We induct into our Hall of Shame all those who have signed a petition to support Roman Polanski, a fugitive from justice, charged with child rape. A petition was circulated for the release of Polanski when he was arrested, finally, in Switzerland. Screenwriter Ronald Harwood in The London Telegraph remarked, It seems to me very odd that America, which calls itself a Christian country, is so entirely lacking in the ability to forgive. Mr. Harwood, forgiveness is readily available, but justice must be satisfied and Mr. Polanski, as a coward, ran from justice, is a fugitive, and hid in France for years. He needs to be a man and accept the consequences of his actions like the rest of us. Here is the Petition:
We have learned the astonishing news of Roman Polanski’s arrest by the Swiss police on September 26th, upon arrival in Zurich (Switzerland) while on his way to a film festival where he was due to receive an award for his career in filmmaking. His arrest follows an American arrest warrant dating from 1978 against the filmmaker, in a case of morals. Filmmakers in France, in Europe, in the United States and around the world are dismayed by this decision. It seems inadmissible to them that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, is used by the police to apprehend him. By their extraterritorial nature, film festivals the world over have always permitted works to be shown and for filmmakers to present them freely and safely, even when certain States opposed this. The arrest of Roman Polanski in a neutral country, where he assumed he could travel without hindrance, undermines this tradition: it opens the way for actions of which no-one can know the effects. Roman Polanski is a French citizen, a renown and international artist now facing extradition. This extradition, if it takes place, will be heavy in consequences and will take away his freedom. Filmmakers, actors, producers and technicians – everyone involved in international filmmaking – want him to know that he has their support and friendship. On September 16th, 2009, Mr. Charles Rivkin, the US Ambassador to France, received French artists and intellectuals at the embassy. He presented to them the new Minister Counselor for Public Affairs at the embassy, Ms Judith Baroody. In perfect French she lauded the Franco-American friendship and recommended the development of cultural relations between our two countries. If only in the name of this friendship between our two countries, we demand the immediate release of Roman Polanski.
The petition characterizes the case against Polanski as one of morals. This is called a Tactic of Obfuscation designed to trivialize and redirect attention away from the fact that Polanski raped a 13 year old. Following is partial list of the perverts who apparently think raping a 13 year old, whom Polanski allegedly drugged before having sex with her against her will, is not worthy of justice: Woody Allen Wes Anderson Darren Aronofsky Jonatham Demme Stephen Frears David Lynch Martin Scorsese Full list: Erika Abrams, Fatih Akin, Yves Alberty, Stephane Allagnon, Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, Gianni Amelio, Wes Anderson, Michel Andrieu, Roger Andrieux, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Tomas Arana, Fre©de©ric Aranzueque-Arrieta, Alexandre Arcady, Fanny Ardant, Asia Argento, Marie-He©le¨ne Arnau, Darren Aronofsky, Olivier Assayas, Alexander Astruc, Gabriel Auer, Zdzicho Augustyniak, Alexandre Babel, Vladimir Bagrianski, Lubomila Bakardi, Fausto Nicole¡s Balbi, Eleonor Baldwin, Jean-Frane§ois Balmer, Alberto Barbera Museo nazionale de Torino, Luc Barnier, Christophe Barratier, Ernest Barteldes, Carmen Bartl, Pascal Batigne, Anne Baudry, Juan Antonio Bayona, Xavier