As you may already know, Roman Polanski is an award winning Director and probably one of the most gifted in Hollywood today. He is also famous for one other thing, being a wanted man. In 1977 The Academy Award-winning director pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl, then fled the United States for France to escape penalty. The victim’s family had allegedly sued the director and received an undisclosed settlement though a warrant was issued in 1978 for his arrest.
Polanski lived in France for decades, even declining to collect his Academy Award for Best Director of The Pianist (2003). This weekend upon traveling to Switzerland’s Zurich Film Festival to attend a tribute, Polanski was detained by the Swiss authorities.
“According to court documents, Polanski, his lawyer and the prosecutor thought they’d worked out a deal that would spare Polanski from prison and let the young victim avoid a public trial.
But the original judge in the case, who is now dead, first sent the director to maximum-security prison for 42 days while he underwent psychological testing. Then, on the eve of his sentencing, the judge told attorneys he was inclined to send Polanski back to prison for another 48 days.
Polanski fled the United States for France, where he was born.” – From CNN.com
My thoughts:
According to the victim – Samantha Geimer, she wants the case thrown out and has been completely humiliated by the bloodsucking media whenever this history is brought to light. Rather than see Polanski rot in jail she wishes it would go away. Samantha, a 45 year old mother of three says she is disturbed by how the criminal case has been handled. In her own words:
“Every time this case is brought to the attention of the Court, great focus is made of me, my family, my mother and others. That attention is not pleasant to experience and is not worth maintaining over some irrelevant legal nicety, the continuation of the case.” – CNN.com
For us movie lovers this will probably be the end of the line for one of the greats. Regardless of the crime, if convicted we can say goodbye to gems like The Pianist, Tess and Chinatown. The case being so old rings hollow to me, it seems more the attempt of someone seeking fame for canning Polanski than the seeking of justice for Samantha.
Read more on this at: CNN.com
Written by Greg Dragon – who has written 365 reviews on Spicy Movie Dogs.
Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.
