...add him to my boycott list.
I'm going to be reading alot of books. The film industry is less and less appealing to me.
"Demand". Unbelievable.
According to that article, you'll have to add Pedro Almodovar, Martin Scorsese, Monica Bellucci, Tilda Swinton, David Lynch, Jonathan Demme, John Landis, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Wim Wenders.
Yep.
Well I guess there are a lot of movies I will not be seeing!
The truth is, I DO believe that individuals can make a difference.
Deciding not to patronize a film or project while also writing letters and expressing opinions can get a message across. If we really commit to doing it.
There are people in this thread who work in the film industry. Under the law our names should be of no more or less importance than those names PalJoey listed. But since when are criminal cases determined by public polling, or a poll of celebrities? Polanski evaded the law by fleeing the country. He should face the consequences and the consequences of the original charges in a court of law, within the judicial system, at least if we are going to have judicial systems that work.
That list isn't so hard to avoid. Since I really haven't weighed-in, since creating the thread, I decided to just copy and paste my Facebook Note on the topic.
Roman Polanski - Debra Winger and her ilk.
The festival has been “unfairly exploited” to secure Polanski’s arrest over a case that is “all but dead,” said U.S. actress Debra Winger, president of the film event’s jury.
“Despite the philistine nature of the collusion that has now occurred, we came to honor Roman Polanski as a great artist,” Winger said in a statement read to reporters.
“We hope today this latest order will be dropped,” Winger said. “It is based on a three-decade-old case that is all but dead except for a minor technicality.”
With the above statements, Debra Winger has relinquished any right to ever speak on behalf of any issue concerning women or children. EVER. Her opinion is negated. It is worthless. She is worthless.
For some inexplicable reason, there are those that believe that since Polanski is a "great artist", he is somehow above the law. And, if that isn't their stance, then you get the "he was a victim of the Holocaust" routine. Or, it was so long ago, it's time to give it a rest. And, don't forget the horrors he had to endure with the murders of his unborn son and beautiful wife! Of course, none of that has anything to do with justifying his crimes. What crimes? Well, sodomizing a 13 year-old, for one. And, how about fleeing the country to avoid sentencing, for another?
Why this girl's mother wasn't culpable in all this, is a mystery to me. There is, at a minimum, an issue of neglect and/or child endangerment. Regardless of that, Roman Polanski, according to the victim, and the grand jury who took testimony, fed booze and drugs to a child, then raped her, repeatedly, against her wishes. A child, by the way, who contradicting his own creepy claim (and the additional creepy claim of creepy Angelica Houston), that she looked 23, Polanski asked her mother if he could photograph her for French Vogue. Now, I wonder why he thought he had to ask a 23 year-old's mother if he could take her photo? None of what the girl claimed in her testimony was denied by Polanski. Only whether or not it was consensual. And, of course, his ridiculous claim of how old he thought she was. Yes, he settled with the victim and her family (they sued him); and yes, he entered a plea bargain, which altered and minimized the original grand jury's indictment. But because so much time has passed, being a fugitive from justice and the rape of a child (or let's called it "unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor") is now a "minor technicality" to Winger and her ilk? It's to be simply dismissed? Why is that? Because Polanski made some films that people think are great? So what? Because the victim wants the whole thing dropped? So what? Because Polanski claims the judge (who's dead) was going to go back on the plea? So what? Doesn't Debra Winger and her ilk know how the justice system works in the United States? The victim and her family didn't bring the case against Polanski. All their (paid for) forgiveness means absolutely nothing. The state of California (the people of California) brought these charges against Polanski, not his victim or her family. How she or they feel about things, is entirely irrelevant. If Polanski had issues with what was promised him in the plea, escaping from the country isn't the way to handle that. So, because Polanski could afford to avoid sentencing all this time, the state is supposed to just give him some kind of a pass? Why? Because he's suffered enough? What does that mean? He wasn't able to come to Hollywood to accept his Oscar? Poor thing. What kind of nuts are these, who are more concerned with their film-festival honors, than the law? Frankly, people in the arts spend an inordinate amount of time engaged in self-congratulation. Most of it, utterly unwarranted. I'm just of the belief that pedophilia deserves to be punished. Even if you did it 30 years ago. Even if you can afford to avoid being sentenced. Even if you do have an Oscar.
