I liked "The Ninth Gate", and it made me a fan of both illuminated manuscripts and Arturo Perez-Reverte, so Polanski gets a few points for that...
...but seriously, anyone who read the court docs on his rape charge wouldn't consider naming him for anything positive. To sum: Young girl + photo shoot + drugs + wine + body part usually used for outgoing, not incoming. As a dad, I'm not cool with it.
Or should I say, as a human?
Chinatown, Knife in the Water and Rosemary's Baby is a list any director would kill for--not to mention Repulsion and the Tenant. He's been Mr. Irrelevant for the past 20 years (Pianist was highly overrated and I wouldn't consider it a typical Polanski film), but he's definitely top 10.
What about Altman--McCabe and Mrs. Miller, California Split, the Long Goodbye, Nashville, Short Cuts...the precursor to PT Anderson, Innaritu et al.