Polanski Bail Agreed

Published on November 25, 2009 by Martyn Conterio · View Comments

polanski517 French-Polish director Roman Polanski, arrested last September for a 1970s sex crime involving a 13 year old girl, has reached bail conditions with Swiss authorities. Associated Press report the Swiss courts have agreed a whopping $ 4.5 million dollar fee to keep the director under “house arrest” at his swish pad in Gstaad. It is said “electronic monitoring” is part of the condition.

This is definitely the most sensational film-related news story of the year. In 1977, Polanski fled the United States after facing charges of rape. Remarkably, his directing career continued. In 2002, he won major prizes at Cannes and the Oscars. Harrison Ford travelled to Paris to hand him the Best Director award, since if Polanski set foot in the US, he’d be arrested. The film world and the victim may have forgiven him, but the California legal system had not.

It was with a rather bitter irony, that when Polanski travelled to the Zurich Film Festival in September, he was arrested on an outstanding warrant issued by Californian courts with the aid of the Swiss authorities. The subsequent outrage turned to reflection. As compatriot and fellow director Luc Besson noted, “Nobody is above the law.”

Polanski’s latest film – starring Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor – entitled The Ghost, is currently in post-production. Rumour has it, Polanski was directing from his prison cell. Whilst this saga is long from over, it is surely a sign that this could be the great director’s last film. It is a controversial, event-filled life, with an ending yet to be written.