FRANCE, GERMANY, UK

The Ghost Writer

2010 – color – 131’

Direction: Roman Polanski

Screenplay: Robert Harris, Roman Polanski from the same novel by Robert Harris

Cinematography: Pawel Edelman

Editing: Herve De Luze

Set design: Albrecht Konrad

Musics: Alexandre Desplat

Costumes: Dinah Collin

Cast: Ewan McGregor (ghost writer), Pierce Brosnan (Adam Lang), Kim Cattrall (Amelia Bly), Olivia Williams (Ruth Lang), Timothy Hutton (Sidney Kroll), Tom Wilkinson (Paul Emmett), Robert Pugh (Richard Rycart), James Belushi (John Maddox), Eli Wallach (anziano old man)

Producers: Roman Polanski, Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde, Timothy Burrill

Production: R.P. Films (Fr), France 2 Cinema (Fr), Elfte Babelsburg Film (De), Ruteam Iii (UK)

Italian distribution: 01 Distribution

synopsis

When a talented British ghostwriter agrees to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang, his agent assures him this is the opportunity of a lifetime. But the project seems cursed from the beginning, if for anything, his predecessor, Lang’s longtime assistant, died in an unfortunate accident. The ghostwriter, in the middle of winter, sets out to join the Prime Minister at an oceanfront home on an island off the east coast of the United States. But on the day of his arrival, a former British Cabinet minister accuses Lang of authorizing the illegal capture of suspected terrorists and thus handing them over to CIA torture, a war crime.

critical note

“(…) If for Truffaut a film is a train running through the night, this is an Orient Express that races like the wind, goes nonstop and breathlessly leads one to delve beyond virtual reality into a package of pure cinema, which also shines by scenic virtues in a match between inner vulgarity and post-modern ostentation. And as is often the case (see Paul Auster’s Invisible) here too we are talking about a book, its dangerous making, the well-known humiliation in Italy of never being able to know how things really are: a story of betrayals that spares no one. (…)” (Maurizio Porro, Il Corriere della Sera, 9/4/2010)

main festivals & awards

2010 Berlinale – Competition: Silver Bear

2010 San Sebastián IFF: FIPRESCI Film of the Year

2010 European Film Awards: Best Film, Director, Screenwriter, European Actor, Composer, Production Design

2011 César: Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Music Written for a Film