Merged 39th year of Roman Polanski evading rape charges / Roman Polanski looks to clear name

[Vixen]

No spoiler alert?!?!?!

Kidding, I don't plan on seeing it. I don't like Quentin

Soz, I've added a spoiler alert for those - like myself - who prefer to see a film without knowing anything about it except the general theme.

I don't usually like Tarantino but this film fully deserves its 8.3 IMdb status. Brilliant film.

NB: maybe you, too, should add a spoiler alert.

 

[zooterkin]

Someone else has come forward to accuse Polanski of rape in the 1970s.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/mar/12/roman-polanski-lawsuit-child-rape-trial

Film-maker Roman Polanski will face a civil trial in Los Angeles in 2025 for allegedly raping a teenager in 1973.

Attorney Gloria Allred, who has represented the victims of Jeffery Epstein and Bill Cosby, confirmed in a press conference on Tuesday that a judge has set Polanski’s trial for August 2025.

 

[dudalb]

Because he was rich and famous and felt the law did not apply to him.

This situation has not changed at all in the interim.

And, sadly, because he was often a brilliant filmmaker, a number of Hollywood types and certain intellectuals (a very odd combination) thought he should be let off the hook becuase he was a "great artist".

 

[dann]

Kidding, I don't plan on seeing it. I don't like Quentin.

I don't usually like Tarantino but this film fully deserves its 8.3 IMdb status.

I think both Polanski and Tarantino have made excellent movies in between the stinkers.
I can recommend Ben Elton's novel Pop Corn:

Popcorn is a 1996 novel by the British writer Ben Elton. It shares themes with a number of movies from the mid-1990s, most notably Natural Born Killers by Oliver Stone and Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino. The play version of the novel is used by the IEB (Independent Education Board) In South Africa as one of their Postmodern set-work plays for Dramatic Arts.
Popcorn (novel) (Wikipedia)

It shares themes with ... because one of the (very annoying) main characters is a parody of Tarantino. Very funny novel!

 

[ahhell]

The one guy I've met in real life that defended Polanski clearly didn't know what exactly Polanski was accused of. He thought polanski had just had consensual sex with a 16 or 7 year old.

Didn't have a clue that he was accused of analy raping a 13 year old who'd said no several times even after he'd plied her with booze and drugs. When you say it that way, it sounds awful.

As far as I can tell this is the absolute best version of the story:

Describing the event in his autobiography, Polanski stated that he did not drug Geimer, that she "wasn't unresponsive", and that she did not respond negatively when he inquired as to whether or not she was enjoying what he was doing.[28] The 28-page probation report submitted to the court by Kenneth Fare, his parole officer, and signed by deputy Irwin Gold, excused his behavior due to his creative genius and being an immigrant from a land with different morals, placed some of the blame on the victim and her mother, and concluded by saying that there was evidence "that the victim was not only physically mature, but willing".[29] The officers report also quoted two psychiatrists' denial of Polanski being "a pedophile" or "sexual deviant".[30]

The best version of the story, its ok for a 44 year old to have sex with a 13 year old if she seems to like it and he's a creative. And also, he's not a pedophile, he's hebophile.

It really insane that anyone defends this guy.

 

[bruto]

I can sort of forgive or overlook all sorts of deviant thoughts and desires, the sort of thing you think about when alone, or that you think would be amusing if you lived on another planet or in the stone age, or believed in a god that could grant a moral holiday, or make for interesting fiction. We can read Romeo and Juliet without believing you live in a Renaissance Italy where a 14 year old girl is a romantic ideal.

The history of art is full of fascist poets, rapists, anti-semites, perverts, thieves, believers in quackery, all sorts of foibles. But the history of art is also full enough of people who were not unconscionable ******** to make it clear that these faults are not necessary to art.

It's foolish, I think, to imagine that Polanski in any way was unaware that what he was doing was anything but at least illegal and unacceptable, and it would be pretty crazy if he was unaware that it was just plain wrong. A sane adult in modern times does not believe it reasonable to anally rape a child, no matter how cute the kid, or how weirdly alluring the prospect. This is not an event clouded by some ambiguity, a drunken tryst on the beach in the dark, believable age fakery, star-crossed love. It's a person believing that talent and money can buy transgressive behavior, and I don't see any way to pretend it's not.