Ranking All Of Director Roman Polanski’s Movies
“What are Roman Polanski’s Best Movies?” We looked at all of Polanski’s directed filmography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!
We took all of the movies directed by Roman Polanski and looked at their Rotten Tomato Critic, Rotten Tomato User, Metacritic, Metacritic User, IMDB, and Letterboxd scores, ranking them against one another to see which movies came out on top. The movies are ranked in our list below based on which movies have the highest overall score between all 6 review sites in comparison with all of the other movies by the same director. The process is all very scientific with no flaws at all.
The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page.
Happy Viewing!
The Top Film’s Of Roman Polanski
24 ) What? (1972)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 23
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 23
- Letterboxd User Score: 22
A young American woman traveling through Italy finds herself in a strange Mediterranean villa where nothing seems right.
23 ) Based on a True Story (2017)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 19
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 22
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 24
- Letterboxd User Score: 22
Delphine is the author of an autobiographical novel that has become a bestseller. Exhausted by the promotional tour, just when she feels out of place, paralyzed by the idea of having to start writing again, she meets Elle, a young, attractive, intelligent, intuitive woman who seems to understand her better than anyone.
22 ) Pirates (1986)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 21
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 21
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 21
- Letterboxd User Score: 22
Captain Red runs a hardy pirate ship with the able assistance of Frog, a dashing young French sailor. One day Capt. Red is captured and taken aboard a Spanish galleon, but thanks to his inventiveness, he raises the crew to mutiny, takes over the ship, and kidnaps the niece of the governor of Maracaibo. The question is, can he keep this pace up?
21 ) The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers (1964)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 19
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 22
- Letterboxd User Score: 19
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20 ) To Each His Own Cinema (2007)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 23
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 19
- Letterboxd User Score: 16
A collective film of 33 shorts directed by different directors about their feeling about cinema.
19 ) Oliver Twist (2005)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 18
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 17
- Metacritc Critic Score: 12
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 17
- Letterboxd User Score: 19
Oliver Twist the modern filmed version of Charles Dickens bestseller, a Roman Polanski adaptation. The classic Dickens tale, where an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.
18 ) The Ninth Gate (1999)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 20
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 20
- Metacritc Critic Score: 4
- Metacritic User Score: 2
- IMDB User Review Score: 20
- Letterboxd User Score: 21
An all-expenses-paid international search for a rare copy of the book, ‘The Nine Gates of the Shadow Kingdom’ brings an unscrupulous book dealer deep into a world of murder, double-dealing and satanic worship.
17 ) The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 16
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 11
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 18
A noted professor and his dim-witted apprentice fall prey to their inquiring vampires, while on the trail of the ominous damsel in distress.
16 ) Frantic (1988)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 13
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 17
- Metacritc Critic Score: 11
- Metacritic User Score: 5
- IMDB User Review Score: 17
- Letterboxd User Score: 16
An American doctor visits Paris with his wife but then she suddenly vanishes. To find her, he navigates a puzzling web of language, locale, laissez-faire cops, triplicate-form filling bureaucrats and a defiant, mysterious waif who knows more than she tells.
15 ) Carnage (2011)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 14
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 16
- Metacritc Critic Score: 14
- Metacritic User Score: 12
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
After 11-year-old Zachary Cowan strikes his classmate across the face with a stick after an argument, the victim’s parents invite Zachary’s parents to their Brooklyn apartment to deal with the incident in a civilized manner.
14 ) Bitter Moon (1992)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 17
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 7
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
An embittered husband, paralyzed and in a wheelchair, buttonholes a complete stranger and begins to tell him the story of his marriage. The stranger would like to escape, but cannot. For one thing he grows fascinated by the story. For another he is mesmerized by the man’s wife, who has perfected that trick of looking a man boldly in the eye until, by looking away, he concedes sexual supremacy.
12 ) Weekend of a Champion (1972)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 14
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 12
- Metacritc Critic Score: 13
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 8
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
An entertaining vérité look at world champion driver Sir Jackie Stewart as Roman Polanski follows his attempt to win the Monaco Grand Prix.
12 ) Cul-de-sac (1966)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 12
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 9
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
A wounded criminal and his dying partner take refuge at a beachfront castle. The owners of the castle, a meek Englishman and his willful French wife, are initially the unwilling hosts to the criminals. Quickly, however, the relationships between the criminal, the wife, and the Englishman begin to shift in humorous and bizarre fashion.
11 ) The Ghost Writer (2010)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 15
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 10
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
A writer stumbles upon a long-hidden secret when he agrees to help former British Prime Minister Adam Lang complete his memoirs on a remote island after the politician’s assistant drowns in a mysterious accident. In director Roman Polanski’s tense drama, the author realizes that his discovery threatens some very powerful people who will do anything to ensure that certain episodes from Lang’s past remain buried.
