all these heroes fall

[rm]

Roman Polanski raped a girl and pled guilty to it (and let me add to this: RAPE. It involved force and drugs _and_ the girl was 13, and I don't care what she or her life was like, she doesn't deserved to get raped -- no one does).

The fact of this rape has nothing to do with the fact that Polanski is also a significant artist.

Polanski did not commit rape because he is an artist. He did not commit art because he raped. That art and rape can be present in one person, should not, but does, surprise us.

Because the person he raped wants the matter to be dropped, I am torn on what I think should happen next. But that is the only reason.

There is, if you have not yet heard a petition going around that has been signed by luminaries of the film world protesting Polanski's arrest in this case, with some specificity being made about the arrest transpiring at a film festival.

The list of signatories is breaking my heart. It includes not just people whose work I admire, but people whose existence and/or work I feel has made my existence safer (yes, I'm looking at you, Tilda Swinton). Perhaps more distressingly, it includes people I have also worked with, not just in the sense of yes, we got a check from the same production company and might have exchanged a smile, but in the sense of people who have given me direction, touched me in the act of scene composition and deemed me worthy not just of praise, but of work; in celluloid they decreed my existence.

How dare you all!

A child got raped, and while there are reasons to perhaps discuss what should happen to Polanski next and why, Polanski isn't less of a rapist because he makes important films. And he's not less of an important filmmaker because he raped.

But that's not even what's important.

What's important is that a horrible crime is not less significant because a bunch of people sign a piece of paper because they're upset something ugly happened amongst all their pretty. That those people are the people who inadvertently, or in a few cases by looking into my eyes and telling me how to feel, taught me that pretty isn't all that counts, has me utterly shaking, mostly, but not entirely, with rage.

I am not articulate about this. This is not how I wanted to see all my heroes fall. And I'm just sitting here watching the list grow and praying, praying, praying that no more names with personal meaning to me show up on it.

But more than that, I pray that we somehow manage to do right both by our judicial system and the person who was raped.

Believe it or not, this has nothing to do with art, and I don't get why people can't see that.

Comments

[janinas-nest.livejournal.com]

I would like to see the whole matter dropped - *because that is what the victim has said SHE wanted*!

[marieoroumania.livejournal.com]

I was just coming in to say that. I mean the fact that people are ignoring her and just DISCUSSING IT ANYWAY, probably retraumatizing her, forcing her to talk and think about it... it just makes me sick.

[yendi]

Christ. I missed Tilda when I was scanning the list the first time (I think I was stunned by the presence of folks like Gilliam). My disgust with Hollywood at this point is unmeasurable.

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

Gilliam, talented though he is, essentially means nothing in the current film world. He can't get a financier to back him (except one who's willing to lose their shirt), and he has the most amazing bad luck in disastrous schedule slips.

Perhaps because he's apologizing for such horrors....

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

When I saw that I was so angry I wanted to smash something.

I just do not understand the apologist crowd, at all.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Sam Mendes: it's not the biggest blow for me, but it's the most personally creepy.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

There is a reason cases are The State vs. So-and-so. Because by raping the girl he not only harmed her, he has harmed all of us as law-abiding citizens and it is the state's duty to prosecute, whether the woman wants it or not.

The sad, unlovely truth is one I picked up from Pandagon:
We believe geniuses are in rare supply, while thirteen year old girls are a dime a dozen.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

This. *This*.

I also wonder, as this thing tumbles through my head time and time again, if there would be such an outcry had he raped a 13-year-old boy. But that's getting into the world of speculation. The man should go to jail.

[eandh99.livejournal.com]

I'm finding it hard to put into words how deeply conflicted I am about this situation. People whose work I deeply admire are defending him - but then people whose work I deeply admire also praise and collaborate with Woody Allen, who married his own de facto stepdaughter. THAT creeps me out so profoundly that I avoid every bit of work he's ever done.

For me, after 30 years, I'm mostly concerned with what the victim wants. If she says let it drop, then I'm okay with that being the decision.

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. I already knew I hated Polanski and wouldn't give him a dime of my money; looks like I'm going to have to add a hell of a lot of names to the list. :-(

As for what the victim wants . . . I really, really wish she could get it. And that could've been easily brought about if Polanski hadn't been a cowardly scumbucket asshole and run away. C'mon, he was a big name even then; sadly enough, he would've gotten a slap on the wrist. That this poor woman is having to go through an ordeal constantly even now is not because society is wrong to pursue justice for Polanski's crime, it's because *he ran*. If he hadn't done that, all this would be a footnote by now. He's the one who kept the case open all these years.

