Image of the Perpetrator, the Victim, and the Bystander in Roman Polanski’s Death and the Maiden (1994)

Abstract

This article analyzes the cinematographic means used by Roman Polanski in Death and the Maiden to portray the characters of the movie and the relationship between them. It discusses how Polanski toys with the thriller convention to create a cognitive dissonance in the viewer and uses artistic devices to reflect the process of restoring the identity by the protagonist. In particular, the author examines the frame of the movie and its compositional and semantic functions and compares selected scenes with René Magritte’s paintings, to show how the director depicts the experience of the main character and the blurring of boundaries between the perpetrator and the victim. Also, colours, props, and landscape motifs associated with each character are analyzed to explain their symbolic and dramatic function in the film.

Keywords:

• Roman Polanski
• Death and the Maiden
• perpetrator
• victim
• bystander
• René Magritte

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Belmans 1971, 80; cited in: Stachówna 1994, 57. All quotations from Polish publications cited in this paper have been translated by its author.

2 Paulina’s confession, Death and the Maiden. This is an exact transcription of Paulina’s words, hence all the grammar mistakes have been left in.

3 In June 1943, during the liquidation of Lvov ghetto, Jonasz Stern (1904–1988) ‘was being led to the execution, and a moment before the shot, he fell into the ditch, where he lay for several hours under the heap of dead bodies. He pretended to be dead, and when night fell, he ran away to the forest. […] He had never decided to visit Germany, and once told German journalists that he kept his eyes closed all the way going through Germany to get to France’ (Piętka 2014, 43).

4 Words uttered by Paulina to Gerardo after he wakes up to realize that his wife abducted Roberto.

5 See: W. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3, Prince, lines 307–310 (cited in Mitosek 2013, 18). Prince says: ‘Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; / Some shall be pardon’d and some punished / For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.’

6 Doctor Miranda’s confession made in one of the last scenes of the movie, kneeling over the cliffside.

7 Ewa Mazierska lists many similarities between Polanski and Magritte in her book Roman Polanski: The Cinema of a Cultural Traveller, in particular the chapter “Landscapes and Inner Sceneries: Recurring Visual Motifs of Polanski’s) (2007, 51–57).

8 More on entanglement of Polanski’s biography in reception of his artwork see Mazierska’s recent article Roman Polanski (and Others) on Trial (Mazierska 2022).

9 Words uttered by Gerardo to Paulina in their first on-screen conversation on the porch.

10 ‘This is a Kangaroo court. You’ve already convicted him. And the only evidence you have is your own testimony. If you want the real truth… […] You’re not a reliable witness. […] Trust me, any court would tear you to pieces,’ Gerardo insists.

11 Emphasis added.