Roman Polanski arrested in Switzerland

Polanski arrested

Check out link

This is pretty surprising news.

I have decidedly mixed feelings about the arrest. On the one hand, I owe a lot personally to the ministrations of L.A.'s district attorney and the prosecutors of sex crimes working under him (a righteous team, I can attest from firsthand experience). On the other hand, the show trial that's inevitable should Polanski be returned to these shores is likely to be an ugly scene. I'll restrain myself from controversial opinionating, however, and stress that Polanski's return remains a big if. Several European countries are pledged to fight the extradition and will argue for a compromise. We shall see...

I'm waiting for the inevitable 'But Mia farrow defended Polanski and threw Woody to the wolves'. From a moral technicality (I don't know how else to say this right now) standpoint OK, but from an emotional one, light years away. Does this statement make me officially stupid?

I'm just shocked this arrest wasn't for his acting in RUSH HOUR 3.

There are far greater crimes involved in the making of the RUSH HOUR films.

I'd be amazed if no one has reached out to Polanski to entice him to star in a reality show, like the ones Lil Kim and T.I. made before going to prison.

An article and opinion column from The New York Times:

Question in Polanski Case: Why Now?

Polanski Miserable

The Independent:
"Harvey Weinstein: Polanski has served his time and must be freed" (Tuesday September 29, 2009)
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/comme...ed-1794699.html

Is illegally downloading copies of movies produced/distributed by The Weinstein Company (TWC) also merely a "so-called crime"? Perhaps doing so should henceforth be referred to as "redistribution of media"?

My feelings aren't mixed at all. He raped and sodomized a child, admitted it, then jumped bail to avoid punishment for 30 years. If he were say, a banker instead of a gifted filmmaker, there wouldn't be any controversy about the extradition.

I fully expect a "ripped from the headlines" LAW & ORDER: SVU episode is being drafted as we speak. Lothaire Bluteau can play the Polanski part.

The child, now grown, has said that she forgives him, understands why he left, and would prefer to never have to put her family through a revisitation of the event via a trial. Do people care less about the wishes of the victim once they're fully grown? Seems that way to me sometime.

Polanski was a tool for doing what he did, but if it goes to trial I expect a defence lawyer to make great hay out of (a.) the culpability of the mother dropping her daughter off alone at Jack Nicholson's house with a Euroceleb man-about-town director, and (b.) the mental stability or otherwise of a man who lost his partner and unborn child to the 70's most sensational and vicious serial murder just a year or two earlier. There's no way to attempt to justify the rape - which it was, as the girl directly told Polanski 'no' - of a well underage girl, but justifying the event and mitigating the punishment thereafter are two different things, and if this thing does go to trial I'm sure we'll be seeing way too much of the above issues, and their likely rebuttals, thrashed out over and over in the media. I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

Kate Harding's Salon piece rebutts this argument better than I could:

You can read the whole piece here:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/featur...olanski_arrest/

I have no objection to him being tried. My point is that I strongly suspect Polanski will be treated with extreme prejudice as a high-profile fellow to be made an example of: a show trial as I said, utter humiliation for all to see worldwide. That makes me queasy, and -pardon me- the part of me who regards him as a great artist doesn't want to witness that. I wonder if forced to travel back, Polanski will opt out entirely , an overdose or something like that...

My heart bleeds. Sorry, but after reading the victim's grand jury testimony, I'll never be able to see Polanski as anything but a creepy pedophile. That transcript is what makes me queasy. I didn't realize the extent of the crime until I read it.

Yep, and if he was a no-name 'banker' there would be no LA district attorney now trying to make a name for themself by hunting down this evil 'rapist' after 30 years.

The main goal here is to create a media circus for a crime that even the victim forgives and no longer wants a part of and would like to see behind her. This whole charade is obviously not about justice anymore. This is only about unbridled opportunity and a chance to make huge money and attention in this ridiculous media world we live in. "We got a legendary director on rape!!!! Big news and big media money. We'll be rich and famous now!" No one really cares about the victim, the crime, or anything else at this point. It's all about what *I* can get from this now. Opportunists galore.

Even the debaters have their own agendas. I don't have any strong feelngs to really try to defend Polanski (and he was wrong way back then), but this current crucifixion is simply out of greed and opportunity and nothing about 'justice'.

Having said what I said, I should also add that there may be more to the planned trial in L.A. than just grandstanding. I'm familiar with the D.A.'s team and their m.o (though not with what their plan of attack is in this instance, I hasten to add.) Their specialty is prosecuting repeat offenders and getting reluctant witnesses to come forward, one after the other, to nail the case. I wouldn't be surprised if a pattern of behavior on Polanski's part is the strategy planned with a series of formerly young folks testifying to similar abuse during the same period. This is strictly crystal ball gazing of course.

This post has been edited by James Cheney on Sep 30 2009, 11:28 PM

Wasn't the trial done 30 years ago? Wouldn't he just be brought back and given a sentence?

It remains to be seen. Just based on seeing these lawyers in action, and knowing that D.A. Steve Cooley is a supremely serene-with-himself, confident, and zealous guy with the double aim of stamping out crime and getting re-elected being first and foremost, I very much doubt that a simple, quiet sentencing is his aim, though international pressure might mitigate the amount of public punishment delivered. I don't see Roman getting off easy.

On the other hand, perhaps Polanski welcomes the challenge, wants to make a clean breast of it, fess up and give his side of the story. It's been suggested in the press that the director's own attorneys forced the D.A.'s hand, challenging him to wrap up the case once and for all. Maybe Roman wants to come in from the cold, confront his past, and have it caught on film, a confessional of periodic descent into madness to go along with others in his oeuvre: the self-portrait-like performance in THE TENANT, Deneuve's in REPULSION, for example. Like Ghadaffi's henchman or Susan Atkins, more pertinently and most recently, it may be his opportunity for death-bed expiation and clemency. Perhaps the arrest was timed with his approval to coincide with his lifetime achievement award, ushering in a stage-managed final reckoning of Polanski as artist and human being.

He's played both sides of the law in his film roles, most interestingly as the inspector tripping up and laying bare Depardieu's story in A PERFECT FORMALITY. Maybe a version of this film inquisition (or the similar one of his own DEATH AND THE MAIDEN) is what Polanski intends to surrender himself to in order to play out his last act in a manner worthy of 'That's a take! Cut! Print!"

Polanski may need to return to Tinsel Town to die properly on film, and, if so, the cinematically-inclined and melodramatic local justice will accomodate him nicely.

This post has been edited by James Cheney on Oct 1 2009, 01:16 AM

You're riffing or something, right? You can't actually even half-believe all that. Matter of fact, I refuse to believe you believe what you just wrote!

I was predicting in the manner of Ed Wood Jr.'s Criswell, I admit :-) Nonetheless, I'm deeply familiar with the prosecution's style, enough so to know that Polanski's future reputation doesn't stand a chance if he's sent back and doesn't play along. I'm convinced he's got to give the performance of his life while coming clean.

My scenario was the least unhappy ending for a distinguished career I could fantasize given his really poor prospects should he take the stand.

This post has been edited by James Cheney on Oct 1 2009, 01:57 AM