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A: Because he knows we won’t kill him for it.
In fact there is only upside professionally for him among the people who call Roman Polanski the victim of a “young hooker“.
He has the right to do what he wants but if anyone tries to tell you it is “courageous” then they are either fools or liars.
Via the AP and headlines at HotAir yet another twist to the Polanski saga:
Mitterrand’s 2005 book, “La mauvaise vie” or “The Bad Life,” describes painful periods in his childhood and his homosexuality. One passage describes his “bad habit of paying for boys” in Thailand. Mitterrand later denied he was a pedophile, saying on France-3 television that he uses the term “boys” loosely.
Mitterrand was a television personality when the book came out but not in the government. President Nicolas Sarkozy named Mitterrand culture minister in June this year.
Concern about the book resurfaced in French political circles after Mitterrand’s impassioned defense of Roman Polanski last week. The director was arrested in Switzerland on U.S. charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977 in Los Angeles.
Oh it’s a bad habit well that’s different, that certainly drops the Ick Factor, I’m Sure Tom Shales will think so too.
Then again if we could only get Hollywood to treat this bad habit like smoking then we might see change.
I’m with John Noltie it’s all about moving the ick goalposts:
And this is how cinematic propaganda works. Whether the filmmaker’s motivations are good or evil, the idea is to get decent and thoughtful people to start second guessing themselves as they’re enveloped in the dark and held captive by the powerful sound and fury of the moving picture. First we’re led to identify and sympathize with a particular character, then that character does something designed to challenge our belief structure. This can range from, “If John Wayne opposes racism, maybe I should,” to, “Well, if a loving mother is okay with it, maybe I need to get a little more nuanced and tolerant about this whole child-rape thing.”
On its face, that may sound laughable, and maybe it is, but that doesn’t mean our eyes are lying to us. Last year merely topped off a campaign targeted at our children that began some time ago.
It is my opinion that the culture wars in general and the war on Christianity in particular is all about legitimizing sin and removing guilt from it. Once it becomes unacceptable to call sin “sin” then everything changes. That way this case matters; it exposes in sharp relief the contradictions that this involves, and we will as a culture have a choice to make. Is this unacceptable or a bad habit?
Update: Of course some uses of the Ick factor are simply brilliant.
Update 2: Don Surber notices
Hey, maybe there is an opening in the Obama administration. Consider the safe schools czar.
My review of John Brewer’s book The American Leonardo: A Tale of Obsession, Art and Money is available at Amazon.com here.
This is a great telling of the story of one of the great legal controversies in the art world for over 80 years which still isn’t resolved.
In addition any follower of current politics will recognize the clash between the elites of Europe and New York and the people of flyover country.
I don’t know art but I know what I like. I like this book and I think you will too.
…based on a movie:
That this could happen to a famous director with excellent representation should send shivers to everyone else about what could happen to them. Instead, people want to spout off on the vigilante justice they think appropriate for Polanski based on crimes to which he never pleaded guilty and which were never proven in a court of law.
Ignorance and vengeance knows no bounds in the court of public opinion. Particularly by those who turn a blind eye to the facts. (Here is the Motion to Dismiss (pdf)and the Victim’s Declaration (pdf).)
Shorter version: Roman Polanski went for a ride on the elevator of justice, but all he got was the shaft. Free Roman.
Hey we all know how much good information you can get from a film:
Loaded with powerful, new footage and in-depth interviews with the likes of Steven Earl Jones, an American physicist who has discovered undetonated explosive material in multiple samples of dust from the World Trade Center collapses, this documentary presents a wide array of evidence both known and unknown…until now. Eight years later, the American people continue to live in the aftermath of 9/11 and deal with its ongoing repercussions. Is this just another machination of power on the timeline of history? If so, the real question is what happens next? Or better yet, what can we do to prevent another 9/11
Hey that was a movie too? Maybe the Truthers are onto something…
If you can tell the difference between Talk Left’s movie driven position and the truthers position then you are smarter than me.
The hole that is being dug by these guys just blows my mind. It is lemmings off the cliff.
This is going to be a turning point in the culture wars.
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