "it is the denial of apartness that motivates voyeurism, the illusion of partaking, and for this illusion to function, identification with the other must take place. Whether it has to do with sympathetic feelings or sadistic ones is structurally immaterial. It is in the face of powerlessness to be other than the eluctable, isolate self that identifications of voyeurism originate" (61). By isolating the viewer from the passive object of viewing in narrative cinema, this becomes a useful method of textual analysis in determining how the masculine unconscious viewing process can result in leaving a women subject of viewing, whether the passive object of male voyeuristic desire or the female spectator, feeling victimized. Gidal concludes that "the relations of voyeurism, rape, empirical statistics, bourgeois concepts of freedom of expression for maintaining male power, all coalesce here as questions problematized around the viewer-as-subject through the cinematic" (65).

Haskell (1973) discusses how the manners in which male directors portray women in film provide the spectator with insight into their thoughts, fantasies, and values. Whether in the European or the American film, whether seen as a sociological artifact or artistic creation, women, by the logistics of film production and the laws of Western society, generally emerge as the projections of male values (Haskell, 1973). Haskell claims that "whether as the product of one auteur or of the system. . . women are the vehicle of men's fantasies, the 'anima' of the collective male unconscious, and the scapegoat of men's fears" (39-40). Haskell identifies a vast majority of images of women found in film and attempts to account for reasons why each type of woman exists in narrative cinema. Haskell discusses various fictitious types of women created by male directors in order to capitalize in fetishistic gain by fulfilling the fantasies of her director. Some of these types of women Haskell chooses to identify include: the "vamp," "murderous seductress," "sex goddess," "flapper," "whore," and "virgin." Haskell believes that these portrayals of women in mainstream narrative cinema are reflections of an individual male director's interest in her as a sexual object or illustrations of his inner turmoil. By examining the themes and representations of women in the films of a certain director, it is possible, Haskell claims, to determine if a director's personal relationship with women affects the portrayals of women reflected in film. We can only speculate, as we reexamine the themes of certain directors, what kind of love this was: whether it liberated, imprisoned, or did both; whether a director allowed the women he loved to shape his vision of women, or whether, conversely, he imposed his views, as preconceptions, on the woman he directed (Haskell, 1973).

Kuhn (1982) discusses how the application of psychoanalytic and semiotic thought applied to feminist film theory provides spectators with a method with which to become sensitive to what often remains unseen by the spectator within dominant narrative cinema. Kuhn suggests that when adopting a psychoanalytical and semiotic approach to film theory, the spectator should focus attention to the presence as well as the absence of women's experience in films. In order to draw attention to the presence of women's repression and the absence of women's experience in film, Kuhn suggests that the spectator should read the film to expose any absence of women's experience in the text, examine the framework in which women's images are represented in the film's narrative/non-narrative sequence; as well as examine any possible relationships between the film production and the formation of meaning in the narrative/non-narrative structures and elements of mise-en-scene existing in the film. Kuhn states that "feminist film theory may therefore operate at the levels of both text and context, and would ideally aim to delineate the relationship between the two" (73). According to Kuhn (1982) on Haskell "The frame of reference for all this work is defined by a shared and usually implicit assumption concerning the relationship between cinematic representation and the Śreal world': that a film, in recording or reflecting the world in a directed or mediated fashion, is in some sense a vehicle for transmitting meanings which originate outside of itself--within the intentions of filmmakers, perhaps or within social structures" (75).

Bergstrom (1988) discusses the literary works of Raymond Bellour in exploring various methods of textual analysis which have been significant to the study of feminist film theory. In analyzing the importance of the work of Bellour, Bergstrom explores how the organization of narrative events within classic narrative film aid in the formation of codes, which reveal repetitions within the plot (170). These codes, and their relationship to one another, as suggested by Bergstrom, are a useful method of textual analysis in revealing the representation of sexual difference in narrative film to the female spectator. According to Bergstrom, "At this present stage of Bellour's work, he has brought together identification, vision, and pleasure (fascination) in a way that suggests direct connections with the most important work being done in the area of film and psychoanalytical theory by feminists" (180). Bergstrom illustrates the importance of having the spectator engage in a highly complex reading of classic narrative cinema to reveal the significance of elements of sexual difference evident in mainstream film. Bergstrom proposes that "these studies have been important . . . as they investigate how meaning is produced in the classical film, and as they have helped to clarify and specify the systematic mapping of sexual difference--and therefore of the woman's function--onto the logic of narrative events, symbolization and figuration, and as they have attempted to understand the symbolic weight of the production of these figures" (159).

Gentile (1985) discusses the need for a female spectator to develop critically subjective strategies to determine her ideological standpoint of a film. By using psychoanalysis as a tool for feminist film analysis, Gentile suggests that the spectator bring a critical perspective to film analysis by exposing contradictory perspectives within an individual's ideological context to determine if women in film are expected to live within predetermined roles in society, or to reveal if they are excluded altogether. In other words, we must directly address this discourse and its manner of ordering experience in order to make visible the gaps (the repressions) and the contradictions within it, or in relation to other dominant discourse-- political, social, religious, scientific (Gentile, 1985). Gentile states "as for the gaps, the places where women are not, their exposure is similarly important. . . the critical viewer must either notice and question 'that which is not there'. . . or the viewer must find a way to get outside of an apparently seamless world view, to recognize that which has been repressed and displaced" (65). Narrative sequence, plot, the camera's positioning/angles, the sequencing of shots, the camera's tracking, and various elements of mise-en-scene such as visual symbols and text composition are useful in revealing the gaps in film's representation of women.

Gentile encourages constructing multiple perspectives when interpreting these various elements of mise-en-scene to evaluate comparisons the filmmaker chooses to make among colors, camera angle/distance, directions, rhythms, and shots within the collective cinematic text. By constructing a film's experience from multiple perspectives, the female spectator will develop a dual consciousness when analyzing the portrayal of women in narrative cinema. Not only will she feel and see the logic within many viewpoints, she will recognize their incongruity, thus pulling her out to a critical distance (Gentile, 1985). Gentile states that "from this critical distance, she will begin to recognize the plurality of experience and the 'truth' in the spaces between contrasting viewpoints--all the lessons of critical subjectivity" (78). Constructing the cinematic experience from multiple perspectives encourages the female spectator to remain aware of any influences which may have shaped the images of women and the events portrayed in the films of a particular director. Gentile states that "the manifestation of conflicting viewpoints within the film serves to expose the choices the filmmaker makes. . . this exposure of the filmmaker's process, in effect, provides the spectator with the tools necessary to dismantle the illusion" (81).

