With 12 reviews so far, Roman Polanski’s latest film, “The Palace,” currently sits at a horrendous 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Polanski hasn’t really had a hit film in a very long time and has also been at the center of controversy for decades, but a 0% is still really rough, with some reviews calling it the worst movie of the year. But somehow, “The Palace” had a massive debut at the Venice Film Festival, where the festival director Alberto Barbera defended the film’s inclusion despite the filmmaker’s aforementioned controversy. All that to say, it’s very rare to see such a high-profile festival pick such a lightning rod, high-profile film and watch it crash and burn immediately and so spectacularly. What makes it even more surprising are the comments made by Barbera after the debut, seemingly admitting “The Palace” is a bad film.
Let’s set the stage a little before we get to the recent interview Alberto Barbera gave Deadline about “The Palace.” As mentioned, “The Palace” is the latest film from Roman Polanski, who is a convicted rapist and fugitive in the eyes of the United States. As you might expect, every time Venice (or any other festival) selects a Polanski film, people are a bit surprised. But hey, as people always say, separate the art from the artist, right? Well, here’s the thing—even the director of the Venice Film Festival admits “The Palace” is bad. But even still, Barbera thinks critics have been unjustly harsh.
“I didn’t understand the level of negativity in the reviews,” said Barbera. “The film isn’t a great, great movie, otherwise it probably would have been in Competition. I told Roman before the festival that it was weak, but I don’t agree with the critics. The response seems personal and disrespectful towards him and the film. I know it’s not a perfect movie, I can see the weaknesses and where it doesn’t work, but it’s not as bad as the critics say. It comes across as mean.”
I’m not the foremost expert when it comes to the history of the Venice Film Festival, nor the larger festival culture that has been around for decades. But it definitely strikes me as strange to see Barbera just flatly admit that one of his own selections is “weak” immediately after it premiered. Again, selecting “The Palace” also didn’t happen in a vacuum. He knew that selecting the film would draw all sorts of criticism and controversy. Why would Barbera select “The Palace”—knowing it would be a polarizing choice—when he also didn’t like the movie? Obviously, Barbera wanted Polanski there, come hell or high water. But it’s also a bit interesting to see him defend “The Palace” from negative reviews that he deemed “mean.”
Regardless, “The Palace” is a confusing selection, only made more confounding by the comments from Barbera after the premiere. With Venice being such a fan of Polanski’s work, we will just have to wait and see what happens the next time the filmmaker wants to premiere a film at the event.