Polanski Walks Out After ‘Empty’ Questions
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
CANNES,France — Director Roman Polanski walked out of a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday after berating journalists for asking “empty” questions. Polanski, whose film “The Pianist” won the top prize at Cannes in 2002, was onstage with nearly 30 directors who were showing short films in homage to cinema. The shorts were packaged as a feature called “To Each His Own Cinema.”
Several questions at the news conference focused on the future of cinema in the digital age.
When the moderator announced that journalists had just two minutes left, Polanski, 73, took the microphone. “It’s a shame to have such poor questions, such empty questions. And I think that it’s really the computer which has brought you down to this level. You’re no longer interested in what’s going on in the cinema. Frankly, let’s all go and have lunch,” he suggested, before walking out. None of the other directors followed.