Population: For this portion of the project, the researcher attempted to answer various questions surrounding the proposed study "What personal experiences with women are reflected in the images and events portrayed in the films of Roman Polanski?" Films examined include: Macbeth (1971), Tess (1979), and Death and the Maiden (1995). Other subjects of analysis the researcher chose to utilize in her study include: the biography Roman written by Roman Polanski, interviews with Polanski, critical commentaries of Polanski's films, journal articles, periodical abstracts, and literature written about Psychoanalytic feminist theory. The researcher also chose to utilize several biographies which include: The Filmmaker as Voyeur by Barbara Leaming, Roman Polanski by Virginia Wright Wexman, and The Roman Polanski Story by Thomas Kiernan.

Procedure:
Using the above sources as a guide, the researcher's study consisted of viewing several of Roman Polanski's films to become familiar with the narrative, plot, visual symbols, text composition, location, images/treatment of women, and various elements of mise-en-scene to examine the interaction between Polanski's relationships with women and the images and events presented in his films. Utilizing Psychoanalytic feminist theory as the basis of the researcher's study, the researcher examined the themes and portrayals of women to expose any of Polanski's personal experiences reflected in the images and events presented in his films. The researcher analyzed each films' content according to how the images of women and events were presented and gathered data from Polanski's autobiography, biographies, as well as interviews with Polanski to determine what significant events and experiences with women in Polanski's adolescence and adulthood may have shaped the manner in which he chose to portray women and events in these films. Gathering these data allowed the researcher to draw conclusions as to how Polanski approached typical situations in his life and relationships with women to determine if evidence of a direct connection between Polanski's relationships with women and events portrayed in his films exists.

Once this information was gathered, the researcher focused on the sexual- psychological themes present in Polanski's work and offered extensive readings of each of these films by examining and documenting any evident themes of violence, victimization, isolation, and alienation to uncover strong parallels between Polanski's personal life and work. The researcher then read critical examinations of each of the films analyzed to determine if any critics have suggested a direct connection between Polanski's relationships with women and the images and events illustrated in his films. In order to determine if Polanski relied on personal experience in making his films, the researcher chose the application of Psychoanalytic feminist film theory to analyze Polanski's films. The researcher proposed a series of questions to aid in determining if events and images portrayed in Polanski's films closely fit his life. They are as follows:

1. Does the manner in which Polanski present women in film provide the spectator with insight into Polanski's thoughts, fantasies, or values?
2. Are women, through the process of film production, represented as products of Polanski's male fetishistic and voyeuristic desire?
3. How are the narrative events/sequence, plot, visual symbols, cinematic text composition, camera's positioning/angles, sequencing of shots, and various elements of mise-en-scene useful in revealing how Polanski chooses to represent women in film?
4. Are the textual and visual representations of women's exploitation and subordination, if at all apparent, serving primarily as the basis of Polanski's aesthetic expression, or are these instances rather reflections of his own attitude towards women?
5. Did Polanski allow his personal experiences with women to influence the representation of women and events in film, or did he impose his attitudes and morals on the women he chose to direct in film?

Kiernan (1980) and Polanski (1984) suggest that ever since the beginning of Polanski's very existence, Polanski has been no stranger to his share of psychological trauma and disappointment. Born in 1933 to Polish-Jewish parents, Roman Polanski's life began in great conflict. Raised in Poland, Polanski was forced to deal with the horror of his own life at a very young age. Soon after World War Two broke out, his father was seized and his mother was taken to a Nazi concentration camp in Aushwitz, where she later died. Spending most of his childhood alone in the Krakow ghetto, his parents' disappearance affected him deeply. A life filled with triumphs and tragedies, Polanski often dreamed of experiencing the intense love of his relatives and often sought consolation from the depression he encountered in his early life by escaping to the cinema.

Forced to move from one residence to another, young Roman stayed with several families who were willing to take him in until Hitler's forces stormed across the Polish border and began to invade the ghetto. Only years later did Roman find out that his mother was secretly gassed during her fourth month of pregnancy. Alone outside the ghetto, Roman was sent from one host family to another until there was a food shortage, upon which he was sent to manage by himself working for a peasant family. Overwhelmed by loneliness, Roman missed his parents terribly and often wondered if his parents were safe from harm, or dead.

Months later, Roman's father reappeared in his life, accompanied by a new girlfriend, and relations between father and son became explosive. Regarding his father's liaison with his girlfriend as a betrayal of his mother, Polanski became resentful and resorted to disrespecting his father's mistress. Stubbornness in Polanski's character continued, and his relations with his father and father's girlfriend worsened, so his father established him in an apartment of his own at the age of fourteen.

During Polanski's later adolescence, he began to develop an interest in radio and film, and began organizing intricately staged productions with children in his neighborhood in which he established himself as an actor, director, and screenwriter. He later attended Lodz film school, where he applied as a director and developed an interest in aesthetics, and later met his first wife, the young Polish female performer, Basia Kwiatowski, who he later married. Their marriage quickly deteriorated due to each partner's infidelity. Casting off his past, Polanski attempted to rebuild his future by seducing various Hollywood American women and began engaging in frequent casual sexual relationships, becoming a "swinger" of the sixties in an effort to heal the wounds created by the destruction of his first marriage.

Years later, like a lovestruck teenager, Polanski met and fell in love with Sharon Tate, a Hollywood starlet who captivated Polanski's heart. Breathtakingly beautiful, sensual, yet maintaining the innocence of a child, Polanski fell head over heels in love with Sharon and married her in 1968. Although Tate seemed to be a permanent fixture in Polanski's life, he was scared away by the thought of marrying and having children due to the disintegration of his family at such an early age; yet due to Sharon's strict Catholic upbringing, he decided to marry Sharon anyway, aware that any emotional attachment to women in his life carried the risk of heartache and despair. Sharon soon announced to Roman that she was expecting a child. Even though the pregnancy was unplanned on Roman's part, the couple was delighted and their physical and emotional bond strengthened in sheer anticipation of the baby's arrival. Months later, Polanski returned to London to begin working on a film script, only to receive a phone call which literally turned his life upside down again: his beloved wife Sharon and four of her friends had been savagely slaughtered in their home in a gruesome mass murder ritual committed by the deranged cult leader Charles Manson and his followers. Struck by sorrow, grief, and horror, Polanski was in a distressed state of shock, which sent him soaring into another depression. A doctor sedated him, and he arrived at the funeral proceedings thirty-six hours later, to mourn the death of his beloved wife. Although Polanski survived the horror of the event, Sharon's tragic death affected him deeply and he sought solace in mending his mental anguish by creating some of the most brilliant, intense artistic works of his career in the years immediately following the death of his wife; capturing the dark and sordid atmosphere of his own life on film by portraying women as victims, in an allusive blend of work dealing with violence and death.

