WTF.

No thanks.

What about a Do Not Free Roman Polanski Petition. That sounds like a better idea.

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.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/sep/29/roman-polanski-petition

Via:

http://videogum.com/archives/petitions/they-should-rename-the-free-roman-polanski-petition-the-im-officially-a-creep-petition_092841.html

 

I'd sign that. He can rot in jail for all I care.

 

I can't imagine who would sign the petition, though I do want to watch the documentary (recognizing, of course, that documentaries these days are rarely the unbiased journalistic pursuits they should be or purport to be). It's interesting, I think, how frequently Manson's been coming up these past few months. First with him courting Phil Spector, and then with the death of Susan Atkins, and then the arrest of Roman Polanski just a few days later. Dude can't stay out of the news. 

I watched the documentary Bwall, and its general point is that Roman Polanski totally gave a 13 year old a qualuude and sodomized her, but he feared he would be screwed by the judge, who was trying to use the case to become marginally famous. The speculation was that they'd give him like five or six times the sentence he agreed on with the prosecutors, just because the judge felt like doing him over. 

 

Still it's a weak argument. You do the crime, you do the time. It's like hockey.

Hey, everyone was willing to overlook all the shit Michael Jackson did a few months ago. Chinatown is a better movie than Thriller is an album, and Polanski wasn't a repeat offender. Why wait until he's dead (or on Google Trends) to come around to admitting he was a good artist?

Chinatown is not a better movie than Thriller is an album, and Michael Jackson constantly claimed his innocence, which Polanski doesn't.  Even though he was a total fucking weirdo who definitely had inappropriate relationships with children, there's a lot of evidence that suggests that the second accusation of child molestation, if not the first as well, was definitely the product of people trying to take advantage of Michael Jackson's totally fucked up mentality.

 

But all of that is neither here nor there. Roman Polanski drugged and rape a 13-year-old girl. That shit's illegal for a reason. He's probably going to get off because he's rich and famous, but what the fuck kind of person doesn't want to see a rapist stand trial?

I got no problem with Polanski's movies. You can be a total skeevy fucking perv and still make great movies. And also, second mattycakes' point: There's not one person that Michael agreed he raped. There is in Polanski's case. He totally admitted to boning that 13 year old in that documentary. That doesn't have anything at all to do with Chinatown.

Also, Chinatown isn't the best selling movie of all time. That's Titantic. Thriller is a rare case of shit that is meant for commercial means being fucking fantastic too.

I'm not excusing either of them personally. I'm arguing that we treat Michael Jackson differently because he was more popular and now he's dead.

 

I guess I'm able to detach artists' work from their personal life, which most people probably do not do (or don't want to do). I just don't see why I would have to enjoy one of my favorite movies less because of what the director did later, or enjoy watching the NBA finals less because of what Kobe Bryant was accused of years ago.

 

Speaking of which, Woody Allen signed that petition. ::watches Annie Hall for the 781st time::

I feel like this doesn't matter, but I also really like Polanski's movies. But if you're any kind of critic, you should be able to divorce an individual's art from the artist.

I do have a serious problem with excusing people more for the celebrity factor than what they contributed. Mike Tyson is a convicted rapist, yet it was okay for him to be at the Kids Choice award cutting Joe Jonas's hair. I think it should be illegal for Disney to allow one of its child stars to be near Mike Tyson when he's wielding sharp objects.

I think the fact that Michael is treated well now is because everyone completely detached his personal life from his art. Most people act like the other shit never happened. And maybe that's because he died, but I'm more inclinced to believe that it's because people realized that Chappelle was right in that sketch from a few years ago: dude made Thriller, the other stuff is just icky, and shouldn't affect you listening to his albums.

 

Also, I don't think anyone told you you can't like Polanski Ethan. Just that acting like because he only raped a 13 year old once we should hold him in higher personal regard than Michael Jackson is sort of effed.

In the first trial, charges against Michael Jackson were dropped. In the second trial he was acquitted. Roman Polanski on the other hand admitted at his trial that he had what he considered "consensual sex" with a 13 year old girl, as if sex with a 13 year old can be consensual. Then when he was sentenced he fled the country. 

Take away the fame and you have a man that was found not guilty (mj), and a man that was found guilty (polanski). It's cliche to say it, but the guilty man needs to pay his debt to society. 

my $0.02...

Andrew:

No one told me that I can't enjoy Chinatown, and I don't enjoy it any less. I just think Polanski gets more negative attention because he's not a celebrity. Before the trial, the most significant factoid about his personal life was that his pregnant wife was killed by the Manson clan. He went from sympathetic to repulsive in like two days in 1976.

 

William:

That's a fair point, but by using the same logic, you have a man who was found guilty and convicted (Tyson) currently enjoying millions of dollars for cameo appearances. You also have aman who was found guilty and was granted asylum by several European countries until backdoor international political deals interfered (Polanski), and who only gets editorial rants opining about his disgustingness once he's brought to trial.

 

The same publications that give Tyson camoes a pass are now throwing Polanski under a bus, often by criticizing favoritism in Hollywood. That's where the celebrity factor comes in.

No way, Josepolanski:  You do the crime, you do the time!

 

(13 year old girl? --> fuck you.  i'll rent chinatown so you have a couple bucks when you get out of san quentin.  but that's it.)