For his last film “The Palace”, an over-the-top comedy about super oak, Roman Polanski, still described as a “directing legend”, received a comprehensive beating. A SWR review speaks of “out-of-the-box humor”: “The 90-year-old director presents the worst and probably last film of his career.” The film, released at the Venice Film Festival in 2023, features a large cast (Mickey Rourke, Fanny Ardant , John Cleese, Oliver Masucci) is also viewed derisively at best in the English-language reviews.
The Hollywood Reporter summed up the dilemma about the likely end of Polanski’s career. Not only the admirers of his great life’s work are faced with “a minefield full of unsolvable questions”; given his criminal record and the director’s tarnished reputation. “Is it possible to praise a work of art when certain parts of an artist’s life are objectionable, or should the two be separated? Should Polanski still be allowed to make films? Should this film even be written about?”
It is against this background that the rather secondary trial over an allegation of abuse from the 1980s and an interview from 2019, which began on Tuesday (March 5) in Paris, should be viewed.
What is it about?
The British actress Charlotte Lewis had already accused Polanski in 2010 of sexual abuse in the 1980s. Lewis played a supporting role in Polanski’s 1986 film Pirates. She was 16 years old at the time. Polanski always denied the allegations.
Because of Polanski’s subsequent and cynically harsh comments in this case, he now has to answer in court (again). Just like the editor of the magazine “Paris Match”, in which the interview appeared at the end of 2019. The director stayed away from the courtroom at the start of the trial.
At the time, Polanski referred to contradictory statements from Charlotte Lewis in the celebrity newspaper that would call into question the allegations against him. Accordingly, Lewis said in another interview that she could no longer say exactly how many men she had had sex with for money when she was 14 years old. She was also fascinated by Polanski and wanted to become his lover.
“The fundamental quality of a good liar is an excellent memory,” Polanski told the paper. “Charlotte Lewis is always included in the list of my accusers without ever pointing out these contradictions.”
Lewis, in turn, said about the interview conducted by Polanski that many of her quotes were misleading and not formulated precisely. Lewis now tells the newspaper “Le Parisien” that there was already a smear campaign against her in 2010.
She would have suffered from it every day. For her, a recent conviction of Polanski is “something like justice.”