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There's nothing artistic about drugging, raping or sodomising a young girl. The details vary depending which version of Roman Polanski's 1977 seduction of a 13-year-old actress you read. Polanski for his part, although pleading guilty to sex with a minor (to escape a rape charge), has always maintained that whatever grisly scene played out in Jack Nicholson's house on Mulholland Drive, it was consensual. And that he thought the girl in question, Samantha Geimer, was older than her horribly young 13 years.
Through most of the 20th century, taking advantage of vulnerable wannabes has been an ugly feature of Hollywood, almost guaranteed to take up a chapter or two in any rags-to-riches story and a stock-in-trade plot put on screen definitively in David Lynch's film Mulholland Drive. By the time James Dean made his first film - he was only 24 when he died - there were reportedly very few film executives left in LA who hadn't met him for dinner and whatever else they felt was their due.
Even so, it's the "tortured artist" card that the Parisian artistic establishment has played, led by Polanski's third wife, Emmanuelle Seigner. Even French president Nicolas Sarkozy has made his outrage public knowledge, thus giving the arrest by Swiss authorities of the 76-year-old film director - a French passport holder - all the potential for a major diplomatic row. Only in France, where they pride themselves on their elastic sense of morality and reverence for auteurs, could the president dive headfirst into defending a self-confessed perpetrator of underage sex.
There's been an arrest warrant out for Polanski, best known for Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby and The Pianist, since 1978, and an international arrest warrant since 2005. The buck will stop ultimately with President Obama: the president of Polanski's native Poland is already planning to lobby for clemency.
Yet however inexcusable Polanski's actions, there's equally nothing edifying about the change in the tune of the Swiss authorities. You don't have to be a bleeding-heart liberal in the mould of Carla Bruni to wonder, as the novelist Robert Harris has, why the authorities would let a man build a house in a country only to decide 15 years later to arrest him.
As Polanski's famous friends rally, it would be wrong to forget his victim. The powerful director played cat and mouse with Geimer and with her mother's Hollywood ambitions. But for her part, Geimer has reiterated her wish for the arrest warrant to be dropped, so that she can stop, via the media, reliving her nightmare. She said in a recent documentary: "I don't think he's a danger to society. It was 30 years ago now. It's an unpleasant memory (but) I can live with it."
Polanski was an émigré film-maker when he decided to flee America ahead of his sentencing. It doesn't seem to me unduly woolly to wonder what, if any, respect you would have for American justice if your wife and unborn child had been murdered, as his had, in 1969; Charles Manson was arrested only later on unrelated charges.
Polanski has suffered: two years after the murders, his film of Macbeth was noted for its portrayal of sanity clinging on by a thread. It remains one of the most compelling, frightening Shakespearean adaptations ever.
A survivor of his own private tragedies, as well as the perpetrator of Samantha Geimer's, if for the past 30 years Roman Polanski has lived on borrowed freedom, at 76, still directing and making films, he's approaching borrowed time too. You don't have to be an apologist for paedophiles to wonder at the humanity of chasing one of modern cinema's giants into his grave.
Reader views (15)
The pleas that she looked older than her real age and that sex was consensual, apart from being the oldest claims in the book, are irrelevant. The question is simply "Did he have illegal sex with a child, a criminal offence ?" The answer,on his own admission, "Yes".
The passage of time is also irrelevant. The science of DNA means that more and more murderers and rapists will be brought to book, often many years after their crimes.
- David Williams, Bordeaux France
What lesson do we want future generations to learn from this?
- Helen B, Croydon, England
All of the protests focus on the technicalities of his trial that may or may not have been flawed. I note that he isn't saying that the deed itself never happened, even now. The man admitted guilt then ran out on bail - and he even admits it was because he didn't want, or was afraid he'd go to jail! Skipping bail is an offence in its own right. There is no statute of limitations in this case, so no - it isn't too far in the past to deal with now.
How many more kids has he used and abused while a free man? We don't know if there are more, of course, but he has demonstrated a propensity for the crime and must at least be considered at risk for repetition.
