After the cult movie Rosemary Baby, Polanski had the world where he wants it. Although he was known in Europe the movie was his first Hollywood picture and a success. What followed were influential movie friends such as Jack Nicholson and Mia Farrow, Award shows and cocktail parties. Mr. Polanski was living the high life and the high life went to his head. After all Hollywood is synonym to a place where one can get away with many things.
He made two movies in the US, the classics Rosemary Baby and Chinatown and it became clear that Hollywood has found a genius. This polish genius was born in France and returned with his parents to Poland two years before the WW2 broke out. The family was captured and sentenced to concentration camp where his mother died. Polanski escaped and reunited with his father after the war. During the war he picked up acting and later found his passion in directing. His marriage to actress Sharon Tate in 1968 didn’t last long when she was murdered by the Charles Manson’s cult family while carrying their first born. A lot of personal tragic mixed with success in film cinemas. But do our tragic life and or successes give us the right to stand above the law?
March 1977 at the age of 43 Polanski was arrested for statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in California. Polanski invited the girl for a photo shoot and took advantage of the young girl after he gave her champagne and Quaalude. This severe crime happened at the house of his movie pal Jack Nicholson while Nicholson was on a vacation. Shortly after the incident the girl stood before a grand jury and detailed the sex assault. Listening to the girl’s account it became clear the famous director has committed a malicious crime. At first he cop a plea but then fled the country and went into exile in France, after he found out the superior court judge was not going to honour the deal. Ever since then he has been in exile but continued making movies. The Oscar winning movie The Pianist starring Erin Brody comes from his hands and was produced during his exhile.
In September 2009 after 27 years in exile, Polanski travelled to Switzerland to attend the Zurich Film Festival. He was an honored guest and he was going to receive a lifetime achievement award. But he was stopped short when he got arrested by the Swiss police. While waiting for his extradition to America his Hollywood pals started a petition to help him escape justice once more. And here is where I come in. No matter how big or important someone is, and really it doesn’t matter to me how many goods the person has done, if you commit such a severe crime you become a criminal. You have to face the consequence of your actions, the full punishment. In my opinion, a sexual crime could never expire, especially if the victim is a child. It is a crime that society must never close its eyes from. We can not damage our children and believe they are going to live a normal life. This was a case of a 43 years old man with powerful friends and stature who raped a defenceless 13 years old girl. Imagine if it was your little girl. Imagine that shit. It comes as crazy to me that respectable people such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Soderbergh are putting their name on a paper to release a child molester. It only tells us the moral stance of our roll models. I feel deeply ashamed.