Deadline‘s Peter Bart reported today that Roman Polanski, 87, is “resolutely pursuing [an] appeal” about the Motion Picture Academy’s 2018 decision to expel him from Academy membership.
Polanski feels he was denied due process, but of course “due process” had nothing to do with it — he was ousted because wokesters and #MeToo-ers have blacklisted him, plain and simple. Not just over the 43 year-old Samantha Geimer case but other reports about sexual misconduct, also dating back to the ’70s and ’80s.
The Academy appeal is headed for Los Angeles Superior Court tomorrow (Tuesday, 8.25).
HE response: I have seen Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy (aka J’Accuse) twice online. It’s an immaculate period piece and an indisputably brilliant film in pretty much every respect, not to mention a highly persuasive argument against mob-driven injustice and ant-Semitism — easily the finest film I’ve seen so far this year. A mature way of processing this dichotomy would be to say there are two entities to consider — Polanski the flawed human being (and who isn’t?) vs. Polanski the artist. A mature conclusion would be that it is rash and unwise to throw the artist baby out with the flawed-human bathwater.
On 4.2.20 I posted an essay called “Open Letter to Polanski Haters.”
Consider also a 6.21.12 N.Y. Times article called “Good Art, Bad People“, written by Charles McGrath.