Weschler (1994) suggests that ever since the death of Sharon, Polanski's relationships with women became brief encounters. Choosing to avoid serious commitment, Polanski withdrew from engaging in relations with older women and began to engage in frequent, casual, sexual affairs with young women. In 1976, Polanski developed an interest in the fifteen year old beauty--Nastassia Kinski, with whom he ended up having a three month casual affair. Polanski began working on a Christmas issue for Vogue of France, in which he featured the young Nastassia in a series of highly provocative poses to be featured in a photographic layout; quickly turning the young female into an international star who he later featured in his film adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'urbervilles, a favorite book of Sharon's which he had read nearly a decade earlier and promised the role of Tess to his wife Sharon Tate. Although Polanski's casual love affair with Kinski quickly deteriorated, Polanski's fascination with young women never ended.

Approached by Vogue Hommes once again, Polanski was requested to produce a photographic layout featuring young girls. Upon hearing of a recommendation for a female subject to appear in the layout, Polanski immediately began preliminary shooting in the girl's home and requested her mother's permission to complete some location shots at the home of Jack Nicholson. Continuing the shoot, Polanski began romancing the thirteen year old in Nicholson's jacuzzi, where he offered the girl a Quaalude and champagne and began to remove her clothing to take pictures of the girl topless, holding her glass of champagne. Polanski eventually joined the girl in the jacuzzi and ended up engaging in sexual relations with her.

Polanski was arrested the following day and indicted on six counts, including "unlawful sexual intercourse," "rape by the use of drugs," "committing a lewd and lascivious act," "child molesting," "oral copulation," and "sodomy." Polanski's trial began on August 9th--the eighth anniversary of Sharon's murder and Polanski pleaded guilty to the least serious of all charges--unlawful sexual intercourse. Judge Laurence J. Rittenband accepted Polanski's plea but deferred Polanski's sentencing and instead, sentenced Polanski to ninety days in a state psychiatric prison to undergo psychiatric evaluation. The evaluation process took forty-two days and Polanski was later released on January 29, 1978. On the following day, Judge Rittenband sentenced Polanski to an additional forty-eight days, followed by an "indeterminate sentence," which would be revoked at any time only if Polanski voluntarily agreed to be permanently deported from the United States. Polanski agreed and within two days, returned to Paris, where he was a naturalized citizen, and never returned to the United States.

Roman Polanski's personal life and relationships with women are clearly evident in the presentation of the brutally endangered, erotic, fragile female images which embody many of Polanski's mature films. The researcher has examined complex nature of Polanski's private life and obsessions with women and has studied the course of Polanski's career as a filmmaker to provide a frightening account of the many disastrous events which have played an extensive role in the development of his art.

One disturbing and traumatic phase of Polanski's life serving to expose a record of connections between Polanski's personal life and the images and events reflected in his films is the 1969 murder of his pregnant wife Sharon Tate in Polanski's California home. Stabbed repeatedly in the neck, breast, and stomach during a mass murder ritual, this brutal and gruesome event is reflected in the dark, sordid, and equally bizarre cinematic representations of narrative events presented in Polanski's films.

Another phase of Polanski's life which provides an account for a connection between Polanski's personal life and the images and events reflected in his films is his 1978 arrest on charges of statutory rape. Polanski's taste for sexual deviance, violence, subordination of women, erotic obsession, and psychological terror revealed in his films closely parallels the horror of his own life which he has attempted to conceal. Polanski's films, Death and the Maiden, Macbeth, and Tess, synthesize all of the influences which have shaped the development of his art and will be used to provide an account of how Polanski has brought to the silver screen a series of films which explore power, relationships, and the fragility of human nature.

Taking place in a South American country, Polanski's Death and the Maiden tells a story of physical torture, psychological trauma, victimization, vengeance, and political repression. Sigourney Weaver stars as Paulina Escobar, a woman who suffers psychological trauma after being incarcerated and repeatedly subjected to rape and torture under a recently fallen political dictatorship. The film begins at a concert attended by the protagonists, Paulina and her husband Gerardo, where Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet is played, the music once played by Paulina's torturer during all fourteen of her rape and torture sessions. As the story unfolds, Gerardo prepares to undergo an investigation of the old political regime to bring criminals such as those who abused his wife to justice.

On a dark and stormy evening, Paulina, eager for her husband to return home steps braless outside into the rain, and gets soaked. Once her husband arrives, the camera lens pedestals up her body, revealing her naked figure in profile as she removes her clothing. The camera lens then reveals one of her breasts in close up, making visible several scars around her nipple, clarifying to the spectator the form of treatment Paulina encountered during her imprisonment under the control of a repressive dictatorship. Visual clues abound, as we watch Polanski transmogrify an examination of human morality to the ever- titillating cinematic treatment of rape and sexual abuse (Monahan, 1995). Johnson states "and without that political context, Death and the Maiden, becomes an unventilated melodrama, a stage burning up under the magnifying lens of Polanski's voyeurism" (87).

In the next narrative sequence, Gerardo's car breaks down and he is given a ride home by Dr. Roberto Miranda, who is later invited into their home. Upon entering their home, Paulina hears Miranda's voice and almost immediately becomes convinced that Miranda is the man who abused her while she was blindfolded during her captivity as the camera reveals a close up of Paulina's face, clarifying her sureness that Miranda is indeed her torturer, thus intensifying her fear as a result of her discovery. Although Miranda insists that he is not the individual who tortured Paulina, she decides to take him hostage to force Miranda to confess his crimes. From this point, it becomes unclear whether Miranda is guilty or innocent and the spectator begins to doubt Paulina's sanity and believes that this is clearly a case of mistaken identity. This scene becomes contingent upon whether or not Miranda will reveal if he is indeed Paulina's torturer and whether or not the spectator should doubt Miranda's guilt due to Paulina's paranoia and instability.

