in a nutshell

[the_siobhan]

You know I've really liked a number of Roman Polanski films.

That doesn't in any way change the fact that he's a fucking asshole.





(Woody Allen,Terry Gilliam, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Tilda Swinton - that makes you assholes too.)

Comments

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he obviously has a thing for VERY young women, but as I noted below, it is situationally criminal. Even our idea of what is "sick" is anything but universal; the age of consent is as low as 9 in the world. Even in Western history, a 13 year old girl may have been married off to a 45 year old as a matter of course. Our modern brains reject such notions, but it was as natural as anything at one time. Penicillin and modern medicine changed all that, but we're not as far from it as we like to pretend. (I have, in my life, met a woman who was married by 12 and having babies soon thereafter, in the U.S. I guess this wold have been in the early 50s.)

Being such a relativist is really annoying. Sometimes, I long for a good, hard opinion unmitigated by "maybes" and "what ifs," and "but thens" and so on. :)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I get how this is relevant. Laws and morals do exist in a cultural context, but our culture has agreed that drugging somebody and forcing objects into their anus is a criminal act. I've decided that it also makes him an asshole.

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

I only brought it up for it's relevance in regards to his affair (or "affair") with Kinski. Even if the affair was legal, he is still guilty of one or more unlawful sexual acts with minors.

I think it may also be relevant in understanding why the French exonerate him. They officially don't consider what he did to be a crime, as I understand it. I think understanding the cultural view of ages of consent is the only way to understand that. Otherwise, what conclusion can we draw of the French?

[megiddo-lj.livejournal.com]

"Otherwise, what conclusion can we draw of the French?"

The French are assholes?

Hey, I've held that view for awhile now :P

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Wacist.

[megiddo-lj.livejournal.com]

c'mon...they like Jerry Lewis!

but my beef with them is personal

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I lived through the Rainbow Warrior bombings, the nuclear tests in the South Pacific, arguments in the Metro, and not even I can hate the all the French.

How can you?

[megiddo-lj.livejournal.com]

I don't seriously hate ALL the French. My initial comment was largely tongue-in-cheek as I was responding to people who know my backstory. I had an absolutely miserable time in France, for personal reasons, and most of the people I met were complete assholes. I still managed to overcome my knee-jerk desire to hit things when hearing the French language and marry a guy from Montreal.

More generally and related, I find the overall attitude of the French towards predatory sex of older men upon younger women a bit off-putting. I'm well aware it's not a Universal view, but the culture as a whole is much more comfortable with it than I am as a survivor of such a situation.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

My initial comment was largely tongue-in-cheek as I was responding to people who know my backstory

Obviosuly I didn't, and your LJ is blank. But I am assuming you are an ex-AGer.

In any case I did say "wacist". Which is funny in and of itself.

I can't even begin to discuss the "predatory sex of older men" in France since I am male and only spent a few days in Paris.

[megiddo-lj.livejournal.com]

"But I am assuming you are an ex-AGer."

Yeah, I posted as Angelsil 'back in the day'.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I recognise that name.

[sloot.livejournal.com]

kylmak will be happy to hear that ;-)

[megiddo-lj.livejournal.com]

HUSH!

(and, believe you me, he knows what I think of his "Motherland")

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I only brought it up for it's relevance in regards to his affair (or "affair") with Kinski. Even if the affair was legal, he is still guilty of one or more unlawful sexual acts with minors.

See I don't really give a rat's ass about his relationship with Kinski. I might find it oogy, but from all accounts it was consensual. My "asshole" opinion is based solely on what he did to Samantha Geimer.

I should probably have been clearer about that up front, but you know. Punchy headlines trump accuracy.


I think it may also be relevant in understanding why the French exonerate him. They officially don't consider what he did to be a crime, as I understand it. I think understanding the cultural view of ages of consent is the only way to understand that. Otherwise, what conclusion can we draw of the French?

That they've been told he's being extradited for having an affair with Natasha Kinski?

Actually, do we even know that "the French" do exonerate him? I see a lot of French names on the petition, but I also see a lot of American names and I'm not sure I would take that as proof that "the Americans" exonerate him. I'd be curious to know what the actual majority opinion is.

[megiddo-lj.livejournal.com]

The French Government refused to extradite him for the past 30 years based on their treaty with the US not covering what he was officially convicted of doing. Since he's in Swiss hands now the French Government has decided not to fight his extradition (as a French citizen) from Switzerland. The Cultural Minister who was defending him and demanding his release has since backed down.

Less officially the French in general think that he should be given special accord as an artist and not made to serve time for such an old crime. Time has an excellent article on the differences in cultural perceptions.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Somebody just pointed me to this;

http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20090929/NEWS01/909290352/1001/NEWS/-France-rushes-to-defend-Polanski--public-disagrees

"Many newspaper readers responded with angry comments on the newspapers' Web sites lashing out at France's government and cultural leaders. One comment in Le Figaro read: "Our so-called intelligentsia lacks modesty, restraint and impartiality when one of its own has behaved badly."

So maybe not so much.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I thought, officially, the French Government had washed their hands of him.