Roman Polanski: Still a rapist
July 27, 2010 § 4 Comments
by MIRANDA
Yep, still.
Another woman, Edith Vogelhut, has come forward with allegations that Roman Polanski raped her. (The video interview and transcribed quotes are worth a look, albeit with an enormous trigger warning. The acts described are, obviously, vile.) She says the rape occured in 1974, three years before the rape of Samantha Geimer, to which Polanski admitted responsibility and for which he was convicted. And for which, if you’ll recall, he spent approximately zero seconds in prison. Vogelhut is the third woman to come forward, after Geimer and Charlotte Lewis.
Anyone want to wager how many asshat “artists” have already taken it upon themselves to defend Polanski on the grounds that his films are totes awesome? Or take a gander at just how much “justice” will be served, this time around?
Fuck.
As I wrote recently (in a comment on C. L. Minou’s excellent response to the Swiss government’s refusal to extradite Polanski to the United States): This Polanski shit continues to BLOW MY FUCKING MIND, and also not, because I guess I should know by now that basically the whole world thinks rape is okay.
Women's Glib 
So many people at SCAD do the “but..but..but he’s a genius filmmaker” song and dance. Which may be true, but doesn’t somehow magically erase the whole “rapist scumbag” thing.
Exactly. The quality of his professional work is unrelated to the crimes he’s committed, and neither should be used to explain or defend the other. (I shouldn’t say that they are entirely unrelated, actually, since the aura of celebrity invincibility that surrounded Polanski seems to have played a large part in the way his crimes were kept quiet and brushed under the rug. But using his films to excuse the drugging and raping of a 13-year-old girl, despite repeated voiced protestations? Not so much.)
Anyway, maybe Hitler was a really awesome juggler. Who the fuck cares.
There is, unfortunately, no inoculation against cognitive dissonance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance), Polanski, in my opinion, directed several movies that qualify as masterpieces. He is, nevertheless, a scumbag, as you say. Art does not inevitably — or even usually — ennoble the artist. C’F. Alfred Hitchcock, a troubled, twisted, sexist, sadistic man who nevertheless made more than his share of masterpiece films. Christians sometimes say “Hate the sin, not the sinner” but I find it more apt to say “Love the art, not the artist”.
[…] updates in sexual assault cases, trigger warnings apply. Roman Polanski: Still a rapist – Another woman has come forward who claims that Polanski raped her three years before the […]