Roman Polanski, My First Film, and La Dolce Vita

An Excerpt From My Memoirs

One of my first cinematic jobs was a small but long-lasting part in Louis Malle’s film Zazie dans le Metro, during the course of which I performed a death-defying stunt, hanging by my feet from one of the top girders of the Eiffel Tower, way above the last platform accessible to the public, but the whole thing unfortunately ended up on the cutting room floor.

During a break in the filming, I went to the XIIIth Cannes film festival, which that year (1960) was particularly eventful. A lot of people I had met in Rome were present as Fellini’s La Dolce Vita was in competition with Antonioni’s L'Avventura.

Lavish, wild parties were given for both films. At the Dolce Vita party, predictably, most of the guests ended up in the pool with their clothes on, and as tempers flared under the constant barrage of flashes, the paparazzi were themselves precipitated into the pool.