Beauvois, Liria Begeja, Matthieu Be©guelin, Gilles Behat, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Marco Bellochio, Yannick Bellon, Florence Bellone, Monica Bellucci, Ve©ra Belmont, Jacqueline Belon, Jean-Marc Benguigui, Djamel Bennecib, Luc Be©raud, Jacob Berger, Alain Berliner, Gael Garcia Bernal, Pascal Berney, Xavier Berry, Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuseppe Bertolucci, Jean-Marie Besset, Marle¨ne Bisson, Arnstein Bje¸rkly, Lucien Blacher, Virginie Blanc-Brude Bard, Jean-Marc Bloch, Le©a Bloch, Catherine Boissie¨re, Anne-Sylvie Bonaud, Olivier Bonnet, Thierry Boscheron, Renata Bosco, Freddy Bossy, Patrick Bouchitey, Ce©dric Bouchoucha, Paul Boujenah, Fre©de©ric Bourboulon, Katia Boutin, Ian Brady, Jacques Bral, Sophie Bramly, Paulo Branco, Patrick Braoude©, Guila Braoude©, Edwin Brienen, Adrien Brody, Isabelle Broue©, Max Brun, Merima Bruncevic, Anne Burki, Andre© Buytaers, Emilie Buzyn, Anthony Byrne, Marco Cacioppo, Gerald Calderon, Monica Cannizzaro, Peggy Carajopoulou-Vavali, John Carchietta, Christian Carion, Henning Carlsen, Jean-Michel Carre©, Esteban Carvajal Alegria, Lionel Cassan, Bryan Cassiday, Miss Catadler, Mathieu Celary, Teco Celio, Muriel Cerf, Dabiel Chabannes, Thierry Chabert, Chagi, Jean-Yves Chalangeas, Daniel Champagnon, Christophe Champclaux, Georges Chappedelaine , Fabienne Chauveau, Claire Chazal, Patrice Che©reau, Brigitte Chesneau, Michel Chevalier, Mishka Cheyko, Catherine Chiono, Catherine Chouchan, Elie Chouraqui, Elie Chouraqui, Souleymane Cisse©, Jean- Pierre Clech, Henri Codenie, Robert Cohen, Catherine Colassin, Suzanne Colonna, Jean-Paul Commin, Anne Consigny, Alain Cophignon, Alain Corneau, Je©re´me Cornuau, Guy Courtecuisse, Miguel Courtois, Antoine Courtray, Guillaume Cousin, Morgan Crestel, Rudyard Cretenet, Dominique Crevecoeur, Penelope Cruz, Alfonso Cuaron, Estelle Cywje, Fre©de©ric Damien, Sophie Danon, Olivier Dard, Luc et Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Isabelle Dassonville, Bruno de Almeida, Bruno de Almeida, Marion de Blae¿, Frane§ois de Lamothe, Herve© de Luze, Artus de Penguern, Vale©rie de Saint-Do, Virginie De Wilde, Olivier Debert, Viviane Decuypere, Guillermo del Toro, Benoe®t Delmas, Michel Deloore, Jonathan Demme, Nicolaine den Breejen, Ruud den Dryver, Louisa Dent, Edwin Dervaux, Dante Desarthe, Romain Desbiens, Sophie Deschamps, Thomas Desjonque¨res, Alexandre Desplat, Chris Devi, Rosalinde et Michel Deville, Guillaume D’Ham, Christelle Didier, Kathrin DiPaola, Claire Dixsaut, Julien Doger, Xavier Dolan, Ariel Dorfman, Jean Douchet, Jean Douchet, Fabrice du Welz, Marina Duarte Nunes Ferreira, Danie¨le Dubroux, Marc Dufrenois, Frane§ois Duhamel, Sissi Duparc, Jean Dusaussoy, Georges Dybman, Daniel Edinger, Arne Eickenberg, Yaniv Elani, Gere³nimo Elortegui, Gere³nimo Elortegui, Elrem, Sam Enoch, Peter Lucas Erixon, Ernest, Ann Eyckmans, Jacques Fansten, Joe«l Farges, Gianluca Farinelli (Cine©mathe¨que de de Bologne), Etienne Faure, Maud et Romain Ferrari, Michel Ferry, Jean Teddy Filippe, Aure©lie Fiorentino, Alan Fischer, Martine Fitoussi, Sebastian Fleischhacker, Joy Fleury., Michael Flynn, Hugues Fontenoy, Scott Foundas, Werner Fraai, Jean-Robert Franco, Stephen Frears, Marion Frelat, Thierry Fre©maux, Marc Freycon, Nadine Fruchard, Sam Gabarski, Jean Francois Gaillard, Rene© Gainville, Sara Gandolfi, Matteo Garone, Yves Gasser, Tony Gatlif, Catherine Gaudin-Montalto, Jean-Marc Gauthier, Costa Gavras, Nathalie Geiser, Lizi Gelber, Isabelle Ge©ly, Jean-Marc Ghanassia, Alain Gil, Ve©ronique Gillet, Terry Gilliam, Christian Gion, Frane§ois Girault, Ste©phane Gizard, Nelson Gonzalez, Carlos Miguel Bernardo Gonze¡lez, Christophe Goumand, Michel Gras, Eric Gravereau, Martin