The focus of the film shifts immediately in the following narrative sequence as the camera trucks around the cluttered, claustrophobic house revealing frequent fast paced close-ups of Paulina's gun and a kitchen drawer being rummaged for things to assist Paulina in her interrogation process. These camera movements serve primarily as a narrative function in clarifying through Paulina's actions that she simply wants to relive the experience by engaging in a role-reversal revenge fantasy in which she acts out the role of the victimizer, while Miranda is forced to play the role of the victim. The camera movements and instability of the frame serve to intensify each character's emotions of reliving the entire experience- anxiety, fear of impending danger, loathing, vengefulness in yearning for retribution. To confirm Paulina's suspicions that Miranda is her torturer, Paulina straddles Miranda as she ties him to a chair with duct tape and a lamp cord while holding him at gunpoint, sniffs Miranda and stuffs her undergarments in his mouth practically kissing Miranda during the process, while her husband witnesses in sheer terror. Monahan (1995) suggests that once Paulina comes face to face with the doctor, Polanski can't seem to see the frantic scene that follows as anything more than sexual play of dominance and submission. The lightning strikes, the power is cut off, and time instantly seems to fade away, clarifying to the spectator an urgency on the action; intensifying Paulina's severe feelings of isolation and her strong desire to seek revenge on Miranda through her savagely vicious actions.

The following narrative sequence presents Paulina taking the opportunity to provide Gerardo with lurid details of the fourteen repeated assaults of rape, sodomy, and electric shocks she endured during the period of time she was held captive. The spectator learns that Paulina's torture was the result of refusing to give Gerardo's name as the publisher of an opposition newspaper during the dictatorship of the old regime, and also learns of Gerardo's infidelity which occurred only a month after Paulina disappeared. After Paulina's disclosure, Gerardo is viewed in an unfavorable light as the characters reveal themselves through a series of reverse-angle-over-the-shoulder shots, creating a variety of angles which serve to intensify Paulina's feelings of isolation during the screen event. Through the series of reverse shots, it is clarified to the spectator that Paulina is clearly affected by Gerardo's short lived love affair; although Gerardo appears to be unaffected by the fact that Paulina sacrificed herself by enduring repeated instances of torture out of her love for Gerardo; thus intensifying the wide spectrum of emotions ranging from love to hatred which Paulina feels for Gerardo.

In the following narrative sequence, Gerardo is seen persuading Dr. Miranda to confess his crimes to Paulina while diagetic sounds of Schubert's Death and the Maiden string quartet echoes throughout the house, the same music which was apparently played repeatedly during Paulina's rape and torture sessions. As Paulina enters the room, the music reaches an all time crescendo. The camera then reveals close ups of Miranda's face as the music rises suddenly and clarifies through Miranda's response that he may be an innocent man; although his response of nervousness may even suggest through the increasing loudness of the music that Miranda is experiencing a guilty conscience of playing that same music on the fourteen separate occasions which he raped Paulina. Close ups of Miranda's face reveal such an ambiguity in his character that it makes it difficult to determine whether he is innocent or guilty. Almost immediately, there is a shift in the film's focus once again as Paulina attempts to dominate Miranda through forceful acts of slapping, hitting, and punching Miranda in order to provoke Miranda to confess his crimes on videotape. Miranda then trips Paulina, drops her gun, retrieves it as the camera begins over Paulina's shoulder as she holds the gun to Miranda's face whereby he ends up looking at her; serving to clarify their new relationship in which Paulina dominates Miranda, thus intensifying Miranda's feelings of intimidation. The storm subsides, electricity returns, and stereo music begins to surge, intensifying a growing madness between Paulina and Dr. Miranda.

In the final narrative sequence, Paulina coerces Dr. Miranda into going on the edge of a rocky cliff looking down upon the murky depths of the water below to make his final confession. Before Dr. Miranda makes his startling confession, there is a very unpleasant camera move in subjective view over the edge of the cliffs, forcing the spectator to become deeply involved in the highly energetic screen event. The camera assumes the role of Dr. Miranda as he is actively engaged in making his confession, clarifying a strong delineation between the protagonist and antagonist of the situation; thus intensifying Dr. Miranda's anxiety, physical discomfort, and psychological stress. Finally, kneeling down before the rocky cliffs, Dr. Miranda makes his dramatic confession in which he describes the pleasure he derived from taking Paulina against her will and raping her fourteen times while submitting electric shocks through her genitalia, as he provides graphic descriptions of when he stuck a metal rod in her rear and forced her to place her head in a bucket of her own excrement. Monahan states that "we hear in the doctor's speech at the end of the film an explanation for his criminal behavior. Rape happens, the doctor seems to say, because women drive men to it. They are so demanding, so controlling, that the only time men can have fun is when they take care of their needs and their needs alone" (18).

Death and the Maiden clearly indicates that PolanskiŚs personal experiences with women are reflected in the themes of violence, victimization, alienation, isolation, and repression presented in this film. This film closely parallels one significant event in Polanski's life--his 1979 arrest for statutory rape. Just like Polanski's life, this film plays out a variety of Polanski's sexual obsessions--sexual dominance, sexual violence, voyeurism, and fantasies of latent sexual content. Thompson (1995) states that "much more characteristic is the underlying alienation and hostility: the feeling that people are cut off, unsupported by any shared view of life and society. From this, the move towards acts of violence is stealthy, remorseless, and even comic" (477). Like Dr. Miranda, Polanski himself was a victimizer who was accused of statutory rape in 1977 and attempted to maintain his innocence by denying such accusations, suggesting that the thirteen year old girl consented to engaging in sexual relations with Polanski, which led to Polanski's arrest and incarceration in 1979, and eventually led to his exile from Hollywood. Polanski lost control of the image he had created for himself and took a long absence from producing movies, leading a life in which he was forced to suffer from alienation. Thompson further states that "he has always shown an acute understanding of a world in which bureaucrats cannot be believed, reasonable requests of human behavior easily slip into threatening gestures, and nothing and nobody is innocent. He may have always denied such suggestions himself, but his own experiences--as a Jew in Nazi-occupied Poland, as the husband of a Manson murder victim, as the subject of an unresolved sex scandal--surely offer considerable insight into lives dominated by suffering and vengeance" (6). Polanski depicts in Death and the Maiden a life in which a remorseless, repeated sex offender goes on living, unpunished--a life which mirrors his own.

