Polanski – Genius, Gifted, Tragic And Controversial
Published on September 28, 2009 by Alex Wagner · View Comments
I remember my first day of screenwriting class. After sitting down and introducing myself I was given a copy of the script for Chinatown. I was told that this was the most perfect script ever written. I remember my teacher referring to it as the holy grail of scripts. I had seen the film before but I’d never noticed how perfect the writing actually was until I watched it again with the script in hand.
Roman Polanski did uncredited work on the Chinatown script before directing it. It remains his masterpiece, which is saying a lot when you consider the man also wrote and directed Rosemary’s Baby some years before. Not to mention directing The Pianist back in 2002.
Yes, Roman Polanski is responsible for giving cinema some of the greatest moments it has ever or will ever see. There is no doubting that he is a huge talent but his life has been one big roller-coaster ride to say the least.
One can’t even imagine the horrors he must have witnessed during the Holocaust. No film or documentary will ever be able to bring across what it was like to actually be there. The pain he must have felt when he found out that his mother had died in Auschwitz is beyond anything I could ever imagine.
Then in 1969 his wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by the infamous Charles Manson gang while he was out of town. This must have been devastating for him after the joy and success that Rosemary’s Baby enjoyed.
It was in 1977 that the controversy in his life began after it was alleged that he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl called Samantha Gailey he had hired for a photo shoot.
Even though Polanksi admitted to having sex with a minor he argued that it was consensual saying that she was “not unresponsive”.
Gailey said that she was drugged with painkillers and made to drink copious amounts of champagne before Polanski assaulted her in an attack that she described as “very scary”.
Polanksi pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse but fled the United States to escape a prison sentence. He hasn’t returned since and when he was won the Oscar for best director for The Pianist it was Harrison Ford whom he worked with on Frantic that accepted on his behalf.
Roman Polanski has lived the past 30 years as one of the world’s most famous fugitives. Now it seems the past has finally caught up with the director and I can’t really see how this arrest does much good to anyone.
British novelist Robert Harris has been working closely with Polanski these last few months on a film adaptation of his book The Ghost due for release in 2010. Robert Harris told the Guardian that there was “Something very odd, very suspicious” about the arrest. He also added that…
“To my knowledge, Roman in recent years has travelled to Germany, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Greece, Russia and China. So why now, all of a sudden, is an elderly man grabbed off a plane and stuffed into jail?”
Robert Harris also stated that…
“This is a high-profile action designed to send out some sort of message to someone somewhere. No one condones what happened in the 70s, but I think this is pretty appalling”
Members of the Swiss film industry have also spoken out after the director was arrested while arriving to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich film festival. The Swiss Association of Directors called it “a grotesque judicial farce and a monstrous cultural scandal”.
While the Association of Film Directors and Script Writers said that the whole thing was “a slap in the face for the entire cultural community in Switzerland”.
Polanksi used his phone call to alert his wife, French actress Emmanuelle Seigner. She departed for Switzerland almost immediately leaving their two young children back home.
It’s without doubt a very strange situation we have here. Seeing as Polanski has travelled freely throughout Europe for the past 30 years why has he been arrested now? It has only been since 2005 that America issued an international arrest warrant on Polanski. Why wasn’t it done earlier if it was so important?
Obviously having sex with a minor is a terrible crime. Nobody sane would ever dispute that claim but I am convinced that this affair runs much deeper than just bringing a man to justice on an arrest warrant that stretched for over 30 years.
I’m sure that over the next few weeks’ details will emerge that prove there is something slightly weird here.
Is it really worth getting Polanksi extradited back to the US to serve a jail sentence?
Doesn’t the American justice system have anything better to do?
Is there really such a shortage in crime?
It will be interesting to hear what Hollywood has to say about the situation. Actors like Mia Farrow, Jack Nicholson, Harrison Ford, Johnny Depp and Adrien Brody all worked with him. I wonder what they think?
In 2008 Samantha Gailey herself said:
“I think he’s sorry, I think he knows it was wrong. I don’t think he’s a danger to society. I don’t think he needs to be locked up forever and no one has ever come out ever – besides me – and accused him of anything. It was 30 years ago now. It’s an unpleasant memory … but I can live with it.”
So if Gailey herself can say something like this why the hell would there be the need to arrest him now?
The legacy that Roman Polanski will leave behind after all is said and done is one full of wonderful films and personal controversy. I just hope that his personal life doesn’t overshadow his professional life because as a director and writer he is one of the best in the world.
Tags: arrested, feature, retrospective, Roman Polanski
Readers Comments (View Comments)
Latest Headlines
- Buried – International Trailer
- First Look: Pirates of the Caribbean
- Bonded By Blood – Review
- Chilly French Poster For ‘Let
- Do You Want To Know Why Darren Arono
- Joe Johnston Reveals How Captain Ame
- Bonded By Blood – New Clip Plu
- Win Death-Tube On DVD
- First Look: David Tennant in Fright
- Cherry Tree Lane – UK Trailer
- FilmShaft Exclusive: Director Sandy
- JJ Abrams Developing ‘Alcatraz
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt Circles Lead in
- ‘Amer’ Directors Name Ne
- The Walking Dead Stagger Into Season
- Win Death Note 1 & 2 On Blu-Ray
Coming Soon…
I remember recieving Chinatown on my first day of screenwriting class too. It really is a masterpiece.
I remember recieving Chinatown on my first day of screenwriting class too. It really is a masterpiece.
Polanski changed the ending…to a much better one.
Polanski changed the ending…to a much better one.
