comment #1

gansibele says ...

Here's another ball. It's "Perro come perro", not "coem".

So as long as you are a creative genius and the victim forgives you, it's all good with you? Have you ever read Albert Cohen's parallel about the big apes and the submissive admiration they extract from lesser apes, and how it has extrapolated to humans? (in "Belle du Seigneur").

(On the other hand, he's got a gut and he's old. He may like junk food. Plus he sold his soul by appearing on Rush Hour III. That should earn him your scorn)

comment #2

Josh Massey says ...

I'm not going to take the obvious bait, but I will say ... The Ninth Gate? Pirates? Hell, the guy hasn't directed a truly great movie since Chinatown - 34 years ago.

(Yes, The Pianist was overrated.)

comment #3

jjgittes says ...

Tess is a great movie, and The Pianist is a great movie, and prior to that he made at least 6 of them (Repulsion, Knife in the Water, Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, Macbeth, The Tenant).

If he's not an "all-timer" no one is.

comment #4

VoiceOfReason says ...

After I saw him in drag in The Tenant I couldn't get wood for like three months. No joke.

comment #5

Josh Massey says ...

Great flicks early on, followed by a string of unimpressive efforts, some downright horrible.

Roman Polanski is the French Rob Reiner.

(Now that's bait).

comment #6

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Hey Josh,

What's Rob Reiner's equivalent of The Pianist in his later years? Hell, what's his equivalent of Oliver Twist, or even Death and the Maiden, for that matter? The Bucket List? Gimme a break.

Your analogy sucks, dude.

comment #7

Gaydos says ...

Why does Herr Zimmerman always say it best?

"Heart of mine be still,
You can play with fire but you'll get the bill...

Heart of mine go back home,
You got no reason to wander, you got no reason to roam.
Don't let her see
Don't let her see that you need her.
Don't put yourself over the line
Heart of mine.

Heart of mine go back where you been,
It'll only be trouble for you if you let her in...

Heart of mine so malicious and so full of guile,
Give you an inch and you'll take a mile.
Don't let yourself fall.
Don't let yourself stumble.
If you can't do the time,
don't do the crime,
Heart of mine."

comment #8

Mgmax says ...

Polanski's an all-timer. sure, but overwhelmingly because of his work through Tess, not the last quarter century. And The Pianist is very good... but not great. Not on that subject.

And the whole reason we have statutory rape laws is because 13-year-olds are not trusted to be capable of giving consent.

And the art does not excuse the man, nor does the man invalidate the art.

comment #9

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

What would "that subject" be exactly, max, and would you care to name some films that explore it better?

comment #10

Zimmergirl says ...

Polanski gets a pass from me too - for several reasons but the number one is that I put the responsibility on the girl's mother for pimping out her daughter to Hollywood. I would never let my daughter within five feet of any male director, nor would I let her spend time alone with any of them. I'm so sure.

But also, I don't know what it's like to have my parents murdered and then my pregnant wife stabbed to death in the stomach by the Manson family. First, how do you grasp the Manson Family anyway. And then to realize that your wife was basically murdered for no good reason or no reason at all - I think you would go a little bit crazy and not think straight.

The Pianist is most certainly not overrated. Good god.

comment #11

JD says ...

Polanski's movies have nothing to do with his crimes. You can admire the former and abhor the latter. Personally, I give Polanski a borderline pass, only because he had struck a deal with the DA and all parties concerned were okay with the agreement... and then a rogue lawyer (or judge?) decided to take him down and he had no choice but to flee. That said, drugging and raping a 13-year-old-girl is fucking capital "S" Sick! I don't care if he's European and they do things a little different over there, drugging and raping someone is disgusting in any language and/or age group. Something tells me Jeff wouldn't be so blase if Polanski had drugged and raped one of his kids.

comment #12

Rodney Perkins says ...

Roman P. is Polish, not French.

comment #13

Josh Massey says ...

I've always believed it's easy to overrate Holocaust films, because of the innate power of the subject matter. Hence, Roberto Benigni's Best Actor award.

And thanks for taking the bait, Chewinggum. You're too easy.

comment #14

Josh Massey says ...

"Roman P. is Polish, not French."

Well, he was born in Paris. At least Wikipedia says so.

comment #15

T. Holly says ...

Not to worry Jeff, none of the blogs are getting my approval, even the business of the fest requires a necessary bit of eye rolling and endurance. So, unless you can do spot reporting, via i-phone, getting people, snapping shots and shouting out sightings, musings and other brain sushi, admit it: festivals are for critics and traditional media.

comment #16

Mgmax says ...

the number one is that I put the responsibility on the girl's mother for pimping out her daughter to Hollywood

Surely it is not an either/or.

On the subject of The Pianist, the best thing I can do is quote something I posted here some months back:

"The Pianist was Polanski's excuse for his child-molestation in later years."