Not only does Death and the Maiden indicate parallels between the events which occurred in Polanski's life and the manner in which he chooses to portray women in film, the film also reflects Polanski's own attitude towards women. Paulina, like the young female Polanski raped, is viewed as the passive object of Polanski's voyeuristic fantasy. Polanski, assuming the role of the victimizer through use of the camera lens, actively dominates Paulina by providing the spectator with sneaky glimpses of Weaver's naked breasts as she undresses, gets soaked to the skin in a thin white blouse, and allows her husband to fondle her breasts, literally "groping" Weaver with the camera's lens that peers secretly at her body. Johnson states that "for director Roman Polanski, Death and the Maiden is initially about breasts--Sigourney Weaver's breasts. . . so there Polanski seems to be saying--how's that for nudity with dramatic justification?" (87). Polanski's scrutinizing of the female figure by use of the camera lens seems to violate Paulina's most intimate moments; thus it becomes evident that Polanski is perversely fascinated by crossing the cinematic boundaries of voyeurism and fetishism. Weschler notes that "by exploring violence this way, he is, of course, not only implicating his audience but also his primordial experience--that a spellbound child gazing upon horrors from deep in his hiding place, aware that he could get caught looking and suffer the direst of consequences" (92). Polanski illustrates through his obvious lack of self control in art and life that he has confused his fetishistic and voyeuristic desire for a woman with sexual assault; and for this reason Death and the Maiden painfully delivers with incredible accuracy Polanski's confrontation with the issue of rape and its aftermath.

In Polanski's first narrative sequence of Macbeth, the spectator is presented with an image of three witches, one of which is youthful in appearance, and the other two who are aged, haggard, exhausted, and repulsive in appearance; burying the remains of a knife, noose, and severed hand in the ground at what appears to be a sunlit, deserted beach. After completion of the burial, the camera remains static as the witches separate. The youngest of the witches is viewed pushing a cart with one of the other witches into the distance; while the third witch is viewed vanishing into the deserted landscape alone as the beach becomes dismal looking, thus symbolizing Macbeth's fate in meeting with the witches who will tempt him with prophecies which will ultimately allow him to rise in power and set himself on a path to his own destruction. The witches are heard uttering the words of Shakespeare, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair," a phrase which refers to Macbeth's false character who appears fair on the outside, and evil on the outside; a man who appears conscious throughout the film of committing sin. This phrase also emphasizes Polanski's view of the world--a world in which the appearances of individuals are deceptive and evil intentions produce wicked consequences by those who give in to the temptation of sin.

In the following narrative sequence, the highly feminine Lady Macbeth appears, convincing her husband to murder Duncan, the king of Scotland, in order to prove his manhood to her. By attacking her husband's masculinity, Lady Macbeth acts as a female temptress throughout the film, by convincing her husband to commit a series of murders she is incapable of committing herself in an effort to achieve power. Duncan soon awakens to find Macbeth peering over him, and Macbeth plunges his knife into Duncan's body repeatedly, revealing the assassination in close up, as the spectator views blood pouring from the many wounds accentuated by the gore and bloodshed resulting from Macbeth's actions of physical brutality. After the stabbing occurs, Duncan's crown falls to the floor as the camera reveals a close up of the crown, symbolizing the dangerous pursuits Macbeth will engage in to achieve kingship. War later occurs in the scene, presenting the spectator with a sergeant providing details of how Macbeth assassinated the king of Scotland. Macbeth and Banquo ride off, and the witches appear furnishing Macbeth with their prophecies which suggest that Macbeth will rule Scotland and Banquo's heirs will become kings. The camera reveals a close up of Macbeth's face, clarifying that he has been overcome by demons, evil spirits, and the forces of Satan through his unusual bond with the witches; thus suggesting to the spectator that Duncan's assassination will result in a succession of wicked actions which will eventually lead to Macbeth's demise. Ross and Angus then arrive to hail Macbeth as the new Thane of Candor, and Lady Macbeth appears once again, youthful and attractive in appearance, in celebration of the murder, clarifying to the spectator Macbeth's and Lady Macbeth's intimate emotional and physical relationship; thus revealing Lady Macbeth's deceptive facade created by her repeated attempts to manipulate Macbeth through the power of seduction into a series of evil misdeeds.

In the following narrative sequence, Polanski presents the spectator with the murder of Banquo, a general in Duncan's army, which Macbeth commits in order to fulfill the witch's prophecy to become king. Occurring in daylight, Banquo and Fleance straddle their horses and a battle takes place between Ross, father, and son. Fleance escapes and Banquo is murdered after receiving several axe blows to the back. Banquo's ghost appears to Macbeth, marked by bloodshed and violence. The camera reveals a close up of Macbeth's face, clarifying to the spectator that Macbeth is possessed by feelings of guilt, paranoia, and discomfort, which are intensified as Macbeth gazes at Banquo's blood stained figure. Lady Macbeth faints at the sight of murdered Banquo's ghost, shocked by her husband's brutality and infected by her own troubled feelings of guilt in persuading her husband to engage in dangerous pursuits to achieve power. Macbeth leaves and heads across the barren landscape to the witches' cave to confirm their assertions that he is to become the ruler of Scotland.

The following narrative sequence presents the spectator with revealing close ups of nude witches--young and old, mostly elderly and haggard looking with repulsive, wrinkled figures placing disembodied parts of humans such as a nude, bloody child and a severed hand into a bloody cauldron, clarifying to the spectator that the witches symbolize the dark side of human nature which Macbeth is incapable of destroying in order to prevent his soul from being possessed by the evil forces of Satan and the witches. The camera then moves from a subjective view of the witches throwing objects into the hellish brew to view an objective shot of Macbeth devouring the unpleasant looking concoction, clarifying to the spectator that Macbeth has entered into the dark side of destruction resulting from his dangerously evil pursuits and his bond with the witches; thus suggesting that Macbeth has made a connection with all that is foul and wicked--the deceptive witches who have posed as a friend of man and provided Macbeth with many false promises which resulted in the temptation of evil that the protagonist has been unable to resist.