- Rogan, Irving
Yet, after learning that at least one of the Jewish terrorists responsible for the murder of the two UK serviceman in Palestine in 1947 was still alive the Israeli Govt. refused to co operate with the UK citing "it was a long time ago".
- Kenneth Widmerpool, Bath, UK
Olivia, I wonder if you would be quite so liberal in your views if it was one of your nearest and dearest who had been the victim of a kiddie fiddler?
- Simon, kingston
This "man" committed the most hedious crime against humanity. The sexual abuse of a child. This goes against the fabric of any "decent" society. I applaud the Swiss govt. for arresting Polanski, and pray they release him to US authorities so he can repay society for his crime. Let this be a reminder to all: You can run, but, you can't hide forever. No matter who you are, do the crime, do the time. The President of France should be ashamed of himself for defending this piece of trash. One more reason the French think they are superior to all. I thought France was largely Roman-Catholic in faith? Seems to me they should open and read their Bibles, and quit trying to be so Liberal
- David, Ridge Manor, FL USA
Charlie Manson, who ordered his acolytes to murder Polanski's wife, unborn child and 8 other people, was born to a mentally-ill mother and brought up in orphanages. He is considered to be a talented musician. He is also a white supremacist and anti-Semite who hoped the murders he ordered would spark a race war in Los Angeles.
So would Mr Polanski like to have this talented, tortured soul released from prison? If Mr Polanski's tragic past and artistic abilities excuse his rape of a child (an action he defended quite recently in an interview as "normal"), then presumably this applies to the man who is responsible for the murder of Mr Polanski's wife and unborn child.
Oddly enough, Mr Polanski has opposed parole for Mr Manson as well as his merry gang of murderers quite consistently for the entire length of their imprisonment.
- Emmi14, London
Francis, Rouen, France. In la belle France there is, what shall I say? A certain tendency to say that some matters are 'too far in the past' to be dealt with or even recalled. I'll bet that, if you went through the French school system, 'Drancy' during WWII was not mentioned.
A victim's request is not relevant here; had she been dead by now, what would have been the legal position? What this poor woman doesn't want is the noxious attention of journalists.
Mark Park; yes, quite, or if he had been what the French call 'un sale arabe'?
- Dectora, London UK
It is never too late. Retired priests have been brought to trial for crimes they have committed to children and teenagers decades after the crime was committed and rightly so.
Had he been an ordinary person without a successful film career, nobody would have said he should not face justice.
- Alice Odwu, London, England
Yes, he should be punished, do jail time. The fact that the girl - now woman - was traumatized by the experience should be a contributing fact for this man to face the fact that he commited a crime against a 13 year old.
- Carol, London, UK
Guilty!! Hence the reason he fled to France in first place. He should have accepted the crime and would have completed his sentence long ago.
Even if we have to be sympathetic to the victim, he cannot be allowed to get away with taking advantage of a vulnerable girl. I would be horrified if this happened to my teenage cousins and the perpetrator got away with it.
- Mike, London
It is never too late. He ought to face up to the consequences of his actions even now. I have no sympathy for the view that this should be let lie.
- Peace Maker, Battersea
He was found guilty of a vile crime and then ran away from the law. He hid in a country which uses the extradition agreements to further their petty political agenda. In short he should go back to the country where he committed the crime and be tried again. It is quite simple really.
- Coys Switz, switzerland
I personally beieve that the offence is too far in the past, given that the victim has asked for the case to be dropped the affair should be closed.
On the other hand, the impression that the different rules apply to the rich and famous is very disappointing, especially from a president trying to prove just the opposite in the clearstream affair.
- Francis, Rouen, France
Why does the fact that he's "one of modern cinema's giants" relevant to whether or not he should be facing extradition now? I do wonder whether, rather than being a famous film-maker, he was an unemployed ex-drug addict there would be as many people saying that the offence was too far in the past.
- Mark Pack, London