I don't know how you get that, but you're on to something in looking at it as a film soaked in guilt and excuses-- specifically, survivor guilt. The whole Holocaust comes down to one man's lucky survival-- which is as random as winning 100 coin tosses; someone in a crowd must come out on top, and virtue or cleverness has nothing to do with it. Rather than confront the awful truth that his luck was meaningless, that his living is as random as others' deaths, Polanski and the Brody character both construct a view of themselves as being owed survival and care by others, resenting those whose care doesn't meet their standards and viewing survival as a kind of triumph over their oppressors, when it's really merely a fluke.

The failure to recognize that "here there is no why" applies to their living as much as to any other part of this infinitely dehumanized historical event, and to give it a narrative meaning with Brody's concert at the end that it couldn't have had, is the film's, and Polanski's, great failure. But who among us, looking back at the narrowest of escapes in that horror as a child, could truly stare into the abyss and report back unflinchingly?

Posted by: Mgmax at May 21, 2007 07:25 PM

comment #17

T. Holly says ...

Freudian slip: "quoting people," not "getting people."

comment #18

T. Holly says ...

I'm not contradicting myself, I just read Poland's brain sushi via i-phone. Certainly, you Jeff can run circles around that.

comment #19

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

"But who among us, looking back at the narrowest of escapes in that horror as a child, could truly stare into the abyss and report back unflinchingly?"

Hate to break it to ya, but Polanski's films are about as unflinching as it gets, bro. Repulsion? The ending of Chinatown? Where exactly are these punches being thrown in his work?

Furthermore, I don't think Wladyslaw Szpilman (or Polanski, for that matter) feels "owed" survival or care in the Pianist. He was simply doing anything he could to survive, and as such it was one of the best cinematic expressions of survival I've ever seen captured on film.

I don't think the ending with him playing the piano for his life is necessarily meant to be taken literally, or even as a concrete "reason" for his survival (you seem to imply he needed one!), but rather an expression of just how fucking LUCKY he was. And, given the context & extreme consequences of the situation, isn't getting lucky indeed a triumph in and of itself? After all, he did live to tell his story...at the end of the day, isn't that really all we can do?

He looked back on the experience unflichingly, alright, it's just too bad your eyes were too flinching too much to recognize the masterpiece for what it was.

comment #20

christian says ...

"And the art does not excuse the man, nor does the man invalidate the art."

agreed.

comment #21

Walter Sobchak says ...

Yeah, he penetrated the back door of a drugged 13 year-old girl with his dirty Polish cock, but he's a formerly talented director, so it kind of cancels it out, right?

comment #22

Arizona Joe says ...

Polanski would make fine grist for a documentary, and I am surprised no one thought of it prior. I surely will see it.

I don't give Polanski a free pass, but all things considered a mitigated one. A deal should have been made. There should have been some sort of short sentence meted out.

For one thing, his crime was malum prohibitum (bad as defined by law), not malum en se. As Nabokov pointed out, all sorts of pubescent girls engaged in sex in previous centuries of shorter lives, less decorum, and more rusticity.

But in a modern society, for a lot of reasons, that cannot be tolerated.

In contrast, the holocaust and the Manson murders were thing truly evil obviously, and would have had an affect on anyone. Now, what Polanski did was wrong, and he should have been punished, but with all things considered.

comment #23

Arizona Joe says ...

Polanski would make fine grist for a documentary, and I am surprised no one thought of it prior. I surely will see it.

I don't give Polanski a free pass, but all things considered a mitigated one. A deal should have been made. There should have been some sort of short sentence meted out.

For one thing, his crime was malum prohibitum (bad as defined by law), not malum en se. As Nabokov pointed out, all sorts of pubescent girls engaged in sex in previous centuries of shorter lives, less decorum, and more rusticity.

But in a modern society, for a lot of reasons, that cannot be tolerated.

In contrast, the holocaust and the Manson murders were things truly evil obviously, and would have had an affect on anyone. Now, what Polanski did was wrong, and he should have been punished, but with all things considered.

comment #24

Mgmax says ...

CitizenKaned,

I am used to intolerance for other political points of view on this site translating into sarcasm and insults rather than acceptance that two people can thoughtfully see different things in the same events in the world. It would be nice to not see that absolutist attitude move over into movies, too.

I am happy that The Pianist satisfied you in a way that it did not, ultimately, me, although I agree that it is certainly a very fine film.

comment #25

George Prager says ...

So let me get this straight...when Josh Massey (brother of one of Jezebel magazine's 25 Most Beautiful Atlantans) saw KNIFE IN THE WATER for the first time, he thought they were speaking French?

I liked BITTER MOON, train wreck that it is. I saw it at the Quad Cinema, sat right in front of Debbie Harry and Penn. Now that was a weird trip.

comment #26

Josh Massey says ...

George: The guy was born in Paris, France. So calling him "French" is a stretch how?

Does Apocalypto mean Mel Gibson is Mayan?

comment #27

George Prager says ...

Josh: Do we call Nicole Kidman an American because she was born in Hawaii? And Mel Gibson is considered an Aussie even though he was born in the U.S. moving to Australia as a teen.

