Underage sex; demonic babies; murder; cults, pirates and vampires.

It may sound like the stuff of nightmares but all are chapters in the life of one of Poland's most controversial film-makers.

His life story is an epic which makes Steven Spielberg's rise to fame look like the stuff of a TV movie by comparison.

While most American thesps are used to a soft touch from their directors, Polanski has got more than a few backs up over the years with his approach. "Roman is Napoleon with actors," remarked Robert Evans, producer of Chinatown.

Polanski's short temper is partly understandable. His mother died in Auschwitz and in 1969, his pregnant wife Sharon Tate and three friends were murdered by Charles Manson's psychopathic cult, 'the Family'.

Eight years later, Polanski was charged with statutory rape after having sex with a 13-year-old he had been photographing for Men's Vogue - charges which led to his fleeing America for Paris, never to return.

Born in Paris in 1933, he wealthy parents took Roman to their Polish homeland. However, the family separated when they were expelled from their Krakow home by the Nazis. Polanski survived and as a would-be actor, graduated into film-making, emerging from the small-scale Polish industry as an international name with his first feature, Knife in the Water.

The film which upset the country's Communist authorities, made the cover of Time magazine. His incredible upward career trajectory continued in the States, peaking with Rosemary's Baby in 1968.

The Seventies were a dark time for Polanski but in 1974, he achieved one of his greatest successes - Chinatown.

Roman has never been some superstar film-maker who had been pampered and become used to the soft life in Tinseltown. During the making of that classic, Jack Nicholson had to read his lines so many times with Polanski that Anthea Sylbert, the costume designer, half expected Jack to start speaking with a Polish accent.

His meticulous approach may have alienated some but not Jack. Nicholson took it all in his stride and became good friends with the director, often engaged by the film-maker's eccentricities. Faye Dunaway, on the other hand, was less keen.

She considered herself a star and did little to become friends with the rest of the cast and crew. Dunaway was confused by her character and couldn't understand her motivation for the role. A situation soon remedied by a short-tempered Polanski. "Say the words!" he would yell. "Your salary is your motivation."

Many have found connections between the violence of Macbeth (1970) and Polanski's own family tragedy. Likewise, parallels have been drawn with Tess, the tale of a sexually assaulted girl brought down by society's double standards, which he directed and co-wrote just a year of running out on US law.

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