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

French film-maker Luc Besson, who directed the 1994 movie Leon, has also refused to lend his support

Who else then?

some euro politicians i believe (it's from the "French withdraw support" link)

What's everybody's take on Polansky in 'A Pure Formality'?

Bitter Moon is definitely as interesting as the bulk of his pre-rape movies.

I like how his career is now divided into pre- and post- rape periods.

Oddly enough, there's more rape in the pre-rape movies.

I think of his career as early films/hollywood/exile/80s crap/90s return to form

but it's not all that neat

anybody who's looking for a polanksi film to view through the filter of recent events should check out death and the maiden, essentially an account of a woman violently confronting her rapist.

and bitter moon is one of the blackest comedies ever made

...but not particularly good.

i thought it was terrible as well. tess was the first exile picture, right? i saw that in a theatre a few years back, beautiful film but loses it near the end.

Isn't Tess some sort of raper-caper too?

Actor Peter Fonda said he thought "celebrating the arrest of Osama bin Laden and not the arrest of Polanski" was far more important.

thanks peter fonda

Did he catch OBL!!????!??

The Polanski arrest is just the law grinding on as usual. As it should. Only reason it made news is the he's-a-bigger-celeb-than-Gary-Glitter factor. Otoh, an OBL arrest would be a hallelujah day.

from kevin smith's twitter:

Via @JoeyFace42 "Please don't be one of those FREE POLANSKI people" Look, I dig ROSEMARY'S BABY; but rape's rape. Do the crime, do the time.

lol @ "raper-caper"

"celebrating the arrest of Osama bin Laden"

lolz yeah I'm sure the Los Angeles DA's office will get right on that

I was thinking about how all these silly pleas for Polanski's freedom hinge on some kind of dramatic miscarriage of justice against him - that he didn't get a fair shake from the judge etc. And then I think "yeah, gee you know if there's one group of people in this country who are always getting screwed by the legal system, it's RICH WHITE FAMOUS MEN." WTF people.

like OJ

when will our country's vicious persecution of rich white guys finally be stopped

whoa whoa whoa guys, we have to catch Osama bin Laden first

Would he show up for a lifetime achievement award in Switzerland?

it's the "he's suffered enough" bit that gets me -- as if fleeing the country to avoid incarceration was some sort of noble self-imposed exile

he's suffered the adulation of the French

Sort of weird (though, I guess, unsurprising) how "Hollywood Liberals" act as a union, closing ranks around one of their own. Like a police force in response to an allegation of brutality. Sucks, though, that as an American liberal, this is one of the cards your team gets dealt. Suppose a lot of conservatives felt that way about Bush, Palin, etc...

hey Cheney just shot that guy in the face by mistake!

cheney didnt even know the guy was 67!

lets be realistic here he knew going in u dont fuk w/cheney

he was totally asking for it by sticking his face in front of that shotgun anyway

I heard his mother encouraged him to do it, she thought it would help him get ahead in politics

I think Peter Fonda's point was that if you aren't doing the most important thing ever, you shouldn't be doing anything. No effort should be put into law & order other than catching Osama Bin Laden. Then the whole military, police and intelligence apparatus can switch over to Polanski. Maybe another target first, regrettably it's not clear from the quote. I think that's what he's saying.

Bad news for 13 year old girls then

i think the important thing to do now is celebrate the arrest of osama bin laden

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/10/20/alg_garza-champagne.jpg

http://www.phototravelpages.com/wallpapers/fireworks_niagara_1600.jpg

Polanski has also been living in caves on the pakistan/afghan border since he fled justice

http://www.lumpen.com/magazine/92/OBL.jpg

http://www.breadsite.org/psheet3/o%20happy%20day.jpg

so, this whole thing is fucking ridiculous. SHE WAS 13, bro. Its called statutory rape because, no matter how much you and she want it, its ILLEGAL. In the eyes of the law, she CAN'T consent. Her minor status renders incapable of doing so.

Funny we should talk about the Hollywood shock troops reaction - my officemate's grandfather was assistant director on "On the Waterfront" with Kazan, and he has some interesting stories about Kazan and his shunning by the Hollywood crowd.

these people just have too much access and too few well-thought out opinions. Shut up.

even if the age of consent was 13 it was rape

the statutory thing is a distraction

OTM.

not really because that's what he ended up pleading guilty to, isn't it? more like the existence/non-existence of consent is a distraction.

i mean in the surrounding discourse--people defending polanski, or at least condemning his arrest, latch on to the statutory thing in some kind of last-ditch "it was just called rape because she was young!" thing. when the transcript makes clear that she said "no," over and over and over again.

u should defend him , harbs

not to tell everyone what they already know, but the justice system is deeply screwed up in this country, and if you have any kind of clout, you get a better deal, from apprehension all the way to sentencing. just because one of "yours" gets a taste of what it is to be in the game and have that kind of clout for once, it's no reason to cheer.

harbl, rapist lawyer

It seems the mystery is, why now? That they couldn't have taken him in before seems extremely dubious to me.

when the transcript makes clear that she said "no," over and over and over again

Not often enough to convince Whoopi Goldberg

no thanx i'll leave it up to anne applebaum xpost