Roman Polanski Announces He's Making a Film About Wrongly Accused Man

[ViolaSebastian]

Everything is terrible and I want to get off this surreal crazy train we're living in.

Quote

This past May, Polanski described the #MeToo movement as another instance of “mass hysteria that occurs in society from time to time. Sometimes it’s very dramatic, like the French Revolution or the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in France, or sometimes it’s less bloody, like 1968 in Poland or McCarthyism in the U.S.”

“Everyone is trying to back this movement, mainly out of fear,” said Polanski. “I think it’s total hypocrisy.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/09/roman-polanski-new-movie

[Ozlsn]

Seriously WTAF?

[Rachel333]

Of course he is

[PennySycamore]

J'Accuse would be a good story to film, but someone other than Polanski needs to direct it.

For those who don't know, J'Accuse was an open letter published in a French newspaper (L'Aurore) by Emile Zola addressed to the French president and accusing the government of France of Anti-Semitism in the case accusing Alfred Dreyfuss of espionage.  The letter was one of the things that helped free Dreyfuss and get him off Devil's Island.

J'Accuse

ETA:  The story of the Dreyfuss affair is the core of the 1937 biopic The Life of Emile Zola starring Paul Muni.  It won the Best Picture Oscar as well as Best Supporting Actor and Screenplay in addition to 7 other nominations.   

[Pecansforeveryone]

I absolutley think this is a good and worthy story to tell. It's just a tragedy that a child drugged and rapist like Polanski is telling it. Where the hell does Polanski get off claiming he's falsely accused? We all know "he did it." His victim never recanted. No conspiracy to frame him. No false accusations. No case of mistaken identity. He admitted giving a 13 year old champagne and Qualuades to lower her inhibitions. That alone without sexual contact is bad enough. What the hell Roman Polanski? What the hell Hollywood for giving him an Oscar? 

[ViolaSebastian]

It's a great story and would be a fantastic film, but it's impossible to get past the fact that it's a thinly veiled commentary on his own guilt and his incredulous belief that he's somehow been wronged for raping a 13-year-old, as well as a vehicle to slam women who are reporting sexual assaults. I think his use of the term "hysteria" to describe a movement primarily comprised of women is especially telling--that's some serious bologna and cheese to use a gendered term like that to talk about the Me Too movement. Remarkable how this "hysteria" has affected almost every woman I know and almost all that I don't. 

[omilona]

I just bet he is. Is it a Woody Allen Production collaboration?

[PennySycamore]

Not defending Polanski at all, but were the allegations of sexual assault common knowledge when he won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Pianist in 2002?  The Academy might not have known.

[church_of_dog]

27 minutes ago, PennySycamore said:

Not defending Polanski at all, but were the allegations of sexual assault common knowledge when he won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Pianist in 2002?  The Academy might not have known.

 

I am only the most superficial follower of pop culture in general and even I was aware of the accusations against him and his fleeing the country to avoid prosecution.  That was in the late 70s and it was news at the time.  While individuals too young to have followed the news then might not know now (or in 2002), there is no way The Academy wasn't aware.

 

[turquoise]

54 minutes ago, church_of_dog said:

 

I am only the most superficial follower of pop culture in general and even I was aware of the accusations against him and his fleeing the country to avoid prosecution.  That was in the late 70s and it was news at the time.  While individuals too young to have followed the news then might not know now (or in 2002), there is no way The Academy wasn't aware.

 

I was a young teen when it happened and have never been a big movie fan, but I remember hearing about the case at the time. By comparison, I didn't hear about the accusations against Bill Cosby until much later.

BTW, I just went to Wikipedia to check details of the case timeline, and discovered that typing "Roman Polanski" into the Wikipedia search bar brings up the link to the article about him with the description "Polish-French film director, producer, writer, actor, and rapist."

[Alisamer]

12 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

Not defending Polanski at all, but were the allegations of sexual assault common knowledge when he won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Pianist in 2002?  The Academy might not have known.

They knew full well he'd been out of the US for 20 years or more, solely to escape going to prison after pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a minor. This didn't happen when he was a young nobody, it was well after he was famous, after his (also famous) wife (and unborn child) were murdered in his home by the Manson family, which was huge news for many years. I don't think it's possible anyone on the Academy could possibly NOT have known about these things.

[unholypoledancer]

I remember being a young teen in 1996 and knowing what he'd done (perhaps my parents were talking about him? Not sure?) and hating him for doing that to someone my age. 

Yes, this was after the death of the beautiful Sharon Tate and their unborn baby boy, and yes, that was disgusting and horrible what the Manson family did. But I feel Polanski has gotten too much of a pass by the Academy and Hollywood in general.

[nausicaa]

On 9/29/2018 at 8:33 PM, Pecansforeveryone said:

I absolutley think this is a good and worthy story to tell. It's just a tragedy that a child drugged and rapist like Polanski is telling it. Where the hell does Polanski get off claiming he's falsely accused? We all know "he did it." His victim never recanted. No conspiracy to frame him. No false accusations. No case of mistaken identity. He admitted giving a 13 year old champagne and Qualuades to lower her inhibitions. That alone without sexual contact is bad enough. What the hell Roman Polanski? What the hell Hollywood for giving him an Oscar? 

Yeah, I'm so confused (and furious). Directing this movie seems like a pretty strong suggestion that he is trying to claim he has somehow been wrongly accused. There aren't just rumors out there about this. He has admitted to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, publicly and multiple times. 

A few indisputable things about the case: (Put under a spoiler cause some of these are really upsetting)

Spoiler

 

There are photographs that exist of her topless and on a bed that he took, while he was 44 years old and she was 13 years old.

In 1979, Polanski gave a controversial interview with the novelist Martin Amis in which, discussing his conviction, he said "If I had killed somebody, it wouldn't have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… fucking, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to fuck young girls. Juries want to fuck young girls. Everyone wants to fuck young girls!"

The only argument is whether or not it was "forced." Polanski has openly admitted that he HAD SEX WITH A THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL!

I also want to add that the quaaludes were not only given to lower her inhibitions, but to relax the muscles in her anus so that it would be easier to sodomize her. I'm not just trying to be shocking with this detail, I just really want to drive home how horrible this was. She was an eighth grader.

 

Also, he was scheduled to have his day in court. It was not a lynch mob or McCarthyism; it was due process of law. He was going to get a chance for his (presumably very expensive and skilled) lawyers to present evidence on his behalf and he would have been given the floor to defend himself. He chose to flee rather than argue his case.

Oh yeah, and fuck every single celebrity who signed that letter in 2009. That includes Emma Thompson, Tilda Swinton, David Lynch, and Wes Anderson. If they didn't know enough about the case, they shouldn't have signed. All of the above evidence was already known in 2009. 

[Ozlsn]

1 hour ago, nausicaa said:

Also, he was scheduled to have his day in court. It was not a lynch mob or McCarthyism; it was due process of law. He was going to get a chance for his (presumably very expensive and skilled) lawyers to present evidence on his behalf and he would have been given the floor to defend himself. He chose to flee rather than argue his case.

He already had had skilled lawyers, he took a plea bargain. Five (I think) charges dropped if he pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse. Which he did. He fled partly because it looked like he would end up with more jail time than anticipated.