comment #1

Gogocrank says ...

But I bet it'll make a great twist in her in-progress sequel. So ... a great day for this particular documentary filmmaker, no?

comment #2

Gordon27 says ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/movies/17polanski.html?_r=1

comment #3

Gordon27 says ...

Something is weird here; I can post that link, but I can't explain it? That link is to the full story to which she refers; he contradicts the documentary at least twice.

comment #4

George Prager says ...

Just saw him on CNN. It was like Wolf Blitzer was the principal and David Wells was the student caught smoking in the bathroom. What a weird guy.

comment #5

VictorLazlo says ...

Good thing Polanski didn't fight pit bulls, then he'd really be finished.

comment #6

George Prager says ...

I eagerly await the Law & Order episode that shamelessly exploits this whole mess.

comment #7

le corbeau says ...

By the way, remember Jeff claiming that the 1973 rape was the only time Polanski ever screwed somebody underage (unlike Michael Jackson, who we all "know" did it many times)?

Find Polanski's autobiography. Look up "Kinski, Nastassja."

comment #8

George Prager says ...

If Klaus Kinski's "All I Need is Love" had an index, I would tell you to look up Kinski, Nastassja. Now that is some weird shit.

comment #9

Mark says ...

Jeffrey's pass to Polanski and condemnation of Jacko isn't because the former made only one mistake, instead of two. It's because the former's victim had developed breasts instead of a prepubescent penis. Sure there's also a little in that Chinatown means more to him than Thriller, but for longtime HE readers to think that Jeffrey doesn't accept a little misogyny, is like saying that Mel Gibson is cool w/ the Jews. That cat is out of the bag.

comment #10

Gordon27 says ...

Mark - the disengenuousness is even more obvious when Jeff continually harps on "just think of what the victim wants!" In Jackson's case, the victims all recanted their testimony. Granted, we realize that's because he paid them off (but, then, Polanski also paid his victim), but it just shows why "what the victim wants (or claims to want)" isn't a major factor in determining punishment.

comment #11

Gordon27 says ...

"It is a sad day for documentary filmmakers when something like this happens."

You know, just because somebody picks up a camera and films somebody talking to them, it doesn't make it a documentary. Documentaries have extensive research; they don't just accept statements that conform to their bias without any independent verification or evidence. Sure, these things can slip up, but keep in the mind that they already had to re-edit the documentary to remove libellous claims about a sitting judge. I'd like to believe her motives were in the right place, even though she openly admits to her own bias, but it certainly seems as if this documentary was sloppily researched. (I thought that when I watched it too, but since its release, it seems to be confirming it several times over.)

comment #12

mmcshrry says ...

Bill Wyman's Salon article from February 19, 2009 is available at

http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2009/02/19/roman_polanski_documentary/index.html

It is his take on the Zenovich doc and it is titled "Whitewashing Roman Polanski".

The key paragraphs---

"In "Wanted and Desired," Zenovich casts Polanski, whose face repeatedly fills the screen with a Byronic luminosity, as a tragic figure, a child survivor of the Holocaust haunted by the murder of his wife, the actress Sharon Tate, at the hands of the Manson family. His friends are uniformly supportive: "This is somebody who could not be a rapist!" one exclaims.

"As for the judge, Laurence J. Rittenband, why, he's a risible self-promoter. If Polanski is Byron, the judge is an Oliver Hardy or a Billy Gilbert, all but twiddling his tie in a series of ever-more-comical photographs. He actually kept a scrapbook about the celebrities who came through his Santa Monica courtroom. He had two girlfriends.

"Now, that's one way to portray those two men -- and one that Polanski's current lawyers would prefer. But there's another way, too: You could show one as a child-sex predator who drugged a 13-year-old girl with quaaludes and champagne; lured her to pose for naked photographs; ignoring her protests, had sex with her; and then anally raped her.

