My heart got broken when I read yesterday that people like Martin Scorcese and Pedro Almodóvar were advocating for the release of Roman Polanski. More than 100 movers and shakers of the film industry signed a petition objecting to the fugitive rapist's arrest. wh
So I went looking for the petition put together by the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques and this is what I found in their wording: Cette arrestation fait suite à un mandat d’arrêt américain prononcé contre le cinéaste en 1978, dans une affaire de moeurs.
"Un affaires de moeurs" or a "case of morals". Really? Let me repeat myself:
This is not a case about Polanski sad past as a Holocaust survivor or a great director who had a moral lapse. This is about a fugitive child-rapist who skipped sentencing.
Here's the growing list of rape apologists in Hollywood:
Woody Allen
There's a joke in here somewhere. Cheated on his then life-partner, Mia Farrow, with her then barely legal adopted daughter Soon-Yi. It's never been clear how young she was when they first had "consensual incest".
Pedro Almodóvar
"Tie me up, tie me down" created a firestorm over it's trivialization of rape. His movies have also focused on incest, necrophilia and assorted fetishes. And yet he also gave us "Mujeres al bordo" and quite frankly, am really disappointed with his name being on this list
Wes Anderson
Jean-Jacques Annaud
Fanny Ardant
Asia Argento
Darren Aronofsky
Monica Bellucci
Alfonso Cuarón
Interesting that he went from "Y tu mamá también " a movie built around sodomy as a rite-of-passage, to directing 2 Harry Potter movies.
Jonathan Demme
This one broke my heart, but then I found this in Wikipedia: Demme broke into feature film working for exploitation film producer Roger Corman from 1971 to 1976. That explains a lot.
Stephen Frears
Totally heart-breaking. Although I was traumatized by "Prick Up Your Ears", he gave us "My Beautiful Laundrette" and Daniel Day Lewis, "Sammy and Rosie Get Laid" and my first date with the father of my children, "Dangerous Liaisons", "High Fidelity" and "The Queen". Damn!
Terry Gilliam
He's been dead to me since Brazil, but ... damn!
Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu
Another heart-breaker. He co-wrote 21 Grams.
John Landis
Whenever I think of John Landis I think of those kids who got decapitated in one of his films.
David Lynch
Twin Peaks may explain his apologia to rape
Michael Mann
Jeanne Moreau
Richard Pena (Directeur Festival de NY)
Yasmina Reza
Julian Schnabel
Interesting data point: Two of his kids have had high-profile relationships when they were "barely legal" with people 20+ years older than them.
Martin Scorsese
Mindboggling, but then I think of "Taxi Driver" and it all makes sense.
Tilda Swinton
Bertrand Tavernier
Wim Wenders
+
Isabelle Adjani
Isabelle Huppert
Neil Jordan
Milan Kundera
Bernard-Henri Lévy
From defender of Ché to rapist apologist? Keep it classy Bernard.
Sam Mendes
Seriously?
Mike Nichols
Ironic that he directed Whoopie Goldberg in her one woman show, the same one that has a character that is not only a child-rape victim but a botched abortion survivor!
BTW, Whoopie declared that Polanki's crime wasn't rape "rape".
Salman Rushdie
Fame whore!
Steven Soderbergh
He was executive producer of Wanted and Desired, the documentary that has been used to "exonerate" Polanski from his crimes. Interestingly enough, he did a film featuring Sasha Grey, one of the stars of some of the most violent porn being produced in the United States.
Diane von Furstenberg
Total, major, let down; but then again: She was parta fixture of he Studio 54 sex-drugs-etc scene.
The whole list of SACDs petition:
Erika Abrams, Fatih Akin, Stephane Allagnon, Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, Gianni Amelio, Wess Anderson, Roger Andrieux, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Alexandre Arcady, Fanny Ardant, Asia Argento, Darren Aronofsky, Olivier Assayas, Alexander Astruc, Gabriel Auer, Alexandre Babel, Jean-François Balmer, Luc Barnier, Christophe Barratier, Xavier Beauvois, Liria Begeja, Gilles Behat, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Marco Bellochio, Monica Bellucci, Véra Belmont, Djamel Bennecib, Alain Berliner, Pascal Berney, Giuseppe Bertolucci, Lucien Blacher, Catherine Boissière, Thierry Boscheron, Freddy Bossy, Patrick Bouchitey, Cédric Bouchoucha, Paul Boujenah, Katia Boutin (Membre de l'équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski "The Ghost"), Jacques Bral, Patrick Braoudé, Guila Braoudé, Anne Burki, André Buytaers, Christian Carion, Henning Carlsen, Jean-michel Carre, Lionel Cassan (Membre de l'équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski "The Ghost"), Mathieu Celary, Teco Celio, Christophe Champclaux, Patrice Chéreau, Brigitte Chesneau, Catherine Chouchan, Elie Chouraqui, Souleymane Cissé, Jean- Pierre Clech, Henri