Four decades in the making
Polanski’s academy expulsion the sign of an overdue shift
LOS ANGELES Until Thursday, Roman Polanski had been a film academy member for more than 40 years since pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a minor in 1977. In his 40 years as a fugitive the Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby filmmaker had been nominated for three additional Oscars, one for Tess and two for The Pianist.
He won an Academy Award for directing The Pianist in 2003 to thunderous applause. He continued attracting A-list talent for his films, A-list support for his freedom and had become a contradictory and uncomfortable symbol of an industry that seemed to pick and choose where to bestow its moral outrage.
It’s an incongruity that became untenable when the film academy expelled Harvey Weinstein from its ranks in October, made statements about standards of decency among its members and adopted a revised code of conduct, which would allow the organization to suspend or expel members who violate that code or “compromise the integrity” of the academy.
And almost seven months after Weinstein got the boot, the film industry’s most prestigious organization, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, closed the door on the 84-year-old Polanski too, announcing that it had revoked his nearly 50-year membership, along with Bill Cosby’s.
Polanski’s attorney, Harlan Braun, said the director was “blindsided” by the decision.
Fifteen years ago, the audience at the 2003 Oscars gave an absent Polanski a hearty standing ovation upon his win — Weinstein, Martin Scorsese and Meryl Streep among them. Nine years ago, when Polanski was arrested in Zurich and U.S. authorities attempted to extradite him, more than 100 celebrities signed a petition for his release, including Woody Allen, Weinstein, Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Darren Aronofsky, Natalie Portman, David Lynch, Penelope Cruz and Tilda Swinton.
There were outliers, of course. Filmmaker Kevin Smith famously tweeted, “Look, I dig Rosemary’s Baby, but rape’s rape. Do the crime, do the time.” And author Kate Harding made waves with a Salon column questioning the outpouring of support from celebrities and various members of the media to exonerate him.
“Roman Polanski may be a great director, an old man, a husband, a father, a friend to many powerful people, and even the target of some questionable legal shenanigans. He may very well be no threat to society at this point.
“He may even be a good person on balance, whatever that means,” Harding wrote.
“But none of that changes the basic, undisputed fact: Roman Polanski raped a child. And rushing past that point to focus on the reasons why we should forgive him, pity him, respect him, admire him, support him, whatever, is absolutely twisted.”
Portman recently told BuzzFeed that she regretted signing the petition for Polanski.
“We lived in a different world, and that doesn’t excuse anything. But you can have your eyes opened and completely change the way you want to live,” Portman said. “My eyes were not open.”
But few others have weighed in. Winslet in December told the New York Times that she had an “extraordinary experience” working with both Allen and Polanski. And Thursday, celebrity twitter was quiet too.
Braun accused the academy of violating its own rules to expel Polanski. The attorney said he and Polanski’s agent will ask the academy to reconsider its decision, and give the director a hearing and his “due process.”
Even a man who is widely considered one of the greatest living directors, a five-time Oscars nominee, one-time winner and one whose past so many in the organization turned a blind-eye to for so many years, is now no longer a protected class.