Quote of the Day
Posted on September 28th, 2009 in Uncategorized | 14 Comments »
“In the same way that there is a generous America that we like, there is also a scary America that has just shown its face.”
—French culture minister Frederic Mitterand, commenting on the arrest of director Roman Polanski.
14 Responses
9/28/2009 11:08 am
Did Polanski plead guilty to giving a 13 year old qualudes and then having his way with her? I’m sure there must be another side to this story. Otherwise, he belongs in prison.
9/28/2009 11:46 am
There is an outstanding warrant for Polanski’s arrest and the Swiss authorities responded to it. I believe that warrant has been out there for a very long time, inasmuch as his conviction has never been overturned. Whatever may have attended the initial proceedings, I don’t think it was “America” -much less the “scary America” - that showed its face here. The Swiss maybe. No?
9/28/2009 11:58 am
what, no crowing about the Yanks winning the east?
9/28/2009 12:59 pm
Watch the film “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008)”. Will give you a very different prospective on him. He is a victim of the media and the legal system in many ways. Truly.
9/28/2009 1:00 pm
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9/28/2009 2:13 pm
Mitterand is very generous. Of course there’s the generous America we all like, always has been, but there is the scary face of America that has been around for years…others see it. It’s one of the reasons we all have to spend irritating hours having our luggage rifled through at the airport now. Polanski’s wife was butchered by the scary face of America. What you are seeing is the nutty face of America, that is bent on spending the time and the money to prosecute a 76 year old man, who probably can’t even remember what he did, for a crime even the victim wants dismissed. For a country that is up to its armpits in alligators, if that isn’t nutty, I don’t know what is.
9/28/2009 2:29 pm
What Anonymous and Impaulsen say may be true. But it is a little unseemly not to at least recognize that Polanski did admit to drugging and anally raping a 13 year old under his supervision. That is pretty awful stuff and I doubt that the victim has forgotten it even if she now says that she would like to move on (google the graphic court testimony and I think you’ll begin to see why it is unlikely she has ‘forgotten’ the episode). I understand that problems with the legal proceedings may result in the case eventually being dismissed, but is it really too much to ask that admitted child rapists — even if they are brilliant and tortured artists — should have to go through same legal channels that everyone else does?
9/28/2009 2:32 pm
you should see the movie, phdalum05, and then comment again. You’ll see what I mean. It’s a must see.
9/28/2009 3:44 pm
What the film apparently shows are problems with the inner workings of the justice system in Polanski’s case - not questions as to whether he raped a 13 year old girl after plying her with champagne and possibly qualudes. The filmmaker has stressed that her film is about the law case itself, rather than the encounter between Polanski and the girl, stating, “I honestly feel that no one can ever know exactly what happened that night between them . . . I didn’t want to make a film about that – I’m not Fox News.” But according to one review, “her carefully constructed film is startling in what it reveals about the US legal system, in which the execution of justice can apparently fall prey to the vagaries of a judge susceptible to media pressure.” Certainly Polanski is a victim of the media - though one might argue he has made himself a creature of it too. As for the legal system, the film is apparently quite convincing that justice was not meted out as it should be. But the fact is, this happens in every country with an independent judiciary every day - someone is overpunished (or sometimes underpunished) for a crime they admit committing. What I detect in some of the comments above, and disagree with, is the suggestion that a different standard should somehow apply to Polanski because (a) he is 76 years old and (b) he’s an artist. Item (b) in particular strikes me as a peculiarly French way of looking at things that is understandable perhaps coming from a country that has so much to forgive itself for.
9/28/2009 4:15 pm
I’m with PhDAlum and the last Anonymous on this one, all the way, and am on record as opposing people who believe “we just can’t know” what happened. The facts are pretty well acknowledged by both sides, no? I’m also, in separate contexts, on the record very clearly opposing sexual predation involving children. Seriously, people, we’re trying to have a SOCIETY here.
Impaulsen and Richard, where do you stand on the Demjanjuk extradition?
Standing Eagle
9/28/2009 4:16 pm
As the anon who recommended the film I want to assert that I never said or felt that a different standard should be applied to him. Just see the film. It lends a startling view to this case. That’s it.
9/28/2009 4:24 pm
Well, you have a point there. Mitterand was referring to an unforgiving face of America…which is peculiar and not one of their scarier faces in my estimation anyway and not the one I was referring to. My mistake. I am not a fan of either the man or his movies and I couldn’t care less if he is an artist. That he got to be 76 and this still isn’t resolved, and the victim is tired of having it all dragged out yet again (CNN story online today) and doesn’t sound too traumatized to me, I fail to see the point of the justice system pursuing it now. Child rapists, repeat offenders, are loose in America who were let out because there isn’t enough room in the jails for them so I doubt the justice system has nothing else to do. With all America has on its plate right now, as a nation,I just don’t see it as being worth the time and effort. It’s just common sense.
9/28/2009 4:27 pm
And btw always shocking how many times people don’t read. Or how things get twisted with emotion. This post and this case are classic examples. And he could have been punished and we all could have moved on a long time ago if only….well, watch the stupid friggin’ movie…….
9/28/2009 4:50 pm
SE, re Demjanjuk extradition, I always have mixed feelings about these war crimes cases so my position is on the fence. On one hand, it seems pointless to drag out these old dogs committed by flunkies that happened before I was born and that seems like a gazillion years ago. On the other hand, my family never went through the holocaust but I take it very seriously indeed…I confess more than Polanski. If he hadn’t been tried by Israel, I would say send him back, but if Israel acquitted him, I think you are stuck with him. What would you say.