Gregus, Thierry Grizard, Philippe Gruss, Florent Gue©zengar, Marc Guidoni, Marta Gutowska, Mikael He¥fstre¶m, Ronald Harwood, Dimitri Haulet, Geert Heirbaut, Buck Henry, Nicole Herbaut de Lamothe, David Heyman, Laurent Heynemann, Joshua Highfield , Dominique Hollier, Isabelle Hontebeyrie, Fre©de©ric Horiszny, Robert Hossein, Jean-Loup Hubert, Wendy Hudson, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Gilles Jacob, Eric et Veronique et Nicolas Jacquelin, Just Jaeckin, Thomas Jahn, Olivia Janik, Jean-Baptiste Jay, Anne Jeandet, Marie Jergan, Alain Jessua, Renate Jett, Se©bastien Jimenez, Arthur Joffe©, Pierre Jolivet, Kent Jones (World Cinema Foundation), Peter Josy, Alexandra Julen, Paola Jullian, Roger Kahane, Pierre Kalfon, Elisabeth Kalinowski, Reena Kanji, Nelly Kaplan, Wong Kar Wae¯, Nicolas Kermel, Darius Khondji, Ladislas Kijno, Muriel Kintziger, Richard Klebinder, Jonathan Klein, Harmony Korinne, Jan Kounen, Chantal Krakowski, Sylvia Kristel, Diane Kurys, Elzbieta Kusak-Majchrzak, Emir Kusturica, Irene Kuznetzova, Jean Labadie, Eliane Lacroux, Eric Lagesse, Michel Laigle, Ste©phane Lam, John Landis, Claude Lanzmann, David Lanzmann, Andre© Larquie©, Pauline Larrieu, Jacques et Frane§oise Lassalle, Marc Latil, Carole Laure, Christine Laurent-Blixen, Pierre Laville, Emilien Lazaron, Eric Le Roy, Pierre Le Scouarnec, Fe¡bio Leal, Vinciane Lecocq, Patrice Leconte, Linda Lefebvre, Be©atrice Lefoulon, Delphine Legros, Claude Lelouch, Ann Lemonnier, Julieta Lencina, Alain Lenglet, Ge©rard Lenne, Les Nanaqui, Larry Levine, Charlotte Levy, Lorraine Le©vy, Pierre et Rene©e Lhomme, Katarzyna Lipinska, Jean-Claude Irving Longin, Marceline Loridan-Ivens, Michael Louis Wells, Boris Loundine, Rachel Lowenstein, Catalina Lozano, Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski, Flore Luquet, Laurence Lustyk, David Lynch, Bania Madjbar, Krzysztof Majchrzak, Laurent Malet, Tim Malieckal, Guy Malugani, Erling Mandelmann, Michael Mann, Yvon Marciano, Frane§ois Margolin, Jean-Pierre Marois, Tonie Marshall, Alain Martin, Sandrine Martin, Danielle Martinetti, Florent Martinez, Didier Martiny, Mario Martone, Thierry Mathelin, Christine Mathis, Esmeralda Mattei, Nicolas Mauvernay, Yannick Mazet, Christopher, Spencer et Claire Mc Andrew, Natalie Mei, Guillermo Menaldi, Mathieu Mercier, Muriel Mercier, Fre©de©ric Mermoud, Laura Metaxa, Allison Michel, Radu Mihaileanu, Jean-Louis Milesi, Claude Miller, Lionel Miniato, Nelly Moaligou, Jean – Marc Modeste , Mario Monicelli, Jeanne Moreau, Fre©de©ric Moreau, Sarah Moreau-Flament, Gael Morel, Omayra Mue±iz Ferne¡ndez, Stephanie Murat, Christian Mvogo Mbarga, Anna N.Levine, Charles Nemes, Juliette Nicolas-Donnard, Sandra Nicolier, Rachel Noe«l, Rui Nogueira, Olivier Nolin, Alejandra Norambuena Skira, Fabrice Nordmann, Fabrice O. Joubert, Marc Obe©ron, Michel Ocelot, David Ogando, Mariana Oliveira Santos, Szentgye¶rgyi Otte³, Martine Page¨s, Eric Pape, Abner Pastoll, Alexander Payne, Nicola Pecorini, Richard Pena (Directeur Festival de NY), Lindsey Pence, Olivier Pe¨re, Suzana Peric, Jacques Perrin, Cesare Petrillo, Thomas Pibarot, Michel Piccoli, Arnaud Pierrichon, Ste©phane Pietri, Anne Pigeon Bormans, Samuel Pinon, Claude Pinoteau, Michele Placido, Sabrina Poidevin, Agne¨s Catherine Poirier, Jean-Yves Potel, Ste©phane Pozderec, Harry Prenger, Jean et Marie Pre©vost, Gilbert Primet, Marie-He©le¨ne Raby, Philippe Radault, Tristan Rain, Florence Raphae«l, Florence Raphel, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Joseph Rassam, Rolandas Rastauskas, Brett Ratner, Raphael Rebibo, Carol Reid, Jo Reymen, Laurence Reymond, Yasmina Reza, Christiane Rhein, Jacques Richard, Dominique Robert, Margarita Robski, Jean-Jacques Rochut, Christian Rogler, Yannick