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roman polanski
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| and once again... |
| posted by: publius |
12:57 7.12.10 |
polanski slips the noose...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/12/roman-polanski-goes-free
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| bail granted... |
| posted by: publius |
14:03 11.25.09 |
so now, of course the question is...does he run?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/11/25/switzerland.polanski.bail/index.html |
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| and the hits just keep on coming... |
| posted by: publius |
16:37 10.2.09 |
now the prosecutor in the original case, the smokiest of the smoking guns in the documentary released year, claims that everything he said in the film about coaching the judge was a complete fabrication. i have no idea what this guy's motivation was or is, but there is definitely a fascinating back story here that in all likelihood with never be aired in public...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/prosecutor-says-he-lied-about-polanskis-trial-1796399.html |
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| serious felonies... |
| posted by: simplicissimus |
12:37 10.1.09 |
no doubt. i mean that's the thing about the law, right, nobody above it and all.
but the question remains: would you take away roman polanski's movies (and "china town" is about as good as a movie can get) if you could also take away the rape? would take away picasso's art if you could also take away him basically causing a suicide?
i'm very strongly on the side of NO. but, man, the more you think about it from the victims' perspective the more shitty and callous that opinion feels. still, probably not shitty and callous enough to change my mind.
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| dick or criminal? |
| posted by: horsebeater |
11:18 10.1.09 |
"well, i don't like it either, but you know that thom yorke requires that we sacrifice this virgin to him in order to get that new radiohead record."
I am willing to accept that artists might be dicks, or even petty criminals.
serious felonies, however, very clearly cross the line. |
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| run with me here... |
| posted by: simplicissimus |
11:05 10.1.09 |
1) re: polonski, the hollywood thing is so muddled i hardly know what to think of it. on the one hand, hollywood is always getting on board with causes that upset the heartland's sensibilities (think jane fonda) so this is just another example of it. on the other hand, the guy is a rapist. and if he was anyone else, nobody would give a damn and certainly nobody would rush to his defense. the funny thing is, as usual, hollywood types just make things that much harder for whatever cause they are supporting. why on earther do these people think that publically touting something is actually going to help when it comes to the judge and prosecutors? well, i guess that's just another example of idiocy.
2) a much more interesting issue: "how much" bad behavior are we willing to accept in exchange for art, or achievement of any kind? i read an article about how pablo picasso was apparently just an absolute dick - he was just brutal and took a huge toll on everyone around him including driving a woman to suicide (i'm short-handing here, but run with it). this is not the exception when it comes to great people, it's almost exclusively the rule: they do great things, often at the expense of those around them.
so the question is this: are these events (the picasso suicide, the polanski rape) "worth" what people like them bring to world through art? And the same could be asked when you look at the personal life of many, many, many great businessmen, politicians, musicians, etc.
surely, it'd be nice to say you can be a great, balanced, nice guy and a revolutionary thinker or doer, but we all know that -- especially in the arts -- that just isn't possible.
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| hollywood is awesome |
| posted by: horsebeater |
09:23 10.1.09 |
most criminals, when you look at the underlying story behind the crime, start to appear less guilty. the stories only get looked at for the rich and famous, however. [that said, polanski's life story is certainly pretty extraordinary]
when i heard woody allen was supporting him, i really couldn't believe it. you can't make that shit up. and then when i heard their was a really long list of hollywood people supporting him ... i guess i just don't get it. it's one thing to feel more lenient toward statutory rape, i can get that, but this was far more than statutory rape! i'm sure people can start to build all kinds of shades of nuance to defend polanski ... why isn't all that mental activity being expended to find those shades of nuance when it's a redneck in south carolina that is accused and locked up for 20 years? why are these people not spending their time on cory maye?
here's whoopi goldberg bizarrely defending him (if i'm whoopi, why do i find this necessary to do?):
http://tinyurl.com/yjyb5fc
and why did about half of huffpo decide to back him?
i don't know how anyone can read this girl's testimony and not consider this rape (apparently whoopi is from the "if you don't try to run, it ain't rape school of thought):
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html
those that are supporting polanski are making variations of the "she was asking for it" and "her mother was a fucking nutcase, so it's apparently ok to rape the daughter." what the hell?!?! |
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| additional wrinkles... |
| posted by: rabelais |
23:48 9.27.09 |
haven't seen the documentary that apparently explores these details in much greater depth, but my sense is that polanski plead guilty to one of the crimes he was being charged with (in relation to his activities with a certain underage girl) because he was offered a bargain by the prosector: admit guilt and the time already served (i think at that point polanski had spent forty-some days in jail) would suffice as his full sentence. the judge backed-out (some people claim due to a desire for publicity), and rather than face a trail and the prospect of more time in jail, polanski fled to france.
additional aspects of roman's life that would likely make it into publius's film: his mother was killed in a concentration camp, and he survived on his own for a year in poland during the war before being reunited with his father.
on a somewhat related note: i seem to remember thinking "death and the maiden" was a really good film when i first saw it. can't be sure though. might be worth checking out again...
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| this saga |
| posted by: publius |
16:17 9.27.09 |
has always fascinated me. the sordidness of the statuatory rape angle, the fact that his wife was one of the victims of the manson family, the hell-bent-for-conviction at any cost of the la prosecuters, polanski's flight to, and success in france...it's truly a great hollywood story.
and now it looks like the us may finally have caught him out. apparently every time they learn he has plans to travel to a country which has extradition agreements with the us they make plans to nab him, but they've never been successful.
until this weekend in switzerland...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/after-several-tries-us-officials-finally-nab-roman-polanski-in-1970s-rape-case.html |
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