In the following narrative sequence, Macbeth is viewed ordering Lady Macduff and her children to be murdered. In another sequence of blood, slaughter, and gore, the young nude figure of Macduff's son is seen bathing in a tub of water when the murderers enter the home of Lady Macduff. Graphic depictions of brutal butcherings dominate the scene along with high pitched cries of Lady Macduff and her son; clarifying the madness created by Macbeth's sinful moral choices and defiance of God. Shortly after the murder occurs, the spectator views Macbeth and his wife lying speechless next to one another in their bedroom. Unable to bring himself to show any form of physical affection for his wife, the spectator recognizes the amount of indifference Macbeth feels for Lady Macbeth as a result of her repeated attempts in convincing Macbeth to engage in murderous pursuits in an effort to gain her affection. Later in the scene, Lady Macbeth is viewed sleepwalking naked as Macbeth appears erotically unaffected by her state of nude delirium, clarifying to the spectator that the power of sexual enslavement which Lady Macbeth had over her husband has resulted in the deterioration of the intimacy the couple experienced earlier in the film; thus suggesting that Macbeth's service to womankind (the witches and Lady Macbeth), has broken his close emotional and physical bond with his wife.

In the final narrative sequence, a climactic battle between Macbeth and Macduff takes place as the two individuals deliver painful body slashing and bone-breaking sword blows to each other's figure. Another realistic sequence dominated by blood and gore, Polanski shows a shocking and horror-filled scene in which he fully takes advantage of the medium to show the viewer graphic depictions of Macbeth climbing the stairs to battle Macduff, upon which Macduff delivers one last painful sword stroke which severs Macbeth's head from his body. Polanski then follows the decapitated head with the camera as it falls from his body to the ground below and the camera quickly cuts to the body before crashing down the steps. Polanski's Macbeth ends with Macbeth's decapitated head on a pole and the corpse of his dead wife covered by a blanket; a climax to Macbeth's and Lady Macbeth's destructive lifestyle.

Macbeth clearly indicates that Polanski's personal experiences are reflected in the themes of aggression, violence, temptation of evil, sexual enslavement, and the corrupting influence of evil on humanity presented in this film. Polanski's deliberate accentuation of blood, gore, and the brutality of mankind closely parallels the 1969 murder of his pregnant wife Sharon Tate and their unborn son committed by Charles Manson and his followers; while Macbeth's illustration of how evil operates in the world seems to reflect Polanski's own personal vision of the world--a world in which Polanski has given in to his own temptations of sin (through the statutory rape of a minor). Similiar to Polanski's life, Macbeth portrays a time when the operation of evil ends in the world and justice is returned to all victims of evil. Various images of bloodshed and mutilation support the corrupting influences which surround the dramatic actions of Macbeth, although these images are given greater visual meaning through Polanski's graphic depictions of blood and gore through the many crimes Macbeth commits. Not only do these numerous images of blood provide Macbeth's actions with greater visual meaning, but they also underscore Polanski's own psychological working out of his own personal experiences--his unconscious dealing with sin and the tragic death of wife Sharon Tate. Wexman states that "the Śworld created anew' in Polanski's films is thus a world in which the chaotic forces of the unconscious are unleashed in an absurd universe from which all the traditional notions of meaning and value have vanished" (23).

Macbeth's storyline mainly focuses on the internal experiences of the protagonist (Macbeth) while providing hallucinatory images of dreams which are portrayals of Macbeth's, and Polanski's, psychological deterioration. The physical and psychological deterioration of Macbeth stresses the influence of Satan on himself. Macbeth's voluntary choices to engage in sin are deliberate defiances of God which result in the corruption of not only himself, but those around him as well, destroying virtually all of God's beings. Macbeth's acts are not only physical acts of brutality, but mental acts of brutality, which result in the destruction of his morals. Polanski allows the spectator to view the implications of Macbeth's misdeeds before he actually commits any harm to indicate Macbeth's quickly deteriorating moral values. Although Macbeth is tormented by his conscience, his character never seems to experience any remorse resulting from his actions. Instead, Macbeth engages in more evil and dangerous pursuits of evil in an effort to attain power. Although Macbeth is constantly terrified by the warnings of his conscience, he cannot suppress his feelings to engage in evil, thus emphasizing the constant urging to which he has been subjected to by Lady Macbeth. The bloody path to destruction on which Macbeth embarks both mentally and physically is acceptable him because he does not wish to risk losing all that he has attempted to gain in the process, so Macbeth instead rises to power as he sinks further and further into evil in an effort to attain kingship. Abrupt changes between Macbeth's disturbed perceptions of reality and illusion are projected into the film by use of certain elements of mise-en-scene which serve to symbolize an inner expression of Macbeth's hallucinations; thus clarifying a realistic representation of the protagonists' deranged perceptions. Polanski's use of realism creates a film atmosphere with psychological underpinnings reflecting Polanski's personal view of wrongdoing in the world and his own inner disturbances--an examination of the traumatized fragile side of human nature characterized by physical and psychological damage. Berlin states that "violence is part of the reality of the world as Polanski sees the world, and in his Macbeth Polanski uses Shakespeare's setting to present his personal vision of bloodshed, mutilation, violence and horror--a vision not altogether unfounded in light of . . . the Manson murders" (293).

Not only do the various motifs presented in Macbeth indicate parallels between the events which have occurred in Polanski's life, but the primary theme of sexual rivalry presented in Macbeth also seems to reflect Polanski's personal vision of women. Francesca Annis, who bears a striking resemblance Sharon Tate, portrays Lady Macbeth, a cold female seductress who uses her sexuality and maternal influence to manipulate Macbeth into committing a series of disastrous events. Lady Macbeth's nature is highly antagonistic and this flaw in her character is particularly evident in the large amount of control she exerts over Macbeth. By using her sexual allure to tantalize Macbeth into murder to achieve the kingship and prove his masculinity; Macbeth's struggle to achieve power becomes a struggle to achieve male dominance in their relationship; thus Lady Macbeth's threatening of Macbeth's masculinity through a reversal of gender roles clarifies, to some extent, Macbeth's, and Polanski's, fear of domination by women. Wexman states that "for Polanski, sexuality has become the primary mode by which the rituals of power, which have obsessed him from the beginning of his career, are enacted. . . but whatever the connection with the director's attitudes, experiences, or influences, the topic of sexuality is a natural extension of his surrealist interest in unconscious conflicts, and it provides a rich source of material by means of which he has been able to expand the thematic and technical scope of his art" (19).

