Roman Polanski described it as “the ribald adventures of an innocent girl”. Critics called it “an amoral, depraved disaster”. More than three decades after its controversial release, it remains the most butchered, debated and least seen film of the Oscarâ-winning director’s entire career. Now, for the first time ever, What?, Polanski’s most divisive work will be available on DVD in the UK courtesy of Severin Films.
This outrageous film will be available on 20 October 2008.
The succulent Sydne Rome stars as an oft-naked American girl lost inside a Mediterranean villa inhabited by priests, pianists, perverts and a syphilitic pimp (a deliciously bizarre performance by Marcello Mastroianni) while indulging in madcap acts of gang rape, sodomy and ping-pong. Hugh Griffith, Romolo Valli and Polanski himself also star in this surreal and sexy comedy, now finally restored to its original running time from a vault print reportedly stolen from the wine cellar of producer Carlo Ponti.
What? remains Polanski’s most polarising film; a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, and an example of a genius losing himself inside his own cinematic mind and world.
