We, the undersigned actors, directors, and writers, from the United States and abroad, protest the callous violation of the Zurich Film Festival by the Swiss Police, who used the festival to capture fugitive convicted rapist Roman Polanski.
It is unconscionable that the Swiss police should use this innocent film festival against its will to capture a fugitive child rapist. Film festivals are places where international artistic freedom must flourish. No film festival should have to live in fear of molestation by predators like the Swiss Police.
That any film festival should be subjected to such outrages is an affront against every film festival. But it is especially heinous that the Zurich Film Festival should be so used as it is only four years old. There is simply no excuse for the two-hundred-year-old Swiss Police to take such advantage, whether the police were aware of the festival’s age or not. Anyone who imagines such a thing being done to their own film festival will agree that this outrage will not stand.
Some have said that the festival’s ambition to make a name for itself in the film industry leaves it partially to blame for what transpired. Some have even said that the festival not only consented to be used to capture Mr. Polanski, but deliberately entrapped the Swiss Police with a slutty cunning beyond its years. We strongly condemn such victim blaming. The film festival has stated many times that it did not consent to be used to bring a man who drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl to justice; therefore all right-thinking people must stand with the victim and lend their voices in support of the film festival.
In summation, we, the famous, powerful undersigned, are duty-bound as artists to speak truth on behalf of the weak and voiceless. Therefore we lend our voices in support of the following:
1. Justice must be served on behalf of the Zurich Film Festival, which was drugged with a fog of lies, coerced, and its artistic integrity ruthlessly violated by the Swiss Police, which took shameless advantage of its power over the 4-year-old festival; and
2. Roman Polanski must be freed immediately.
Signed
Pedro Almodovar
Asia Argento
Jean-Jacques Annaud
Wes Anderson
Darren Aronofsky
Fanny Ardant
Asia Argento
Olivier Assayas
Gabriel Auer
Christophe Barratier
Gilles Behat
Marco Bellochio
Monica Bellucci
Jean-Jacques Beineix
Patrick Bouchitey
Jacques Bral
André Buytaers
Christian Carion
Henning Carlsen
Jean-Michel Carre
Patrice Chéreau
Elie Chouraqui
Souleymane Cissé
Alain Corneau
Jérôme Cornuau
Miguel Courtois
Alfonso Cuaron
Jonathan Demme
Alexandre Desplat
Georges Dybman
Betrand van Effenterre
Jacques Fansten
Michel Ferry
Stephen Frears
Thierry Frémaux
Sam Gabarski
Tony Gatlif
Costa Gavras
Jean-Marc Ghanassia
Christian Gion
David Heyman
Laurent Heynemann
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Gilles Jacob
Just Jaeckin
Pierre Jolivet
Nelly Kaplan
Wong Kar Waï
Jan Kounen
Harmony Korinne
Emir Kusturica
John Landis
Claude Lanzmann
Patrice Leconte
Michael Mann
François Margolin
Mario Martone
Radu Mihaileanu
Jeanne Moreau
André Larquié
Claude Lelouche
Claude Miller
Michel Ocelot
Alexander Payne
Michele Placido
Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Yasmina Reza
Laurence Roulet
Walter Salles
Jean-Paul Salomé
Marc Sandberg
Julian Schnabel
Barbet Schroeder
Ettore Scola
Abderrahmane Sissako
Paolo Sorrentino
Tilda Swinton
Radovan Tadic
Danis Tanovic
Bertrand Tavernier
Cécile Telerman
Alain Terzian
Pascal Thomas
Giuseppe Tornatore
Serge Toubiana
Nadine Trintignant
Tom Tykwer
Wim Wenders
Note: This is a work of satire. To assure yourself that real Hollywood celebrities like Wes Anderson and Tilda Swinton would never put their names on a document that privileges the rights of film festivals over those of underage rape victims, read their actual petition here.
Note #2: This post was brought to you by Mr. Adam and Miss Amanda, both of whom helped me channel my Polanski rage along this productive path.
4 Comments
FREE POLANSKI
“No film festival should have to live in fear of molestation by predators like the Swiss Police.”
That sentence, Melinda, made me laugh and almost vomit *at the same time.* Bravo! Is it too hard to understand that moral worth and aesthetic worth are different? A person may be a great artist, and yet (s)he may be morally (and/or legally) blameworthy. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that, does it?
I can’t believe people like Almodovar, Cuaron, Kusturica, and Scola signed the original petition — wait! Did they? OK, I’m going to have to go check the link.
Yes, they did. Damn it!
Oh but then again, I was making the same mistake I criticized above: Almodovar, Cuaron, Kusturica and Scola are amazing… amazing *artists,* which doesn’t mean that their ability to engage in moral and legal reasoning is any good.
Ah, the coveted laugh/vomit. Holy grail of all comedians.
You make a good point about the parallels between supporting Polanski because of his movies, and being disappointed in Wes Anderson because of his support for Polanski. But I think it’s different–you’re holding Almodovar to a higher moral standard because he’s an artist, and he’s holding Polanski to a lower one.
4 Trackbacks
[...] CONTINUED HERE Spread the word [...]
[...] “elsewhere”, I bring you this timely reminder from the heart of Hollywood, courtesy of Melinda’s blog (note: you have to read the whole way down AND click on the link at the end. Hat-tip to Wronging [...]
lqhvxzfb…
lqhvxzfb…
piano black…
Megacool Blog indeed!… if anyone else has anything it would be much appreciated. Great website Enjoy!…