In Polanski's opening sequence of Tess, the spectator is presented with white credits appearing on a black background fading into credits scrolling over a pleasant, brilliantly lit, countryside stating the words "to Sharon" while Philip Sarde's overture blends into a melodic folk harmonic composition. As the music accompanies a series of angellically dressed May Day dancers; the spectator is reminded of Polanski's unconscious dealing with Sharon's fragile innocence destroyed by the brutal, tragic murder committed by Charles Manson.

The following narrative sequence presents Jack D'Uberville discovering that he is a man of noble descent as the camera reveals a close up of his face which reveals a series of haggard images to the spectator such as bloodshot eyes, decaying teeth, a dirty face covered in wrinkles, and tattered garments; clarifying the contrast between his high social status and depraved appearance. Shifting the films focus, Jack D'Uberville's face dissolves into a group of teenage girls looking steadily at the face of Angel Clare. As the camera explores a close up of Tess's face, glances are exchanged among Angel and Tess, although no words are exchanged. As the story unfolds, Alex moves on and Tess is sent by her family to claim kin within the D'Uberville family. Once Tess has reached her destination, Tess is seduced by her bewitching and equally sinister cousin, Alec, who attempts to force Tess into engaging in sexual relations with him.

The following narrative sequence presents close ups of Tess devouring strawberries in an empty field while Alec views Tess from a distance. Focusing on furtive close ups in subjective view, Alec's face is viewed secretly glancing at Tess while extreme close ups of Tess's lips are viewed grasping a strawberry between her top and bottom lip. By eroticizing the pure innocence of the moment, the spectator identifies with Alec's gaze and becomes aware of the cinematic scrutinizing of Tess; thus clarifying to the spectator the sexual gratification Polanski receives in making the shots of Tess erotically appealing by presenting shots of Tess from Alec's point of view.

The proceeding narrative sequence presents Tess disappearing to remove herself from the presence of Alec, only to be closely scrutinized by Alec once again. Tess is viewed from a low angle position attempting to learn to whistle in an effort to entertain Mrs. D'Ubervilles birds. As she puckers her lips to whistle, no sounds are produced. After a few moments of viewing Tess's repeated attempts to whistle, a whistled melody is heard extending from an unseen point off screen. Alec appears, with his angle of vision parallel to the camera's positioning, clarifying to the spectator that Alec has been witnessing Tess's attempts to whistle from the grass. By forcing the spectator to view Tess as Alec does, this point of view shot distinguishes between Tess's inferiority and Alec's superiority in the relationship; thus the shot intensifies the objectification of Tess created by the voyeurism implied by the close cinematic observation of Tess's face.

In the film's central narrative sequence, the spectator is presented with Alec attempting to seduce Tess in a forest. In an attempt to become an active body, Tess, the passive victim of Alec's unwanted advances, makes an effort to disturb her condition of being violated by Alec by pushing him from his horse to the ground. As the roles between the two individuals reverse, Tess becomes the victimizer by forcing Alec to fall to the ground and injure himself; and the camera reveals a close up of Alec's bloody head resulting from hitting a stone. Once Tess experiences remorse for injuring Alec, the roles of victim and victimizer reciprocate once again as Alec forces Tess to submit to his strength as he forces her body to the ground, while harsh, unpleasant sounds of birds chirping echo repeatedly through the forest. Observing Tess's struggle from a high angle shot from above, non-diagetic sounds of Philip Sarde's musical score begins to surge as Alec starts to rape Tess by pinning himself on top of her body and aggressively attacking her with forced kisses, embraces, and caresses of her chest; thus clarifying to the spectator Alec's, and Polanski's, cruel, perverse, and sadistic nature in their need to exert power and authority over the female figure. As the scene comes to a close, a close up of Tess's face is viewed as the visibility reduces and the sexual act remains hidden; clarifying the dark and gloomy atmosphere Alec has brought to Tess's life and intensifying her state of psychological oppression, discomfort, and sexual unhappiness with Alec.

After Tess has been raped by Alec, she returns home to her family, where she is viewed working in a field. As the camera tracks around the field, Tess stops for lunch while diagetic sounds of a baby crying are heard coming from off screen. A baby is brought to Tess, and the camera reveals a close up of Tess opening her blouse to breast feed the child; clarifying to the spectator that she has given birth in the period of time since Alec raped her. As the sequence progresses, there is a shift in the film's focus as Tess attempts to baptize her child. Although the act remains hidden, the child dies unexpectedly and Tess visits her priest to request a Christian burial for the child. As Tess discloses the details of the baptismal ceremony she has performed to the priest, the camera focuses on a close up of the priest's reaction, clarifying to the spectator the amount of embarrassment and shame the priest feels to have Tess as a member of his clergy. After Tess's disclosure, the priest refuses her requests for a Christian burial of her child as the characters are revealed to the spectator through a series of reverse-angle-over-the-shoulder shots, creating a variety of angles which serve to intensify the priest's lack of compassion for Tess during the screen event. Series of reverse shots it is clarify to the spectator that Tess is clearly affected by the personal and social struggles she must overcome as a result of Alec's violation of her; thus her feelings of vulnerability, lack of power, and victimization by Alec and society are intensified to the spectator.

In the following narrative sequence, a series of young women are seen viewing Angel Clare from a window. Closely scrutinizing the figure of Angel Clare in subjective view, the camera participates in the voyeuristic gaze of Angel by substituting for the view of the young women who are actively engaged in observing Angel from afar; thus clarifying their prurient thoughts of Angel and intensifying their feelings of arousal to the spectator. In the following shot, the women are in a state of rapture as the camera reveals close ups of each women's tongue licking their teeth while Angel carries each of them across a muddy bank of water. Serving a dramatic function, these highly voyeuristic shots help clarify each woman's sexual interest in Alex by intensifying their feelings of overwhelming joy as Angel "carries" each of them into a state of ecstasy. In the next shot, Angel is seen wrapping his arms around Tess to carry her over the muddy bank of water. Practically kissing eachother in the process, the camera reveals a series of reverse shots between Tess and the young women, clarifying their envy towards Tess, thus intensifying their sexual interest in Angel. In the following shot, the camera tracks slowly around a dairy farm as the camera reveals a close up of Tess milking a cow. Angel discloses his love for Tess as she is seen grasping the cow's udders in disbelief; intensifying her internal thoughts of enthusiasm, pleasure, and satisfaction.

