Download Film Ghost Writer

The Ghost Writer (released as The Ghost in the United Kingdom and Ireland)[3] is a 2010 neo-noir[4] political thriller film directed by Roman Polanski. The film is an adaptation of a 2007 Robert Harris novel, The Ghost, with the screenplay written by Polanski and Harris. It stars Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, and Olivia Williams.

The film was a critical and commercial success and won numerous cinematic awards including Best Director for Polanski at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival and also at the 23rd European Film Awards in 2010.[5]

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A ghostwriter is hired by publishing firm Rhinehart, Inc. to complete the autobiography of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang. The Ghost's predecessor and Lang's aide, Mike McAra, has recently died in a drowning accident. The Ghost travels to Old Haven on Martha's Vineyard, where Lang and his wife Ruth are staying.

Polanski and Harris then turned to Harris' recent best seller, The Ghost. They co-wrote a script and in November 2007, just after the book's release, Polanski announced filming for autumn 2008.[9] In June 2008, Nicolas Cage, Pierce Brosnan, Tilda Swinton, and Kim Cattrall were announced as the stars.[10] Production was then postponed by a number of months, with Ewan McGregor and Olivia Williams replacing Cage and Swinton, respectively, as a result.

The film finally began production in February 2009 in Germany, at the Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam. Germany stood in for London and Martha's Vineyard due to Polanski's inability to travel to those places, as Polanski had fled the US in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. The majority of exteriors, set on Martha's Vineyard, were shot on the island of Sylt in the North Sea, and on the ferry MS SyltExpress. The harbor exterior were shot on both the German island of Sylt, and the Danish island of Rm. The exterior set of the house where much of the film takes place, however, was built on the island of Usedom, in the Baltic Sea. Exteriors and interiors set at a publishing house in London were shot at Charlottenstrasse 47 in downtown Berlin (Mitte), while Strausberg Airport near Berlin stood in for the Vineyard airport.[11] A few brief exterior shots for driving scenes were shot by a second unit in Massachusetts, without Polanski or the actors.[12]

On his way to the Zurich Film Festival, Polanski was arrested by Swiss police in September 2009 at the request of the US and held for extradition. Due to Polanski's arrest, post-production was briefly put on hold, but he resumed and completed work from house arrest at his Swiss villa. He was unable to participate in the film's world premiere at the Berlinale festival on 12 February 2010.[13]

Pierce Brosnan plays the character of Adam Lang, who has echoes of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The character is linked to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the war on terror and the special relationship with the United States. The author of the book on which the film is based has said he was inspired at least in part by anger toward Blair's policies, and called for him to face war crimes trials.[14]

The film premired at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival on 12 February 2010,[16] and was widely released throughout much of Europe during the following four weeks. It went on general release in the US on 19 March 2010 and in the UK on 16 April 2010.[17]

The film has received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 84% of critics gave positive reviews based on a sample of 210 reviews with an average rating of 7.4/10.[20] The website's critics consensus reads, "While it may lack the revelatory punch of Polanski's finest films, Ghost Writer benefits from stylish direction, a tense screenplay, and a strong central performance from Ewan McGregor."[20] Another review aggregator, Metacritic, gave the film an average rating of 77% based on 35 reviews.[21] At the end of the year, the film placed at #4 in both Film Comment and The Village Voice's annual critics' polls.[22][23]

However, John Rentoul from the UK's liberal The Independent, who describes himself as an "ultra Blairite with a slavish admiration for Tony", and John Rosenthal, from the conservative Pajamas Media, both denounced the film because it was made with financial support from the German government. Rentoul also criticized Polanski, describing the film as "propaganda" and a "Blair hating movie".[30]

In Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer," a man without a past rattles around in the life of a man with too much of one. He begins by reading the work of an earlier ghost who mysteriously drowned, and finds it boring and conventional. Hired to pep up the manuscript to justify a $10 million advance, he discovers material to make it exciting, all right, and possibly deadly.

Just as his new ghost writer starts work, Lang is accused by his former foreign minister of sanctioning the kidnapping and torture of suspects. The World Court prepares an indictment. It would be unwise for Lang to return to Britain, and he flees to Washington for a photo op with the U.S. administration, unnamed, although the Secretary of State looks a whole lot like Condi Rice.

The Ghost is left to his own devices in a house haunted by the unsaid, and Polanski slips into a pure filmmaking mode. I won't describe what the Ghost searches for, but I will tell you that Polanski evokes Hitchcock in a conversation with an elderly local (Eli Wallach) and some forbidding beach scenes. And that he is masterful in the way he shows the dead former Ghost providing the new one with directions, so to speak, leading to a possible source.

