Polanski says Harvey Weinstein attacked The Pianist with rape complaint

Polanski says Harvey Weinstein attacked The Pianist with rape complaint

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norman lebrecht

December 16, 2019

The Paris-based Polish director tells Paris Match:

‘I know that in 2003, Weinstein panicked when The Pianist won two BAFTAs, including Best Film. Weinstein, who had two films nominated at the Oscars, launched a campaign to stop the same thing happening in Hollywood. It was he who dug up the [then] 26-year-old story with Samantha and which was no longer of interest to anyone. His press attaché was the first person to call me a ‘child rapist.’ The paradox is that The Pianist didn’t win the Best Picture Oscar, a prize that goes to the producer, but I won Best Director.’

On his own rape accusation: ‘Only Samantha and I know what happened that day. … Whatever I did, in whatever manner it was, it is profoundly regrettable. I have said it numerous times; I have written it to Samantha, with whom I stay in contact, and she knows. She and her family have suffered because of me, and despite me it continues. Every time there is a new lie about me, it brings her up. … She has written several times to the prosecutor to explain that the trauma caused by the media circus is well worse than what I made her suffer.’

 

Comments

  • Norbert says:

    Grown man puts penis inside thirteen year olds bottom and then says, “the trauma caused by the media circus is well worse than what I made her suffer.”

    Ok.

    • anon says:

      bet he didn’t even have the decency to ask her to “go get the butter” from the kitchen

      • V. Lind says:

        But he’s still a hero in Europe. They see things differently there.

        • Redvelvet9 says:

          … yes, right? Because the whole world knows that the country of highest morality, values, and exemplarity is the USA. The USA, a country that killed 226.000 japanese people in two days; millions in Afghanistan, Irak, and Pakistan; that has 24.7% of the world’s incarcerated population; that let’s its people die of illnesses that have cure because they cannot pay for their treatment…

          He is not a hero. He is a horrible person, but his work is very good. Can’t you separate the person from its work?

          • mary says:

            I’m so confused at this point, who are we referring to now?

            Polanski? Weinstein? Domingo? Bertolucci? Brando?

            Men.

          • Enquiring Mind says:

            the entire USA was the topic of the pathetic rant in question.

          • Sue Sonata Form says:

            Why are you confused at all? Just keep hating all men, is what I’d suggest. That’s having an each way bet!!

          • V. Lind says:

            Sure I can. I adore Wagner’s music. I liked Chinatown, and to some extent The Piano, though in general I am not a great Polanski fan. I think Domingo was a great singer — may still be, I don’t hear him these days.

            And I hold no brief for the morality of the US, whose manifold sins against humanity far exceed what you have pointed out. Doesn’t mean they were not right to prosecute Polanski, and doesn’t mean they are wrong to criticise Domingo for behaviour unbecoming (according to the reported witnesses and the various institutions that know him and have opted to sever relations with him, not lightly, I wager).

        • Mathias Broucek says:

          Most people really don’t….

        • guest says:

          They. Everybody in general. Easy to name “them” to be all the same.
          The Germans
          The French
          The Americans
          The Japanese
          The Africans
          The WORLD
          and not to forget: THE UNIVERSE

        • Sue Sonata Form says:

          Ain’t THAT the truth!!!!!!!!!!! OK for some.

        • Saxon Broken says:

          V.Lind writes: “But Polanski is still a hero in Europe.”

          Er…no he is not. Some people recognize he has directed some good films. Just as you do. Most, I suggest have similar views to your own.

      • Mr. Knowitall says:

        This is the first time that I’ve suggested that a comment be removed, but if a crude joke about sodomizing a 13-year-old doesn’t qualify, what does?

        • Sue Sonata Form says:

          But it wasn’t a joke. The person writing the comment was picking up on the triviality this had become – to Roman Polanski.

    • Mick the Knife says:

      “She has written several times to the prosecutor to explain that the trauma caused by the media circus is well worse than what I made her suffer.” He didn’t write it, she did.

    • Gonout Backson says:

      Can you read? He doesn’t say it, she did, and more than once.

    • Bruce says:

      I agree with you… but: “She has written several times to the prosecutor to explain that the trauma caused by the media circus is well worse than what I made her suffer.”

      Context doesn’t make him sound much better, but twisting his words weakens your argument.

  • Claudio says:

    A convicted child rapist picking a fight with a soon to be convicted sexual predator. I wonder who the usual misogynists and abuse apologists on this website will be rooting for.

  • Karl says:

    “the [then] 26-year-old story with Samantha and which was no longer of interest to anyone. ” It was of interest to the US Justice Department who tried to get him extradited from Switzerland.

    I also found this article in The Independent:

    “Polanski has served his time and must be freed

    It’s a shocking way to treat a man who went through the Holocaust and his wife’s murder”

    Harvey Weinstein
    Monday 28 September 2009 23:00

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/harvey-weinstein-polanski-has-served-his-time-and-must-be-freed-1794699.html

    • Gonout Backson says:

      @Karl
      At least get your dates and your facts right : the Weinstein/Oscars episode took place in 2003. Switzerland (and Weinstein’s quoted declaration) happened in 2009. Just between (2008) came the movie “Wanted and Desired” which revealed that the whole legal procedure of 1977 was in fact – illegal, and the judge lied. The DA who ran the case confirmed that. That’s why Switzerland and then Poland rejected the American demand. That’s what Samantha Geimer has been repeating for years.

    • Sue Sonata Form says:

      Well, that’s the kiss of death isn’t it!!!

  • Gonout Backson says:

    Polanski is not “a convicted child rapist”. The loudest voices are those of people who know nothing about this affair.

  • Guest 123 says:

    I am so my mystified by how he is revising history. He sodomized a teenage girl. He’s hiding out abroad instead of facing trial. You know what she’d rather have than the media circus? Not being raped in the bottom. That would solve both of her problems.

    While I enjoy the USA bashing for its self righteousness, but bringing up its flaws is a logical fallacy. It doesn’t address the problem at hand.

    It’s sickening that anyone would even attempt to defend, obfuscate, distract from the problem at hand. Just to say it again, since it seems confusing to some in this thread. He raped a teen girl. He belongs in prison.

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