"The other could be cast as a canny jurist -- possibly a brilliant one, smart enough to have gone from high school directly to Harvard Law and graduated so young he wasn't allowed to take the bar exam -- who may have gone too far in his intent to block off the legal escape hatches celebrity wrongdoers use.

"The truth is somewhere in between, but it's probably a lot closer to the second version. Yet that initial stark contrast -- the tragic hero, the goofy jurist -- permeates the film."

comment #13

Jeffrey Wells says ...

One way or the other, the torch and pitchforkers will find a way to keep it all comin'. Is this an election? Are we counting votes here? More to the point, what would a truly devout follower of the teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth say? I'll tell you what he/she would say. Throw the little fucking dwarf in the clink!

comment #14

arturobandini2 says ...

We've become an extremely vengeful society since 9/11, haven't we? Our rage stems from our impotence in the face of terrorists, international despots, Wall Street, botched elections, rogue politicians, tabloid media, H1N1, healthcare reform, redneckism ... shall I go on? Roman Polanski is a very convenient target all of a sudden, the one thing America can kick to the ground and stomp on and feel good about vanquishing: a foreigner, a celebrity, a despoiler of our children. But I ask this: Who is more sinister and posed a bigger threat to America -- Polanski or Dick Cheney? Who made a greater contribution to American culture? Of those who want to castrate the dwarf, I wonder what they think we should do with Darth.

comment #15

Mark says ...

arturobandini2 - I too must shake my head at the fervor of some of the castrators, many of whom sound as if they are to personally gain via the pending punishment. E.g., Gloria Allred wringing her hands, leaning into the camera of the Today show, and screaming "This was a crime against California!" Please. This was a the date rape of a minor, not Enron fleecing the state 8 years ago during the rolling blackouts.

That said, Jeffrey will never convince me that the inconsistencies between his Polanski and Jacko positions has to do with anything besides the victim's sex.

comment #16

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

Congrats, apologists, you get your wish:

LA DA Cooley Says EVERYTHING Is On The Table
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/in-los-angeles-district-attorney-talks-of-polanski-charges/

Steve Cooley responds specifically to Weinstein's "so-called crime" line while also saying that "there's five or six more serious charges" to be dealt with.

In other words, had Polanski simply agreed to come back ASAP to face the charges and had his defenders kept their ignorant apologies to themselves, he might have escaped serious jail time.

Now that they are making themselves into a giant stereotypical "lefty Hollywood" target and bringing more attention to the case, Cooley doesn't want to be seen as the guy who let an admitted child rapist skate on a suspended sentence.

Perfection!

comment #17

Gordon27 says ...

"More to the point, what would a truly devout follower of the teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth say?"

Jeff's dismissiveness would be irritating if it weren't *so* absurdly one-note that it just makes me laugh. Yes, Jeff, everybody who think that Polanski is not being railroaded by an out-of-control justice system is obviously a frothing at the mouth right-wing nutjob Christian. It's obvious just from the fact that they don't understand: he's Roman frickin' Polanski!

Speaking of the correlation between Polanski and Michael Jackson, does anybody remember the 'South Park' episode... it's not the one about MJ, it's about something else, but they keep cutting back to a talk show, and there's a guy in the crowd who keeps bringing up Michael Jackson, culminating with, "You know, who cares, even if he did molest some kids... he's Michael Jackson!"

As with many great 'South Park' moments, it's the vocal performance that really sells it.

comment #18

Jackrabbit Slim says ...

Katha Pollitt of The Nation:

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/anotherthing/479379/roman_polanski_has_a_lot_of_friends

"The widespread support for Polanski shows the liberal cultural elite at its preening, fatuous worst. They may make great movies, write great books, and design beautiful things, they may have lots of noble humanitarian ideas and care, in the abstract, about all the right principles: equality under the law, for example. But in this case, they're just the white culture-class counterpart of hip-hop fans who stood by R. Kelly and Chris Brown and of sports fans who automatically support their favorite athletes when they're accused of beating their wives and raping hotel workers.

No wonder Middle America hates them."

comment #19

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