Debra Winger can now go back to the world of obscurity, where she belongs
BRAVO!
Thank you for sharing that!
I just want to add Debra Winger's name to the, "What if it was your daughter?" list.
Exactly JG2!
Well put, JB2. I agree with everything you said.
I'm also wondering about something ... in addition to the supposed European mindset that drugging and forcing yourself on a 13-year-old is entirely acceptable (WTF?), I'm also wondering if this isn't an "age" thing. Not completely, mind you. There are younger folks, here and elsewhere, who seem to want to give him a free pass. But most of them are in the movie biz or avid movie fans.
Most (not all) of the others who are protesting his detainment seem to be of this old "pinch the secretary's butt" school of thought, meaning they're of Polanski's generation or thereabouts.
I'm really glad, for this reason, that certain things in our culture are dying out to some degree. The way women and girls were treated decades ago. The way blacks were treated. The way everyone smoked incessantly and swilled their booze. The way they treated gay people. Etc.
It's not gone yet, by any means, but the "this is perfectly fine and okay to do this, because everyone feels this way" mentality is in that aged and aging group.
Buh-bye, gramps. Time to let these dinosaurs become extinct.
I still marvel at Bewitched episodes, where more drinking went on, than on Dynasty or Dallas!
I know what you mean, Besty. And agree with you.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/3/05
One of my best friends, in response to the state of personal turmoil I can sometimes feel in response to the state of the world, likes to say, "Just remember, every day another old bigot dies."
There may well have been judicial misconduct.
But no misconduct was greater than allowing Polanski to cop a plea to the least of his charges. His crime was graphic, manipulative and heinous, and he got a pass. It's unbelievable, really, that his soft-headed apologists are rooting for him to get another one.
Hear, hear!
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
See, JohnBoy, I had to stop reading the minute I got to: With the above statements, Debra Winger has relinquished any right to ever speak on behalf of any issue concerning women or children. EVER.
Wrong. Fail.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
So much for Hollywood "values." These people disgust me. I would join with the others in this thread in saying that I would boycott these people's films-- and stage appearances--- but I've been doing that for a long time already.
I get what JohnBoy is saying, Namo.
Maybe she hasn't technically lost her RIGHT, but she sure has lost all credibility, in my opinion.
Not that she had much to begin with...
Marquise, I was going to post that article (which is Front Page of the LA Times).
Many here in LA agree with the sentiments of the Article (at least those I have discussed it with). I think it is a very vocal minority who supports Polanksi.
I was wondering to myself whether the Governor would pardon him one his way out of office...
The hypocrisy here is disgraceful. I'm sure there are thousands of convicted sex offenders who have served their time and are living with the consequences if their offense(s). They have to register their place of residence, and they are shunned by society. Many municipalities restrict where they can live and where they can go. Why aren't the Hollywood elite fighting for them?
I sat down early this morning and watched ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED and then came across the article online on the LA TIMES website.
Polanski is one of my favorite directors. ROSEMARY'S BABY, CHINATOWN, REPULSION, CUL DE SAC and THE PIANIST are amongst my favorite films but I consider myself intelligent and educated enough to know that just because I admire the man as an artist that it doesn't excuse what he did as a human being as a man.
I feel sorry for him not because he was arrested but because he's ultimately a very tormented and troubled man who seriously needs help with whatever inner demons pushed him to commit the crime to begin with.
"I feel sorry for him not because he was arrested but because he's ultimately a very tormented and troubled man who seriously needs help with whatever inner demons pushed him to commit the crime to begin with."
I save my sympathy for his victim. I can't find any sympathy for an unrepentant rapist who fled the jurisdiction.
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