It's all over the internet, Google listed 65,700 hits on "polanski petition" and as nearly as I can tell the petition just hit the news yesterday (28-sept-2009). The petition is posted here, but I can't get it to load. Perhaps it's just overwhelmed, or perhaps it's just a matter of technical incompetence on the part of the webmasters: the website is French. Now, why does that not surprise me. (My visceral disdain for the French is the reason I make it a rule to never blog about them. Folks take me to task for talking so often about "The Brits" and their failing culture, but I actually like The Brits.)
Fortunately, some energetic blogger named fkacharietrout over at Community.livejournal has the full text of the petition (in English), along with a list of the signers. Hardly the Declaration of Independence, except in a very limited way. Many of the "organizations" which support the petition have names beginning with "Le" ("le Festival de Cannes"), "La" ("la Cinémathèque Française"), or "L' " ("l'Union des producteurs de films"). Notable exception: "Scott Foundas (LA Weekly)" [Translation: Left-Coast Liberal Useful Idiot]
Number one on the Google Hit-list was this article from The Guardian ("The Brits"):
What is "this terrible situation", anyway?Woody Allen, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese today added their names to a petition demanding the immediate release of Roman Polanski from detention in Zurich. The director was arrested on Saturday over a three-decade-old underage sex case when he arrived to receive a lifetime achievement award at the city's film festival.
"Film-makers in France, in Europe, in the United States and around the world are dismayed by this decision," says the petition, which is co-ordinated by the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD), a film industry organisation which also represents performance and visual artists.
"It seems inadmissible to them that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary film-makers, is used by police to apprehend him," it adds.
The petition has now been signed by more than 70 film industry luminaries, including Polanski's fellow directors Michael Mann, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodóvar, Darren Aronofsky, Terry Gilliam, Julian Schnabel, the Dardenne brothers, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Wong Kar-Wai, Walter Salles and Jonathan Demme. Actors Tilda Swinton, Monica Bellucci and Asia Argento, as well as producer Harvey Weinstein, have also put their names on the petition. Yesterday, Weinstein stated he was "calling on every film-maker we can to help fix this terrible situation".
The FOX article from Los Angeles incudes this summary from the LA Times:
In 1977, when Polanski was 44, he lured Geimer *, who was then 13, to actor Jack Nicholson's home on Mulholland Drive, saying he wanted to take photographs of her for a magazine. During the shoot, he gave her champagne and part of a Quaalude and forced her to have sex. After spending 42 days in a prison hospital ward for a mental evaluation, a deal was worked out for him to plead guilty and be sentenced to time served.There are commentaries (see here and here) which suggest that it was Polanski's lawyers who triggered a renewed determined attempt by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office to arrest Polanski.
Geimer* has said that although the sex was not consensual, she wants the matter dropped.
"He should never have been put in a position that led him to flee," she wrote in 2003. "He should have received a sentence of time served 25 years ago, just as we all agreed."
Polanski had been trying to get his Los Angeles County arrest warrant dismissed. In July, lawyers for Polanski appealed Los Angeles Superior Court Peter Espinoza's denial of his petition to have the charge dropped.
* "Samantha Geimer, who is now 44, married and living in Hawaii, [and who] has previously said she wished the matter would be dropped ..."
The accusation that the Los Angeles County district attorney's office was not serious about extraditing Polanski to face sentencing in a child sex case he fled in 1978 was a minor point in two lengthy July court filings by the director's attorneys.
He had left France, where he had been living since he skipped bail in 1978(?) after pleading guilty, in order to accept a "Lifetime Achievement Award" in Switzerland. And in fact, LA County had made numerous attempts to arrest Polanski every time they learned that he may be traveling outside of France, which was protecting him from extradition. (Polanski was born in France, of Polish parents.)
The Charges:
Roman Polanski had met the 13 year old Samantha Geiler and convinced her mother to allow her to visit him at Jack Nickolson's home for a "photo shoot". He had promised to build a portfolio and support her desire to become an internationally recognized model. She ended up naked in the hot tub, drugged with Quaalude, and at the mercy of the 40-something Polanski who was accused of rape, sodomy, and other crimes.
The Morality:
Now the international film community, France, and The Huffington Post assert that it is "wrong" to hold him accountable for his confessed crimes. Why is it wrong? Because the victim has changed her mind about prosecuting him, after 31 years of building a private life; because it has been so long since the 'incident' that is should be forgotten; because he is an internationally famous and successful movie director; because the District Attorney doesn't really care; and because there was 'nothing really so wrong about it' or, in the words of Whoopi Goldberg: It wasn't really "rape-rape". (youtube link to "The view" here.)
The woman is a clown; that is her career and her choice. Her opinion should be held suspect on any subject, let alone one so egregious as this.
My Take On It:
The man is scum. He raped a child. He drugged her, with liquor (champagne) and drugs (Quaalude) to undermine her defenses. He took her every way he could think of. He confessed to it, and then instead of taking his admittedly justifiable consequences, he fled to a country from which he could not be extradited. In his arrogance, he left that country and put himself at risk of (righteous) capture and punishment, because he thought nobody cared.
It may be significant that his wife, Sharon Tate, was slaughtered by the Manson Clan while pregnant. If his wife had lived, if his child had lived ... would he have acted differently? As a father, I hope so; as a cynic, I am not convinced.
The man is scum. Enough of that.
Now we see that the Entertainment Industry has rallied in defense of his hedonistic lack-of-defense because they see that their celebrity is no defense against The Law. That does not speak well for them. They are uncomfortable, because they have always believed that their celebrity has put them Above The Law. IF this man can be prosecuted (not "Persecuted") for his sins after a third of a century, to what crimes may they be held accountable?
I can only hope the Polanski is extradited, convicted again, imprisoned and exposed to the same kind of sexual abuse as he has imposed upon his victim.
To me, that would be Justice.
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