Roman Polanski, or pardon me but your poll is in my neck.

i really cannot believe so many people are going to bat for the guy. way to behave like some malkinist fantasy of liberal euro-hollywood.

People are all going on about how bad it is for the victim to have to relive this, but it's the guys whose threads about Polanksi are getting hijacked that are the real victims in all this

Poor Eric H - who we will call H from now on, to protect his anonymity

Eric H better start a list.

I've suggest banned everyone on this thread.

I mean, how dare we discuss director's personal lives and how it affects their work. What are we, auteurists?

Let's return to the matter at hand:

My journal, La Règle du jeu, is working in support of Roman Polanski and mobilizing writers and artists through the following petition:
Apprehended like a common terrorist Saturday evening, September 26, as he came to receive a prize for his entire body of work, Roman Polanski now sleeps in prison.

He risks extradition to the United States for an episode that happened years ago and whose principal plaintiff repeatedly and emphatically declares she has put it behind her and abandoned any wish for legal proceedings.

Seventy-six years old, a survivor of Nazism and of Stalinist persecutions in Poland, Roman Polanski risks spending the rest of his life in jail for deeds which would be beyond the statute-of-limitations in Europe.
We ask the Swiss courts to free him immediately and not to turn this ingenious filmmaker into a martyr of a politico-legal imbroglio that is unworthy of two democracies like Switzerland and the United States. Good sense, as well as honor, require it.

-- Bernard Henry-Levy

jesus christ what a load of shit

The Guardian actually has a disclaimer noting that it wasn't rape.

Oh really now.

blimey @ BHL. im fairly gratified that not too many brits have joined our fellow old-worlders in the free-the-paedo stampede.

Like a common terrorist.

the free-the-paedo stampede

I don't think he's a pedophile. I think he's a rapist. As Whoopi would say, let's be careful to define our terms here.

He might be a rapist but he's not a rapist-rapist. LOL French intellectuals, again.

That guy's not too smart. Far from being beyond any statute-of-limitations, here at least (which is in Europe) the courts are full of historic child sex abuse cases from decades ago. They don't make the papers because they're not big stories, but they are being prosecuted - and not because the accused are big-shot celebrities either.

That guy's not too smart.

LOL French intellectuals

it's shaping up to be the dreyfus affair of the 21st century.

If he had been smart he wouldn't have run. He would have realized that if he stayed in America, he could have bought the verdict he wanted. Guess he felt guilty or something.

has Jack Nicholson made a statement?

You'd think it's a mere technicality, but he did plead guilty.

xp He's always stayed as far away from this as he was from his house at the time.

xp THANK YOU, it is not a technicality. All that awful stuff in the grand jury statement, which can best be boiled down to "child rape" (so sorry to say it!) -- he admits that he did do all those things. He argues that it was consensual, but given the facts, that's just ludicrous. He drugged and raped a child. This is not under contention.

OK, now I really have suggest banned a few people for real.

You'd think it's a mere technicality, but he did plead guilty.

― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, September 29, 2009 5:05 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"technically a polanski"

LOL. But, yeah, "The Tenant" is great, that would probably have got my vote.

OK, now I really have suggest banned a few people for real.

― boring movies are the most boring (Eric H.), Tuesday, September 29, 2009 11:10 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

haha who

i mean, besides bernard henri-levy

"that petition in full, which also includes woody allen lol. wonder if larry clark will get on board."

Too bad Gary Glitter and the old drummer from Judas Priest missed their opportunity to sign.

damn its really unfortunate that people would use a thread about a director to discuss that directors high profile arrest

id even describe it as "unjust"

SB'ed like a common terrorist

"free roman" is an interesting GIS

they all mention how he thought she was older than 13 but that doesn't actually matter lol

in the transcript of geimer's testimony she says he asked her if she was on the pill, which doesn't strike me as the type of question one would pose to a 13 year old... even still, maybe I'm wrong on this, but drugging + raping women you think are of age isn't commendable behavior

Yeah it's not like he just videotaped himself peeing on her.

um what i was saying was the questions of consent or what he thought her age was are irrelevant because he pleaded guilty to statutory rape and if the people writing these articles were responsible at all they wouldn't mention them. but that's too much to ask!

Seriously, The Tenant is so good it makes me want to get pregnant.

Then watch Rosemary's Baby

"The Tenant" seems most Polanskiesque, more than "Chinatown", which is obviously fantastic

I guess this is a taste of what the board would've been like during The OJ Trial.

Since the stupidest things being said on this thread are mostly posted verbatim from op eds, I'm not sure exactly what your complaint is Morbs. Not that I've seen you post anything of value either.

I would have gone crazy if anyone messed up my Capricorn One thread.

Imagine the cluster-fuck that would be the Hertz Rent-A-Car commercial thread.

Alex, go to hell 1000x.

Oooh I stand corrected as Morbz brings quality critique.

I don't get how the some of same people who are like "hey the law should be the law" when it comes to all the illegal shit that the Bush admin did are suddenly like "woah hasn't this aging rapist pediophile been punished enough. . . I mean jeez he had to live in EUROPE all this time". Seriously I'm not losing a minutes sleep about poor poor Roman and anyone who is either hasn't read the original grand jury transcripts or is a deeply dishonest human being.

uhhhh what movies did bush direct

UNCUT CIA TORTURE FOOTAGE TAKES 1 - 590

Hard to see now since they've been destroyed, of course. Oscar screener controversy X 1,000,000!

That's what I said 1000 xposts ago.

You made the Oscar screener joke. I feel bad now.

the fact that the case was handled poorly and perhaps with little regard for the victim and the fact that roman polanski actually does deserve some punishment for his crime should be considered mutually exclusive