[marieoroumania.livejournal.com]

Did you see this? http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/la-oe-samantha-geimer23-2003feb23,0,4716430.story

[marieoroumania.livejournal.com]

Sorry about my response to your response -- I agree with you but I'm also extremely pissed off about how the victim in this case has been named and how it's getting mixed with her life so many years after the fact. I just finished reading her plea to just let it all drop in the LA Times and I'm feeling her pain more than anything else.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

She just wants them to let her get out from under the bus now, pretty please.

[sushis.livejournal.com]

Do you have a link to where she says she wants the matter dropped?

I had the impression that she didn't want to be put through the publicity mill regarding the crime, not that she truly was okay with what happened to her.

Also, as someone a couple of comments above me mentioned, in criminal matters, it's "The State vs The Accused," not "The Victim vs the Accused" because it's justice and safety for all people, not only for the specific victim, that's ultimately at stake.

[marieoroumania.livejournal.com]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/la-oe-samantha-geimer23-2003feb23,0,4716430.story

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Polanski isn't less of a rapist because he makes important films.

Thank you.

Having a talent that others admire or can profit by does not excuse one of crimes, especially not child rape.

We see entirely too much of this kind of doublethink in the world of professional sports. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it happens in the film industry too.

[mellacita.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I read all these comments from luminaries about how "one little mistake" had haunted his whole life and all I can think is what the fuck is wrong with people? Had he stayed in the country, even if he was worried the judge would not honor the plea bargain and sentence him to another month or two in jail, this would have been over 30 years ago. The fact that it isn't is no one's fault but his.

[mintwitch.livejournal.com]

I have always wondered how many times Polanski has raped a child. He was prosecuted once, but few rapists restrict themselves to a single crime or a single victim.

[ex-adarog.livejournal.com]

Polanski's crime is one more example of how hard it is for human beings to accept that greatness and wickedness can exist in the same person; that the same person who can pour beauty, truth, and goodness onto a canvas, into a novel, into a film can also be cruel, deceitful, and hateful, even criminal, in personal life. If we rule out people's art, on principle, because of their individual moral character, we might not have much art left.

That said, I'm pained and shocked by a lot of those names, too (Tilda Swinton???), without the level of investment that you have. And I think the best way to restore the victim's dignity and privacy might be to punish Polanski once and for all.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

This whole mess has left me feeling saddened and frustrated. The discussion that's resonated with me the most has been at Feministe.

The fact that Polanski pled guilty and then bolted is why this is still being discussed. If he hadn't been a coward and run, this would be over for everyone.

I totally understand why the woman, who was a child when she was drugged and raped, wants this dropped. Because Polanski ran, every time his name pops up in the media, so does hers. (I've specifically not gone looking for it; not my business, the poor woman has suffered enough.)

Unfortunately, this has gone on long enough that she won't ever be separate from it.

I want justice to be served because it would show that even money and fame won't keep someone from a just punishment. If Polanski doesn't serve any time for either the rape or the bolting, it just reinforces that rape is something anyone can get away with and that money buys justice.

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

*applause* Exactly. He victimized her once and then has kept victimizing her by evading justice. Polanski didn't have to keep this an open wound for decades.

[tommx.livejournal.com]

Here's something I'm unclear on:

Is this the first time Polanski has been to Switzerland in all this time? If so, never mind, but if not, why did it take them so long to arrest him? This I simply don't get why it took the authorities so long to catch up with him.

As to the crime itself, well, he was convicted of a crime and then fled prosecution presumably because the judge reneged on a plea deal. The reason he gives for fleeing prosecution doesn't make what he did right. I respect him as a film maker, but that doesn't excuse him from the consequences of his actions. I always felt bad for him because of the way his first wife was murdered, but that horrific tragedy does not give him a free pass on rape.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Reportedly Polanski owns a chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland, and spent a few months there earlier this year.

[argentla.livejournal.com]

I respect the victim's desire to put it behind her. I'm really disturbed by the perspective (apparently strong in France) that this is a case of prudish American morals run amok.

My cruel thought was that it was not a surprise to see Woody Allen's name near the top of that list.

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

My cruel thought was that it was not a surprise to see Woody Allen's name near the top of that list.

Ditto. I've never seen a Woody Allen movie and have no desire nor intention to do so either.

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I've seen this mentality with visual art as well, that because someone makes great art (or not, as the case may be) doesn't put them above the responsibilities of an adult. If he didn't want to have his life disrupted, maybe he should have not RAPED SOMEONE. No film or painting or album is worth the life of another person. No one gets a free pass to hurt other people because they make wonderful anything.

[woogledesigns.livejournal.com]

I have even more complicated problems with visual art. Eric Gill designed gill sans typeface. Eric Gill, according to the diary accusations http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2004/jul/24/art.biography , abused his children and pets, practising and honing his penmanship and sense of form by drawing his family nude as part of the abuse. The excellent shape and proportion of his typefaces is the product of rape and incest, evidence of a link in this might be found in his sculpture of Ariel http://www.flickr.com/photos/badboyuk/42849489/ . As a result I refuse to use any Eric Gill typefaces, even though they would solve a lot of problems.