There are a few other loose ends. The film seems to have a high incidence of black cars designed to be used as murder weapons. It's far from clear what Ruth's emotional state is on one rainy night. The Ghost himself seems too much a lightweight to explain his daring sleuthing. But the performances are so convincing in detail that they distract us from our questions. McGregor's character has no family, little pride and much insouciance, but is very smart and doesn't enjoy his intelligence being insulted. And Olivia Williams projects the air of a wife who is committed to her husband in more than expected ways.

"The Ghost Writer" is handsome, smooth and persuasive. It is a Well-Made Film. Polanski at 76 provides a reminder of directors of the past who were raised on craft, not gimmicks, and depended on a deliberate rhythm of editing rather than mindless quick cutting. The film immerses you in its experience. It's a reminder that you can lose yourself in a story because all a film really wants to do is tell it.

Since Polanski started directing short films in Poland, his movies often have invited (or taunted) viewers to read them partly as encrypted diary entries and partly as Kafkaesque parables about the victimization of the weak and innocent by the powerful and unprincipled (or vice versa).

At first I thought it may have had something to do with the quote a few scenes earlier about how "even just their reaction is worth something" (in reference to using reactions as evidence of involvement in a crime). That would've been fine, had anyone else in the crowd been informed of what would be on the note, and would have therefore been watching to see her reaction. Ewan's character was the only one who knew, and then he handed the only blatant explanation of the truth to the person being accused, before taking the last copy of the text that could accuse her again out into the street with (hopefully) full knowledge that he'd immediately be hunted down. Is the explanation as simple as "oh he knew what he was doing, but the look he saw on his face was all he needed, and he could die content." If so, then wow what a disappointing end to an otherwise pretty great film.

Anonymous 1 - That is certainly...a theory. I think the specifics might be a bit of a stretch, especially since the film originated as a novel, but the overarching viewpoint is definitely there.

Anonymous 2 - I think I admitted that I haven't seen much of Polanski's work, so I may have spoken out of turn by suggesting that Polanski's prior work couldn't possibly be as silly as this. Even reflecting upon what I've heard of some of his other work, I realize that's a pretty false statement. Nonetheless, I do think it pertains to the kind of work many are referring to when they say The Ghost Writer is a return to form.

AFP - Roman Polanski put the finishing touches on "The Ghost Writer", for which he won best director honours at the Berlin Film Festival Saturday, from the confines of house arrest at his Swiss chalet.

The French-Polish film-maker is now in his 12th week there and restrained by little more than an electronic bracelet as Swiss authorities mull whether to extradite him to the United States to face child sex charges dating from 1977.

The director of "Rosemary's Baby", "Chinatown", "The Pianist" and other classics was arrested on a US warrant on September 26 as he arrived in Switzerland to collect an award for his career at the Zurich film festival.

It was there that his past caught up with him.

Polanski was transferred to the picture-postcard Alpine valley of Gstaad on December 4 after a Swiss court granted him conditional bail of 4.5 million Swiss francs (3.0 million euros, 4.2 million dollars) and ordered him to stay there.

A few weeks later, a friend, French philosopher Bernard Henry Levy, said he found Polanski in snowbound Gstaad editing what would become his latest award winner.

"Roman Polanski spends his days, his nights, again his days, again his nights, trying to finish his film," Levy said on his blog after his visit.

Polanski's long-time producer Robert Benmussa said the director's arrest created unexpected complications.

"Despite his incarceration, Roman continued to work on the film through courier packages that we sent to him in prison through his Swiss lawyer. Then, when he was in his chalet, he continued to work on the movie, putting the last touches (on) the final print," he told reporters in Berlin.

The 76-year-old was welcomed to Gstaad by his wife and children, and is free to receive visitors as he pleases.

But he is unlikely to be able to move beyond his garden for weeks if not many months.

Swiss authorities said earlier this month that their decision on extradition cannot be made until the film-maker exhausts his rights to appeal in the United States. His lawyers have until March 24 to file their appeal in Los Angeles.

Even then, the process could take up to a year because of the right for each party to appeal any decision on extradition in Switzerland's highest courts, Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf pointed out recently.

Polanski fled the United States 32 years ago just before being sentenced.

He had admitted to giving his then 13-year-old victim champagne and drugs during a 1977 photo shoot at the Hollywood Hills home of actor friend Jack Nicholson before having sex with her despite her protests.

Lawyers for the victim, Samantha Geir, filed a court motion in October in Los Angeles renewing calls for the case against the director to be dismissed because of the anguish the renewed attention was causing her.