Roman Polanski

[hal9000]

It's all about The Tenant, for me, closely followed by Tess and Chinatown. He is one of my favourite working directors.

[litzikohanovich]

It is interesting the opinions I have heard about Polanski here -- I have never heard anyone really praise him; he is considered a lightweight. When he was given a culture award in France, it was greeted with much derision here. I have heard and read positive reviews of his early films, but that is about it. I think his difficult relationship with Poland impacts on how he is perceived here as well. When he filmed "The Pianist," he was insistent on everything being accurate and precise...well, there is a scene where the Nazis march into Warsaw (I could be mis-remembering which scene, so please correct me) and from what a friend told me, it was so accurate that it really upset a lot of the older generation where they filmed it because it brought up a lot of memories. Although there is a saying in Poland that there are no true Warsovians left because they all died in the war or the Uprising.

He is a tough one for me because I know he is a rapist, but I still feel sympathy for the trauma he experienced. The stories about his surviving in the Ghetto are harrowing, but then he committed an act of violence against a child. Yet, I cannot shake a feeling of sympathy for him.

[Deleted]

I'm of three minds about him, and I've never felt so conflicted about a person in my life. On the one hand he's a sick pervert who did something disgusting and completely inexcusable, on the other hand he's had an incredibly traumatic life and had horrible things happen to him that would drive many people insane, and on the other other hand he's a great artist and has made some of the best movies I've ever seen and I'm glad he won the Oscar for The Pianist. I have an easier time hating Woody Allen and boycotting his movies because I think he's highly overrated in addition to being a sick pervert.

[celerydunk]

He really did go through so much in his life. I guess the thing that bothers me though is that he doesnt seem particularly remorseful about what he did.

And really, he has been fighting this for decades longer then he would have ever been in prison for. Was the case mishandled? Maybe. Was her mother completely irresponsible? Absolutely. But he was the one that committed at the very least statuatory rape, and he plead guilty to that.

[roseland]

Besides the raping of a drugged, drunk 13-year old girl, didn't he flee America to escape it's horrible judicial persecution only to start an affair with 15-year old Natassia Kinski? It shows a disturbing pattern, in my opinion.

[discoprincess]

Feb 12, 2009 22:37:12 GMT -4 roseland said:

Besides the raping of a drugged, drunk 13-year old girl, didn't he flee America to escape it's horrible judicial persecution only to start an affair with 15-year old Natassia Kinski? It shows a disturbing pattern, in my opinion.

Her quote, from her profile on IMDB:

On Roman Polanski, who directed her in Tess (1979): "As a director, he was 10 times more wonderful than as a lover."

Interesting.

[kali]

It's been a while since I've seen the documentary, but from what I remember, I don't think he would even really have to serve time if he returned. There was a huge clusterfuck over sentencing, where basically because of the plea bargain, he would only be given parole. The judge knew how that would look to the public and so he tried all kinds of runarounds to actually get him jail time, eventually settling on a 90-day "evaluation" period or something, to be served out in state prison. The results of the psych evaluation were again though, to reccommend parole, and he was released after like 40 days. So then the judge basically planned on running a whole scam with the prosecuting and defense attorneys so he'd look like a hard ass for the press and like he was sending Polanski back to serve out the remainder of the 90 days, but in actuality, behind the scenes, Polanski would've ended up getting just paroled. This was the second time apparently that the judge wanted the attorneys to cooperate in misleading the media. It was at that point that Polanski fled. I remember even the prosecuting attorney pretty much admitting that he didn't blame him for doing it. The judge just really fucked the whole thing up horribly. But yeah, that's kind of the irony. If he were to return, odds are he probably wouldn't even have to serve any time.

[Deleted]

Feb 12, 2009 19:36:21 GMT -4 @litzikohanovich said:

It is interesting the opinions I have heard about Polanski here -- I have never heard anyone really praise him; he is considered a lightweight. When he was given a culture award in France, it was greeted with much derision here. I have heard and read positive reviews of his early films, but that is about it. I think his difficult relationship with Poland impacts on how he is perceived here as well. When he filmed "The Pianist," he was insistent on everything being accurate and precise...

It's really interesting to hear that, because Rosemary's Baby is almost exactly like the book. It's one of my favorite movies, but it really owes a lot to Ira Levin, who was a precise storyteller. It's not surprising that Polanski handled the material so well, given his own need for precision.

[GinFizz]

Feb 12, 2009 22:08:34 GMT -4 @roisin54 said:

I'm of three minds about him, and I've never felt so conflicted about a person in my life. On the one hand he's a sick pervert who did something disgusting and completely inexcusable, on the other hand he's had an incredibly traumatic life and had horrible things happen to him that would drive many people insane, and on the other other hand he's a great artist and has made some of the best movies I've ever seen and I'm glad he won the Oscar for The Pianist. I have an easier time hating Woody Allen and boycotting his movies because I think he's highly overrated in addition to being a sick pervert.

Word, word, word.

I think Polanski is a sick fuck, and it bothers me that some of my favorite Hollywood people, like Harrison Ford, are so supportive of him. OTOH, if he had served his time and showed remorse, and never committed another crime (which it looks like he did with Nastassja Kinski, anyway) it would be time to let bygones be bygones.

If the victim had gone on to have a terrible life and expressed her rage for RP at every turn, I think the Hollywood community would still be a lot harder on him. The fact that she has expressed forgiveness for RP (which, as an abuse victim myself, is something I could never understand, but she is entitled to react in whatever way she wishes), I think, plays into a lot of people's feelings that "she was asking for it" or lied about the sex being non-consensual (not that that would make a difference in statutory rape).

[Dr. Freude]

It makes my skin crawl whenever I read an interview in which an actor talks about how much he'd/she'd love to work with Roman Polanski. He is a child rapist. And while he did have a horrific childhood, many other people in Nazi-occupied Europe did as well, and they didn't go on to sexually violate a 13-year-old. He really repulses me.