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Terry Gilliam. Tilda Swinton. Michael Mann.

UGH.

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

Have you read this article? http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/09/28/polanski_arrest/

Pretty much brings some of the facts back into the arguement, which, having read a lot of the crap out there that people are saying (and what that petition states), tends to gloss over it. :)

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that link.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this, and I'm really sorry that some friends of yours have taken up the Polanski cause; it's painful when people you respect, people you personally owe things to, side with the oppressor rather than the oppressed.

[ciel-vert.livejournal.com]

A whole pile of YES, THIS.

[requiella]

Before I clicked on the link I though "I hope I don't see Paul Auster's name on the list". I don't know why his name popped into my mind... it's there and I'm sure the list will keep getting bigger. It's so sickening.

and what does this mean?

His arrest follows an American arrest warrant dating from 1978 against the filmmaker, in a case of morals.

a case of morals? I thought it was a guilty plea to rape. Silly me.

That whole write up is sick. Film festivals are not safe havens for criminals.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose it's immoral to rape someone. But it sounds more like "it was just a little, insignificant faux pas".

HELLO A LOT OF THE PEOPLE SIGNING THIS HAVE DAUGHTERS, HOW DO THEY THINK THIS IS FINE???

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

I noticed Woody Allen's name at the top of the list. That's really all I have to say on that...

This whole thing disgusts me. Elia Kazan is booed and disrespected by a room full of his peers as his art is being honored because he named names 50 years ago, but Roman Polanski drugs and rapes a 13 year old and 30 years later he's a helpless victim who everyone loves? Poor little raping fugitive, he's finally being brought in.

I'm glad that the victim has moved on with her life, and I understand how it's not something she wants to rehash, but my main concern with this is that this isn't just about her. It's about other rape victims as well. As high profile as this case is, if he gets off after all this time, not only for rape but for fleeing, it's going to send a message to others that they can get away with it too. The repercussions for sex crimes in this country are pitiful as it is, and there's still so much misogyny when it comes to someone reporting rape (I can't even think about all the disgusting comments that I've seen in the Mackenzie Phillips posts on ONTD the past week).

[onemildrat.livejournal.com]

Elia Kazan is booed and disrespected by a room full of his peers as his art is being honored...

As far as I know, none of the people who sat on their hands as Elia Kazan got his lifetime achievement award are the same people who have signed this petition. In fact, Martin Scorsese accompanied Kazan when he got that award.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

From the petition, as quoted in ONTD:

By their extraterritorial nature, film festivals the world over have always permitted works to be shown and for filmmakers to present them freely and safely, even when certain States opposed this.

The arrest of Roman Polanski in a neutral country, where he assumed he could travel without hindrance, undermines this tradition: it opens the way for actions of which no-one can know the effects.

1. Roman Polanski wasn’t arrested to stop him from presenting his work. He was arrested because he committed a crime and then fled before sentence was passed.

2. A neutral country? There are judicial conventions between Switzerland and the U.S. which permit extradition, and neither country has a statute of limitations on the rape of a minor.

...Holy shit. Terry Gilliam? John Landis? David Lynch? Seriously? *headdesk*

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

...Yeah, because heaven forfend that an auteur may *also* be a fugitive from justice, and an admitted criminal.

Further info was rather kindly summarized by the Examiner at Slate here

[autumnyte.livejournal.com]

This whole situation sickens me, but I think the worst part is the victim-blaming I am seeing from his apologists. I can't believe I am seeing people say, of an erstwhile 13-year-old, that she deserved it because she: "looked 18", "had a stage-mother who forced her on Polanski", "was already sexually active", etc.

And the articles I read keep repeating that he "had sex with" a 13-year-old girl. They don't mention the r-word, even though it was a clear cut case of rape, regardless of her age.

[axeslade.livejournal.com]

And the articles I read keep repeating that he "had sex with" a 13-year-old girl. They don't mention the r-word, even though it was a clear cut case of rape, regardless of her age.

This, beyond everything else, has been the core of my reaction to the situation. Ugh

[woogledesigns.livejournal.com]

I can't seem to find the actual petition or guarantee that the signatures are genuine, but if it is true then I also feel betrayed by some of the signatures, especially Tilda Swinton. While some of them may be objecting to alleged judicial malpractice or using the ceremony for an arrest, I strongly feel that those sentiments should be expressed lucidly and separately from any corporate expressions of support for Polanski as a person.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Petition: http://www.sacd.fr/Le-cinema-soutient-Roman-Polanski-Petition-for-Roman-Polanski.1340.0.html

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

thank you, i have been shaking my head at this for days and avidly NOT following the developments b/c i just couldn't take it
i'm glad someone else, a professional and an artist, feels the same way