10 ) Macbeth (1971)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 8
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 13
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 7
- Letterboxd User Score: 6
A ruthlessly ambitious Scottish lord siezes the throne with the help of his scheming wife and a trio of witches.
9 ) Venus in Fur (2013)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 7
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 13
- Metacritc Critic Score: 10
- Metacritic User Score: 10
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 9
An enigmatic actress may have a hidden agenda when she auditions for a part in a misogynistic writer’s play.
8 ) Tess (1979)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 9
- Metacritc Critic Score: 7
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 9
- Letterboxd User Score: 6
A strong-willed peasant girl is sent by her father to the estate of some local aristocrats to capitalize on a rumor that their families are from the same line. This fateful visit commences an epic narrative of sex, class, betrayal, and revenge.
7 ) Death and the Maiden (1994)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 7
- Metacritc Critic Score: 9
- Metacritic User Score: 6
- IMDB User Review Score: 9
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
A political activist is convinced that her guest is a man who once tortured her for the government.
6 ) Knife in the Water (1962)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 6
- Letterboxd User Score: 6
On their way to an afternoon on the lake, husband and wife Andrzej and Krystyna nearly run over a young hitchhiker. Inviting the young man onto the boat with them, Andrzej begins to subtly torment him; the hitchhiker responds by making overtures toward Krystyna. When the hitchhiker is accidentally knocked overboard, the husband’s panic results in unexpected consequences. This was the first feature directed by Roman Polanski.
5 ) The Tenant (1976)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 6
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
- Metacritc Critic Score: 5
- Metacritic User Score: 3
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 5
A quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in France where the previous tenant committed suicide, and begins to suspect his landlord and neighbors are trying to subtly change him into the last tenant so that he too will kill himself.
4 ) Repulsion (1965)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 5
- Metacritc Critic Score: 3
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 4
- Letterboxd User Score: 4
In Roman Polanski’s first English-language film, beautiful young manicurist Carole suffers from androphobia (the pathological fear of interaction with men). When her sister and roommate, Helen, leaves their London flat to go on an Italian holiday with her married boyfriend, Carole withdraws into her apartment. She begins to experience frightful hallucinations, her fear gradually mutating into madness.
3 ) The Pianist (2002)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 5
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
- Metacritc Critic Score: 6
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 1
- Letterboxd User Score: 1
The true story of pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman’s experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
2 ) Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 3
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
- Metacritc Critic Score: 1
- Metacritic User Score: 4
- IMDB User Review Score: 3
- Letterboxd User Score: 1
A young couple moves into an infamous New York apartment building to start a family. Things become frightening as Rosemary begins to suspect her unborn baby isn’t safe around their strange neighbors.
1 ) Chinatown (1974)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 4
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 2
- Metacritc Critic Score: 2
- Metacritic User Score: 1
- IMDB User Review Score: 2
- Letterboxd User Score: 1
Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband’s extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.
Roman Polanski’s Best Movies
Roman Polanski Review Website Filmography Rankings
| Film | RT Critic | RT User | MC Critic | MC User | IMDB | Letterboxd | Overal Rank |
| Chinatown (1974) | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Rosemary’s Baby (1968) | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| The Pianist (2002) | 5 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Repulsion (1965) | 1 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| The Tenant (1976) | 6 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Knife in the Water (1962) | 1 | 6 | 15 | 13 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Death and the Maiden (1994) | 9 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 7 |
| Tess (1979) | 11 | 9 | 7 | 13 | 9 | 6 | 8 |
| Venus in Fur (2013) | 7 | 13 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 9 | 9 |
| Macbeth (1971) | 8 | 13 | 15 | 13 | 7 | 6 | 10 |
| The Ghost Writer (2010) | 9 | 15 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 11 |
| Weekend of a Champion (1972) | 14 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 8 | 10 | 12 |
| Cul-de-sac (1966) | 12 | 9 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 12 |
| Bitter Moon (1992) | 17 | 7 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 14 |
| Carnage (2011) | 14 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 15 |
| Frantic (1988) | 13 | 17 | 11 | 5 | 17 | 16 | 16 |
| The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) | 16 | 11 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 18 | 17 |
| The Ninth Gate (1999) | 20 | 20 | 4 | 2 | 20 | 21 | 18 |
| Oliver Twist (2005) | 18 | 17 | 12 | 8 | 17 | 19 | 19 |
| To Each His Own Cinema (2007) | 22 | 23 | 15 | 13 | 19 | 16 | 20 |
| The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers (1964) | 22 | 19 | 15 | 13 | 22 | 19 | 21 |
| Pirates (1986) | 21 | 21 | 15 | 13 | 21 | 22 | 22 |
| Based on a True Story (2017) | 19 | 22 | 15 | 13 | 24 | 22 | 23 |
| What? (1972) | 22 | 23 | 15 | 13 | 23 | 22 | 24 |