The following narrative sequence presents Angel discussing his intentions to marry Tess to his parents. Although Angel's family strongly object to his choice of bride because Tess is not of their social stature, he decides to follow his intentions to marry Tess anyway. The marriage ensues and the couple embarks on their honeymoon to Sandbourne, where Tess makes her startling confession to Angel regarding her relationship with Alec. Through a series of reverse-angle-over-the-shoulder-shots, the creation of a variety of angles serves to intensify the highly dramatic screen event as Angel hears Tess's confessions, which shift to Tess's face during her difficulty in confessing her deceit to the man she loves, and back to Angel's face as he tries to comprehend what Tess is communicating to him. Throughout the sequence, Philip Sarde's musical score serves a dramatic function by intensifying Tess's feelings of being saddened by her deliberate concealment of the truth. While Angel and Tess conclude their conversation, their breakfast is eaten in silence as diagetic sounds of a clock ticking are heard; prolonging the unhappiness between the couple. The scene ends with Angel leaving for Brazil due to his rejection of Tess's behavior based upon the repressive religious values he has learned from his parent's strict morality.

After Angel leaves, Tess returns to Alec. There, clad in elaborate attire, she cries uncontrollably over her broken marriage. Irritated by her lack of emotional and physical attraction to Alec, she gazes at a knife resting on a plate of meat and decides to murder Alec in order to attain happiness with Angel. Although the murder remains hidden within the film, the act is revealed to the spectator by blood dripping from the floor of Alec's room to the ceiling below and a blood stain on Tess's skirt. After the murder, Tess embarks on her journey to attain freedom, emotional and physical fulfillment; where she finds Angel on a train as it is about to depart from Sandbourne.

In the film's final scene, Tess makes love to Angel, and becomes an active participant in the act, rather than the passive victim portrayed in the film's earlier rape scene with Alec. A high angle shot from above reveals the couple eagerly expressing affection for eachother as the camera shifts its gaze on each individual engaging in role reversals of dominance and submission, clarifed to the spectator by their frequent exchanging of positions. In contrast to the film's earlier rape scene, Angel and Tess's final moment of happiness is less voyeuristic as the spectator observes the equality of emotional fulfillment presented in Angel and Tess's sexual relationship. The film ends with Tess asking Angel, "Do you think our souls will take flight together?," clarifying her hope for life with Angel after death as Angel and Tess are viewed walking between two policemen while the credits announce Tess's hanging and sounds of the folk harmonic composition from the beginning of the film echoes throughout the remaining portion of the sequence. As the camera peers out from Stonehenge and glances at the sun, it clarifies the recollection of Angel and Tess's first meeting during the opening May Day sequence, thus intensifying the impact of the termination of happiness between Angel and Tess as their relationship dies.

Tess clearly indicates that Polanski's personal experiences with women are reflected in the themes of isolation, repression, violence, and victimization presented in this film. Similiiar to Polanski's Death and the Maiden, this film closely parallels Polanski's 1978 arrest for statutory rape. Tess, played by Polanski's lover Nastassia Kinski at the age of fifteen, is portrayed as a young, psychologically and socially repressed woman who actively searches for emotional and sexual fulfillment in the film; only to be victimized by Alec and society repeatedly through exploiting her as a peasant and servant to mankind, a woman who is expected to indenture herself by catering to satisfy the needs of a male figure--physically and sexually. Leaming suggests the following: there is much talk of confession in Tess, the revelation of past sins. But as Polanski's confession, Tess offers the rapist's view of rape . . . . even the choice of Kinski to play Tess was significant with regard to the rape. Polanski said he associated Kinski with the role since he had been given the assignment by Vogue Hommes because of the photos of her in the issue of French Vogue he had guest edited. (201-202). Leaming further suggests that "Polanski identifies with Tess because she's a victim of society's mores--much as he perceived himself to be in the rape case" (202).

In the film, social constructs and relationships with the men in her life inevitably shape her destiny. Tess's sexuality is repeatedly victimized by a society that emphasizes the power of her physical attractiveness to captivate a man; while Alec downplays her power to attain dominance in their relationship through achieving emotional and physical fulfillment; thus Tess's class struggle becomes a struggle for her to achieve sexual independence. Since Alec exploits Tess as an inferior peasant through violating her body, identity, Tess embarks on a quest to achieve equality in her relationship with Angel, although she is still perceived as intellectually and socially inferior. Wexman states that "the men who desire her, by contrast, enact sexually repressive codes of behavior that lead inevitably to her own destruction, so that, at the film's conclusion, she becomes another of Polanski's victims" (118). Wexman further notes "Polanski is more concerned with a women's sexuality as central to her identity and with the social roles by which female sexuality is crushed and perverted" (119).

Overall, it is somewhat difficult to determine if Polanski relied heavily on his personal experiences with women when and events in his life when making films. By examining the course of Polanski's career as a filmmaker, results of research in this particular study have exhibited a large amount of evidence suggesting that the tragic details and disastrous relationships of Polanski's life have played an extensive role in the development of his art. A question raised in this study, however, is can these data be applied to all of Polanski's films? Whether Polanski's films serve as a public form of exoneration remains unclear; although this particular study has established the importance in revealing instances of Polanki's unconscious dealing with those elements of his personal life which he has attempted to conceal; thus taking a look at Polanski's life has enabled the researcher to achieve a better understanding of his work as a film director. All of the films in this particular study support a connection between Polanski's personal life and the images presented in his films as suggested by the examination of Polanski's childhood, adolescence, and adulthood; although the results may also seem to suggest that the images presented in Polanski's films may also serve as the basis of Polanski's aesthetic expression in clarifying and intensifying numerous narrative and stylistic elements presented in his films.

To expand the study of this research project, the researcher might want to broaden his/her analytical scope to include the examination of all of Polanski's films to determine if the details of Polanski's personal life are oddly reflected in the atmosphere and various themes of alienation, violence, victimization, and retribution presented in Polanski's other films to determine if a further connection exists between Polanski's life and the images presented in his films. Future projects might also include the examination of how Polanski chooses to represent the male figure in film to determine if Polanski's personal experiences had any influence on the representation of men in film. A sample question might consist of: How are the narrative events, plot, visual symbols, cinematic text composition, camera's positioning/angles, sequencing of shots, and various elements of mise-en-scene useful in revealing a connection between Polanski's attitudes and how Polanski chooses to represent men in film? By constructing Polanski's films from multiple perspectives, it will allow the spectator to develop a higher consciousness when analyzing the images and events represented in films to determine if a direct relationship exists between his life and art.

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