Polanksi's Dad was Polish, mom was Russian. His father moved the family to Poland when young Roman was 4 years old. He's a Polack, not a Frog.

comment #28

rocco says ...

We all make mistakes, some more terrible than others...given the conflicting accounts it's *possible* his greatest crime was giving into temptation...but his artistry has NOTHING to do with forgiveness...what kind of absurd and warped reasoning is that??

comment #29

jeffmcm says ...

Interesting, Mgmax, because I think The Pianist means exactly the opposite of what you're saying: that it's a film in which Brody's character survives for arbitrary reasons outside his control (because he just happens to be a famous artist) that others didn't possess. The guilt in the movie is that Polanski doesn't idolize the character for having the gift, but merely notes it as the factor that made things happen, for better or worse. I don't see any resentment or sense of being 'owed survival' in the film and I'm curious where you do.

comment #30

jeffmcm says ...

Polanski has dual citizenship, which is why he could flee to Paris in the first place back in the 70s. If you must name him one nationality then it would be Polish, but why are we splitting those hairs?

comment #31

lazarus says ...

Perhaps it's Polanski's mixed origins and residences that have made him such an internationally admired (and relevant) filmmaker. I'd consider him Polish if I had to pick one nationality though. One parent is Polish, he grows up and has his defining (and scarring) experiences in Poland, and it's probably his first language too, as he moved there when he was 3 or 4.

Also, for the record, I think The Pianist was great but slightly overrated. For my money, his Oliver Twist is the greater work and was sadly underpromoted, underseen, and underappreciated. He should have won an Oscar for directing that instead.

comment #32

Mgmax says ...

You know, I don't even remember The Pianist as well as I did when I wrote that 7 or 8 months ago, so I can't really cite chapter and verse here. It's my honest opinion about a film I thought was very good but not quite great. Or, it was my honest opinion when it was fresher in the memory. Agree or disagree as you wish. I just got back from The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, I'm in another place mentally.

Polanski French or Polish? Which film do you think was more personal to him, Frantic or The Pianist?

comment #33

jeffmcm says ...

I asked because a college professor of mine wrote a glowing appraisal of The Pianist as a film in which Polanski highlights the arbitrariness of Brody's situation as a corrective (in his mind) to the 'false sentimentality' of Schindler's List, a film he dislikes (I think he's wrong about SL, right about TP).

comment #34

Dirty Harry says ...

Oops, sorry. I looked up "Hollywood Values" in the encyclopedia and it linked me here.

Carry on...

comment #35

jeffmcm says ...

Says the guy who names himself after an outlaw.

comment #36

D.Z. says ...

Zimmer: "Polanski gets a pass from me too - for several reasons but the number one is that I put the responsibility on the girl's mother for pimping out her daughter to Hollywood. I would never let my daughter within five feet of any male director, nor would I let her spend time alone with any of them. I'm so sure."

Yeah, the mother should've known he was a potential sex offender, because most parents have telepathy...

"But also, I don't know what it's like to have my parents murdered and then my pregnant wife stabbed to death in the stomach by the Manson family."

I don't know either, but that doesn't justify sodomizing a minor!

JD: "Polanski's movies have nothing to do with his crimes."

Is that why the trailer for "The Tenant" says "Nobody does it to you like Polanski"?

"Personally, I give Polanski a borderline pass, only because he had struck a deal with the DA and all parties concerned were okay with the agreement... and then a rogue lawyer (or judge?) decided to take him down and he had no choice but to flee."

Yeah, making him be accountable for his crime is so wrong. Next you'll be saying there's nothing wrong with starlets arrested for DUI only getting five minutes in prison.

Josh: "I've always believed it's easy to overrate Holocaust films, because of the innate power of the subject matter. Hence, Roberto Benigni's Best Actor award."

I thought the Benigni one was supposed to be a Holocaust white-washing film...

Arizona: "Polanski would make fine grist for a documentary, and I am surprised no one thought of it prior. I surely will see it."

Probably because no one is interested in movies involving child molestation, in spite of what Larry Clark would like to believe.

"A deal should have been made. There should have been some sort of short sentence meted out."

Bah, if it had been a fratboy who got caught doing that kind of shit, you'd be saying something totally different.

"For one thing, his crime was malum prohibitum (bad as defined by law), not malum en se. As Nabokov pointed out, all sorts of pubescent girls engaged in sex in previous centuries of shorter lives, less decorum, and more rusticity."

Last time I checked, sex with girls who don't want it is usually considered rape.

"In contrast, the holocaust and the Manson murders were thing truly evil obviously, and would have had an affect on anyone."

So then he should get therapy, not take it out on an innocent bystander.

Seriously, why the fuck is it wrong for O.J. to get a "Not Guilty", but it's ok for Polanski to flee the country?

rocco: "We all make mistakes, some more terrible than others...given the conflicting accounts it's *possible* his greatest crime was giving into temptation..."

Then he should've gotten a hooker.