Moretti lines up Polanski for Turin

Pair met on set of 'Quiet Chaos'

By NICK VIVARELLI

Roman Polanski will be feted by the Turin Film Festival, the indie event headed by Italo helmer Nanni Moretti, who is using his clout to boost its profile.

Moretti personally invited Polanski to Turin, where Polanski’s filmography — from early works such as “Repulsion” to classics like Chinatown” and more recent triple Oscar-winner “The Pianist” — will be celebrated with an extensive retro.

The two helmer/thesps met last year on the set of Italo drama “Quiet Chaos,” Italy’s recent Berlin competition entry toplined by Moretti in a thesping-only turn. Polanski has a cameo in “Chaos” as a Gallic media conglomerate bigwig named Steiner.

“I didn’t want to ask him while we were shooting the film, so I sent him a note afterwards and he accepted,” Moretti recounted to RAI talkshow “Parla Con Me.”

Having Polanski as a guest of honor will no doubt boost the profile of Turin, which lately has been doing battle with the deep-pocketed and more populist Rome Film Fest in Italy’s crowded fall fest calendar.

Rome, which will run Oct. 22-31 and overlap this year with the London Film Festival, is scheduled just a month ahead of Turin’s Nov. 21-29 dates.

Besides Polanski, whose next project is “The Ghost,” based on the eponymous Robert Harris political thriller, Turin will also celebrate the works of late Gallic gangster pic specialist Jean-Pierre Melville, including seminal noirs “Bob le flambeur” and “Le deuxieme souffle.”