It probably happened now because Polanski's lawyers when trying to get the charges dismissed among other arguments used the reasoning that “he's travelling freely anyway, so just let him go”. So it probably became more of an imperative to take action as well as knowing his schedule. But he did drug and rape a child, so even if they have to forge attending to other justice of a petty thief or pot smoker, I think it's beneficial that they attend to this. He sociopathically disregarded the impact a rape would have on a child and continued to “date” children (Natash Kininski). Perhaps the question should be not that we have other things to attend to with our justice system, but maybe we can have better recipients of our empathy. We can give Polanski the empathy he gave his victim.
It probably happened now because Polanski's lawyers when trying to get the charges dismissed among other arguments used the reasoning that “he's travelling freely anyway, so just let him go”. So it probably became more of an imperative to take action as well as knowing his schedule. But he did drug and rape a child, so even if they have to forge attending to other justice of a petty thief or pot smoker, I think it's beneficial that they attend to this. He sociopathically disregarded the impact a rape would have on a child and continued to “date” children (Natash Kininski). Perhaps the question should be not that we have other things to attend to with our justice system, but maybe we can have better recipients of our empathy. We can give Polanski the empathy he gave his victim.
and hes a pervert who sodomized a child
and hes a pervert who sodomized a child
I just can't agree with you on this one. For once, I think the US is stepping up and trying to make the statement that it will not just sit by and continue to let someone flaunt their complete disregard for the law–especially a law that is actually really purposeful and is there to protect people. His achievements in his career do not excuse what he did. His victim stated specifically that this being drawn out for decades is difficult for her, which would not be an issue if Polanski had accepted the consequences of what he did. HE is the one drawing this out and continuing to hurt her. She, unfortunately, has come to the point where she has given up and can't imagine a world where he doesn't get to do whatever he wants. That is sad. With all the celebrities that get to do as they please with little to no consequence, it's about time that another joins the ranks of those that receive their punishment (like Michael Vick).
Here's another thing to think about: everyone ELSE keeps saying he's sorry, not Polanski himself. Just because no one else has complained since this victim, who says he has not victimized others? Few are brave enough to call out someone so famous and, apparently, powerful on their wrongdoings, especially when it is clear that nothing will happen if you do. I would not be surprised if the victim is trying to pull out of the ordeal because his lawyers offered her something for it.
It boils down to this: he was already tried and convicted, that is done, there is nothing the victim can do about that now. Then that is compounded by the fact that he fled the country, adding another crime. He should have to do time for his transgressions like anyone else.
Also, as far as the justice system having better things to do, it's not as if there are police officers and DEA and ATF agents out hunting for him. The people that take care of crime are still out taking care of business as usual. Nice try, though.
I just can't agree with you on this one. For once, I think the US is stepping up and trying to make the statement that it will not just sit by and continue to let someone flaunt their complete disregard for the law–especially a law that is actually really purposeful and is there to protect people. His achievements in his career do not excuse what he did. His victim stated specifically that this being drawn out for decades is difficult for her, which would not be an issue if Polanski had accepted the consequences of what he did. HE is the one drawing this out and continuing to hurt her. She, unfortunately, has come to the point where she has given up and can't imagine a world where he doesn't get to do whatever he wants. That is sad. With all the celebrities that get to do as they please with little to no consequence, it's about time that another joins the ranks of those that receive their punishment (like Michael Vick).
Here's another thing to think about: everyone ELSE keeps saying he's sorry, not Polanski himself. Just because no one else has complained since this victim, who says he has not victimized others? Few are brave enough to call out someone so famous and, apparently, powerful on their wrongdoings, especially when it is clear that nothing will happen if you do. I would not be surprised if the victim is trying to pull out of the ordeal because his lawyers offered her something for it.
It boils down to this: he was already tried and convicted, that is done, there is nothing the victim can do about that now. Then that is compounded by the fact that he fled the country, adding another crime. He should have to do time for his transgressions like anyone else.
Also, as far as the justice system having better things to do, it's not as if there are police officers and DEA and ATF agents out hunting for him. The people that take care of crime are still out taking care of business as usual. Nice try, though.
You raise some very good points here eiganomegami, Polanski, whilst undeniably a genius behind the camera, has indeed committed a heinous crime – and one which he quite readily admitted to at the time. This does seem to have been overlooked by the gliteratri, although the question still remains – why now?
There are indeed records of attempts to jail Polanski in the past, however we're not talking about amateurs, we're talking about the US justice system – probably the most far reaching system of it's kind in the world. So why suddenly is Polanski apprehended in a country he's so readily visited in the past?
You raise some very good points here eiganomegami, Polanski, whilst undeniably a genius behind the camera, has indeed committed a heinous crime – and one which he quite readily admitted to at the time. This does seem to have been overlooked by the gliteratri, although the question still remains – why now?
There are indeed records of attempts to jail Polanski in the past, however we're not talking about amateurs, we're talking about the US justice system – probably the most far reaching system of it's kind in the world. So why suddenly is Polanski apprehended in a country he's so readily visited in the past?
I admit, it does seem very bizarre that, after all this time, he is suddenly
apprehended. However, it is my understanding that it was made known well in
advance that he was going to be attending a film festival there and the US
took that time to negotiate with the country to have him apprehended.
I think it comes down to a new generation of law enforcement taking the
issue more seriously than previous ones. Then again, I'm not in on the whole
thing on any end, so it's hard to know.
I admit, it does seem very bizarre that, after all this time, he is suddenly
apprehended. However, it is my understanding that it was made known well in
advance that he was going to be attending a film festival there and the US
took that time to negotiate with the country to have him apprehended.
I think it comes down to a new generation of law enforcement taking the
issue more seriously than previous ones. Then again, I'm not in on the whole
thing on any end, so it's hard to know.