Codenie, Robert Cohen, Alain Corneau, Jérôme Cornuau, Guy Courtecuisse (Membre de l'équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski "The Ghost"), Miguel Courtois, Morgan Crestel, Dominique Crevecoeur, Alfonso Cuaron, Frédéric Damien, Sophie Danon, Luc et Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Hervé de Luze (Membre de l'équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski "The Ghost"), Benoît Delmas, Jonathan Demme, Dante Desarthe, Romain Desbiens, Thomas Desjonquères (Membre de l'équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski "The Ghost"), Alexandre Desplat, Rosalinde et Michel Deville, Guillaume D'Ham (Membre de l'équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski "The Ghost"), Christelle Didier (Membre de l'équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski "The Ghost"), Kathrin DiPaola, Ariel Dorfman, Georges Dybman, Jacques Fansten, Joël Farges, Gianluca Farinelli (Cinémathèque de de Bologne) , Etienne Faure, Michel Ferry, Jean Teddy Filippe (Membre de l'équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski "The Ghost"), Martine Fitoussi, Scott Foundas, Stephen Frears, Thierry Frémaux, Sam Gabarski, René Gainville, Matteo Garone, Tony Gatlif, Catherine Gaudin-Montalto, Costa Gavras, Jean-Marc Ghanassia, Terry Gilliam, Christian Gion, Stéphane Gizard, Christophe Goumand, Marc Guidoni, Dimitri Haulet, Buck Henry, David Heyman, Laurent Heynemann, Dominique Hollier, Isabelle Hontebeyrie, Frédéric Horiszny, Robert Hossein, Jean-Loup Hubert, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Gilles Jacob, Just Jaeckin, Anne Jeandet, Alain Jessua, Arthur Joffé, Pierre Jolivet, Kent Jones (World Cinema Foundation) , Paola Jullian, Roger Kahane, Nelly Kaplan, Wong Kar Waï, Ladislas Kijno, Richard Klebinder, Harmony Korinne, Jan Kounen, Diane Kurys, Emir Kusturica, Jean Labadie, John Landis, Claude Lanzmann, David Lanzmann, André Larquié, Françoise Lassale, Carole Laure, Christine Laurent-Blixen, Emilien Lazaron (Membre de l'équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski "The Ghost"), Vinciane Lecocq, Patrice Leconte, Claude Lelouch, Gérard Lenne, Pierre et Renée Lhomme, Marceline Loridan-Ivens, David Lynch, Michael Mann, François Margolin, Jean-Pierre Marois, Tonie Marshall, Mario Martone, Christine Mathis, Nicolas Mauvernay, Christopher, Spencer et Claire Mc Andrew, Allison Michel, Radu Mihaileanu, Jean-Louis Milesi, Claude Miller, Jean-Marc Modeste , Mario Monicelli, Jeanne Moreau, Christian Mvogo Mbarga, Juliette Nicolas-Donnard, Sandra Nicolier, Michel Ocelot, Eric Pape, Abner Pastoll, Alexander Payne, Richard Pena (Directeur Festival de NY) , Olivier Père, Suzana Peric (Membre de l'équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski "The Ghost"), Jacques Perrin, Thomas Pibarot, Anne Pigeon Bormans, Michele Placido, Sabrina Poidevin, Agnès Catherine Poirier, Harry Prenger, Gilbert Primet, Philippe Radault, Tristan Rain, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Raphael Rebibo, Jo Reymen, Laurence Reymond, Yasmina Reza, Christiane Rhein, Jacques Richard, Avital Ronell, Laurence Roulet, Marc Saffar, Gabriela Salazar Scherman, Walter Salles, Jean-Paul Salomé, Jean-Frédéric Samie, Marc Sandberg, Jerry Schatzberg, Julian Schnabel, Barbet Schroeder, Pierre Schumacher, Ettore Scola, Luis Gustavo Sconza Zaratin Soares, Martin Scorsese, Frank Segier, Guy Seligmann, Julien Seri, Pierre Silvant, Charlotte Silvera, Abderrahmane Sissako, Paolo Sorrentino, Roch Stephanik, Guillaume Stirn, Jean-Marc Surcin, Tilda Swinton, Jean-Charles Tacchella, Radovan Tadic, Danis Tanovic, Bertrand Tavernier, André Techiné, Cécile Telerman, Alain Terzian, Valentine Theret, Pascal Thomas, Giuseppe Tornatore, Serge Toubiana, Nadine Trintignant, Tom Tykwer, Alexandre Tylski, Jaques Vallotton, Betrand Van Effenterre, Jean-Pierre Vergne, Sarah Vermande, Gilles Walusinski, Wim Wenders, Anaïse Wittmann, Arnaud Xainte, Christian Zeender.
Et les organisations professionnelles
- l'Académie des César
- l’API (Association des producteurs Indépendants)
- l'ARP
- l’ARRF – Association des Réalisateurs et réalisatrices de Films - Belgique
- la Cinémathèque Française
- la Cinémathèque de Dijon / Cinémathèque Jean Douchet
- le Festival de Cannes
- le Festival des Rencontres internationales du cinéma de patrimoine de Vincennes
- le Fonds Culturel Franco Américain
- le Groupe 25 images
- Members of the European Producers Club
- la SACD
- Le Bureau National du SFA
- le SPI
- l'Union des producteurs de films
- L’équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski « Ghost »
- Pathé
- Scott Foundas (LA Weekly)
Last but not least, I leave you with Roman Polanski's own words about the "affaire des mouers" that "victimized him":
“If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!”
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