International Turmoil Brews as Roman Polanski Fights Extradition

Which is to say nothing of the diplomatic protest led by France and Poland, countries of which Polanski is a dual citizen. Both nations hilariously demanded Polanski be released on bail under the strict terms that he does not leave Switzerland, even appealing to Hillary Clinton for U.S. State Department intervention. That hasn't arrived; for now he gets a clean cell three meals and one hour of exercise per day. He's also entitled to an hour of visitation per week with family and friends, plus extended time for consultations with lawyers and advisers.

Film pundits are mixed on the case, with David Edelstein persuasively flashing back to his 2002 review of The Pianist to draw conclusions:

I frankly don't know how to reconcile my feelings about The Pianist with my feelings about Polanski. What I do know is that he lost two families--with sickening brutality--in a single lifetime, and that he has been through a hell that few of us can even imagine. Perhaps returning to his native Poland for the first time in 40 years--and to the Holocaust--has given him a new moral clarity. Perhaps it is time for this magnificent artist and monstrously conflicted human being to return to the United States and make amends.

Interesting -- David Poland has a similar take, invoking Marina Zenovich's documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired as the potential catalyst for Polanski to undergo an "intervention" that will allow some legal and emotional closure in the matter. And David Thomson weighed in at the Guardian: "You can argue that it's a very silly case, only possible in L.A. and with a judge who couldn't make up his mind. But any other judge is going to have to gauge where public opinion stands. [...] This is a case that the parents of children should decide." We'll see.

Pages: 1 2



Comments

  • Pinecones says:

    Let's definitely give that guy bail - he's got a great track record of showing up for court!
    Despite the decades that have passed, the victim has been paid off and wants the case to go away, and Polanski makes good films - the fact remains: Polanski drugged and sodomized a 13 yr old girl, was convicted and escaped. (And the fact that the girls mother was a pushy stage mom who basically abandoned her to Polanski's care that day with the hope that the photgraphs he was taking of her would catapult her in the business is awful, but does not absolve him from guilt.)
    The judge in the case may have been a crooked fame-whore, but Polanski (despite his status as grieving Manson widower and Holocaust survivor) is not an innocent lamb.
    Original testimony from the Grand Jury in the case:
    http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html

  • anonymously says:

    He certainly helped the L.A. District Attorney's office remember him by filing motions to have his case dismissed with no intention of returning to the U.S. Nothing makes a low-level government official angrier than work with no payoff.

  • Ricardo Montalban Jr. says:

    Whoever takes his side probably never had his teenage daughter drugged & raped. I was gonna say those film industry bastards on his side should be raped themselves, but they probably enjoy it.

  • Gooser says:

    Yes, we should definitely let the child rapist go free, after all he makes great films, right?

  • Dennis says:

    The guy is a pedophile. He should be brought back for sentencing and go to jail.

  • bdl says:

    Imagine if he did that in the Middle East? Night, Night.

  • Rebecca says:

    I agree. I don't care who this guy is or what he has been through in his lifetime, he still broke the law and did a horrible thing to a young girl and needs to be held accountable for his actions.

  • SilverAsh says:

    Minor technicality = Pleading guilty to rape of a 13 y/o girl.

  • Bill Bixby says:

    I got into an argument with friend of mine once about Polanski. My friend, a film major, said Polanski "made a mistake and people should cut him some slack". WTF? A mistake is not paying your bills on time. A mistake would be having sex with a girl WHO DOES look old enough(not a kid) but you neglected to ask. Someone Polanski's age at that time taking a 13 year old girl and giving her alcohol and illegal drugs before raping and sodomizing her is NOT a F'n mistake. It is a sign of a sick and disturbed sexual predator. Sexual predators of children do not change.

  • huh says:

    Too all those wanting to let him go because he is a great artist, let me have your 13 year old daughters!

  • SunnydaZe says:

    "A very silly case"???
    This isn't Monty Python!
    Look, just "Get Shorty" and bring him to LA. Rape him in the ass and let's call it even, kay?

  • shiftysteve says:

    I'm normally a raging liberal, and this still makes no sense to me. He pleaded guilty to raping a 13 year old girl. How could anyone be on his side? Is genius (real or imagined), an excuse for a crime like this? Should Stephen Hawking be allowed to have 12 year old girls dance naked in front of him? Should Yo Yo Ma be allowed to have sex with mentally disabled teenagers? This is a mystery to me.

  • Jason says:

    It's ridiculous to see wealthy famous movie types defend him because he makes movies. Who cares. He needs to face up to a trial and resolve how he deliberately ruined one little girls life.

  • Bucks says:

    Roman.. appealing to Hillary Clinton for State department intervention is a good idea...I hope you made the prerequisite, Mark Rich contribution to the Clinton Library...You didn't? Ah sorry dude!, That's another fatal lapse in judgment. I see a pattern here...