Other critics have commented on the way in which interviewer Andrew Braunsberg gives Polanski a relatively easy ride over the incident that defined his career; his arrest in the late Seventies for having sex with an underage girl. What this film suggests is that Polanski has 'done his time,' so to speak for the crime; not only was he prevented from re- entering the United States, but he was detained for several months in a Swiss jail before being finally released. In truth ROMAN POLANSKI: A MEMOIR is less preoccupied with this single incident and more with Polanski's harrowing childhood as he grew up in a Poland overrun by Nazis, faced the indignities of seeing his mother, father and sister taken away; lived in a ghetto provided by the Nazi for Jews in Poland; and then ran away just in the nick of time from a Nazi soldier shooting at him for fun. After a fledgling career as an actor, Polanski went to film school and released his first major work in 1962. Even when he achieved fame, tragedy dogged him; his second wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by Charles Manson, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. While Braunsberg is a sympathetic interviewer, he does not skate over these harrowing details in Polanski's life; for his part, Polanski responds to the questions as comprehensively as he can, even though some of the memories of his life are still hard for him to endure. ROMAN POLANSKI: A MEMOIR allows the director to speak with the minimum of intervention; a few title-cards fill in the gaps not covered by the interview. Definitely required viewing for anyone interested in the career of the great director, as well as those concerned with film history in Europe.