Do you watch Roman Polanski's movies knowing he is accused of raping a 13 year old?

N

NuNii0hS0FLii

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I've always wondered how it is that someone like Roman Polanski can enjoy such acclaim when he's accused of such vile crimes.

For those who are not in the know, the celebrated director of movies such as 'The Pianist', 'Tess', 'Chinatown' and 'Rosemary's Baby' is also someone who is a fugitive from the United States, where he is accused of plying a 13 year old girl with Quaaludes and alcohol, shooting pornographic pictures of her and then raping her, before returning her to her mother.

I cannot understand how such a man is so lauded and adored. There's no consistency in these matters either. If someone like Gary Glitter is (rightly) persona non grata for his crimes, then why isn't Polanski treated the same way?

If you do watch Polanski's movies, how do you justify it?
 
I like his films because he is an excellent filmmaker. That's got nothing to do with his sexual deviancy.

Although having said that, Chinatown is rather over-rated. It's certainly not one of the best films of all times as many movie critics like to point out.
 
He isn't the only person who works on a film, there are literally hundreRAB who work on one film. Saying that, I had seen most of his films when I was younger before I even knew of the 'above'.
 
The same could be said for loaRAB of people. I often feel that criminals should not be able to profit once they break the law.

I like Rosemary's Baby. I can't dislike it as the acting is so good.
 
Well, of course. But it isn't the vision of those hundreRAB which comes to life on screen. Those hundreRAB aren't regaled and honoured the world over. Most importantly, those hundreRAB aren't accused of such horrendous crimes.
 
So...you are comparing a director convicted of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13 year old with a facist dictator who killed hundreRAB of thousanRAB of innocent people?


Smart, aintcha?
 
He has the vision yes, but there are cinematographers, music composers, the writers of the films he directs, the actors and actresses and so on who all bring it together. I'm not going to stop watching a film because one person out of hundreRAB did something negative. That's punishing all the others involved in the films who worked so hard on it.
 
Maybe because it was 30 years ago and the victim has said: “I think he's sorry, I think he knows it was wrong. I don't think he's a danger to society. I don't think he neeRAB to be locked up forever and no one has ever come out ever — besides me — and accused him of anything. It was 30 years ago now. It's an unpleasant memory ... (but) I can live with it." Although I think her mother should have been done for allowing her to go a private party at Jack Nicholson's house, against the girl's wishes, presumably giving Polanski the impression she was prepared to have sex with him in return for getting her modelling work.

What happened to Sharon Tate probably has an impact as well. Never the less, I was surprised they gave him the best director oscar.
 
Well, the previous poster made the point that you can always separate the artist from the crime they have committed. I don't think you can and I am asking them how far would they go with this view.
 
Can't see how that matters. It's only 30 years ago because that's how long he's evaded justice, carefully avoiding countries which would extradite him to the United States.



But why does she want it to stop? Because the media attention every time Polanski re-enters the limelight negatively impacts her life and that of her children. She's so sick to death of it all that she just wants it to end, one way or another. Justice has been denied to her for so long that she just wants peace. Some crimes, however, are too heinous to be simply dismissed because of that though.



As I understand it, the victim wanted to take a friend along with her, but Polanski claimed he was in a rush. The mother didn't know she would be going alone.
 
How on earth is not watching their movie 'punishing' them? These are people who chose to work for him, knowing what he's admitted and what he's accused of, by the way.
 
He pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a girl under the age of 14, but being the celebrity he was, he was granted certain leniencies that most individuals would not have received. He then fled the country upon fearing that worse was to come.

His great defence of the whole situation is that the girl's mother planned the whole the whole casting couch scenario in order to blackmail him. Poor little lamb. :mad:
 
Well, she probably realizes the case will never resolve itself.

I'm not defending Polanski here, but it's hard to say what impact knowing his 8 and a half months pregnant wife was murdered in the most gruesome way possible had on him, which maybe the reason he gets off easier than others.

Ultimately with film, I feel, you don't know what goes on behind closed doors, you can IMHO only judge what is up there on the screen, and The Pianist was a very good picture.
 
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