Rolandeau, Paul Rondags, Avital Ronell, Frank Roozendaal, Graciela Rosato, Elisabeth Roudinesco, Kontochristopoulou Roula, Laurence Roulet, Joshua Rout, Paolo Roversi, Isabelle Ruh, Martin Ruhe, Sonia Rykiel, Anita S. Chang, Esteban S. Goffin, JOAQUeN Sabina, Marc Saffar, Ludivine Sagnier, Gabriela Salazar Scherman, Walter Salles, Jean-Paul Salome©, Jean-Fre©de©ric Samie, Marc Sandberg, Le©o Scalpel, Jerry Schatzberg, Richard Schlesinger, Daniel Schmidt, Georg Schmithe¼sen, Julian Schnabel, Pierre Schoendoerffer, Barbet Schroeder, J. Neil Schulman, Pierre Schumacher, Pierre-Alexandre Schwab, Ettore Scola, Luis Gustavo Sconza Zaratin Soares, Martin Scorsese, Carole Scotta, Steven Sedgwick, Andrea Sedlackova, Frank Segier, Miche¨le Seguin-Sirhugue, Guy Seligmann, Elis Semczuk, Lorenzo Semple Jr, Julien Seri, Joe«l Se©ria, Catherine Sermet, Ken Seton-Vyhnal, Sophie Sharkov, Boris Shlafer, Antoine Silber, Pierre Silvant, Charlotte Silvera, Noel Simsolo, Christophe Sirodeau, Abderrahmane Sissako, Beatrice Sisul , Petter Skavlan, Marcin Sokolowski, Loe¯c Sorel, Paolo Sorrentino, Vassilis Sourapas, Roch Stephanik, Karen Stetler, Denise Stieglitz, Guillaume Stirn, Bernard Stora, Ge©rard Stum, Jean-Marc Surcin, Tilda Swinton, Piotrek Szymanek, Jean-Charles Tacchella, Radovan Tadic, Mickael Tanguy, Danis Tanovic, Bertrand Tavernier, Andre© Techine©, Ce©cile Telerman, Harold Alvarado Tenorio, Marie-Ange Terrier, Alain Terzian, Christian Texier, Jean-Paul Thaens, Valentine Theret, Virginie The©venet, Pascal Thomas, Jeremy Thomas, Marc Thomas Charley, Cyril Thurston, Giuseppe Tornatore, Serge Toubiana, Daniel Treichler, Nadine Trintignant, Julie Turcas, Mitja TuÅ¡ek, Tom Tykwer, Alexandre Tylski, Stephen Ujlaki, Jose© Antonio Valde©s Pee±a, Jaques Vallotton, Phil van der Linden, Betrand van Effenterre, Leopold van Genechten, Christophe van Rompaey, Dorna van Rouveroy, Elbert van Strien, Vangelis, Alessio Vannetti, Luce­lia Verdelho da Costa, Christian Verdu, Jean-Pierre Vergne, Sarah Vermande, Julien Veyret, Francesco Vezzoli, Re©gine Vial, Vivien Villani, Marc Villemain, Jean-Frane§ois Villemer, Daria Vinault, Verde Visconti, Alain Vorimore, Thomas Vossart, Gilles Walusinski, Eric Watton, Monika Weibel, Dominique Welinski, Wim Wenders, Andy Whittaker, Anae¯se Wittmann, A Wolanin, Margot Wolfs, Peter Woltil, Arnaud Xainte, Steve Yeo, Paule Zajdermann, Christian Zeender, Terry Zwigoff Additional signatories: Isabelle Adjani, Valerie Alati, Antoine Aronin, Benjamin Arseguel, Paul Auster, Sebastien Azzo, Morgane Beauverger, Candice Belaisch-Goldchmit, Yamina Benguigui, Cle©ment Brua, Pascal Bruckner, Emmanuel Carpentier, Catherine Chouchan, Sandrine Clarac, Jessika Cohen, Gilles Collard, Philippe Corbe©, Jean-Luc Cosotti, Estelle Cywje, Jean-Paul Dayan, Cynthia Derolez, Katarina De Meulder, Romain Desbiens, Arielle Dombasle, Nathalie Faucheux, Claude Fichard, Corinne Figuet, Julien Fontaine, Pierre Forciniti, Harrison Ford, Barbara Frei, Louis Garrel, Albert Gauvin, Johanna Gozlan, Davide Homitsu Riboli, Taylor Hackford, Isabelle Huppert, Siri Hustvedt, Jeremy Irons, Laurence Jacquemin, Neil Jordan, Paola Jullian, Thierry Kamami, Milan Kundera, Gaelle Lancien, Vale©rie Lang, Claude Lanzmann, Veronique Lestrade, David Leroy, Bernard-Henri Le©vy, Saskia Le©vy, Dominique Maisonneuve, Carlo Mancini, Georges Mazilu, Sam Mendes, Camille Meyer, Patrick Mimouni, Yann Moix, Laurits Munch-Petersen, Nadine Nahmias, Bernard Nahmias, Mike Nichols, Sandra Nicolier, Marie Nieves Perez Nee«l, Claude Nunzy-Valery, Lucien Obellianne, Sigrid Obellianne, Luis Ospina, Catherine Paganessi, Natalie Portman, Frane§oise Ratajczak, Yannick Rolandeau, Salman Rushdie, Daniel Salvatore Schiffer, Patrick Samama, Carine Sarna, Ysabelle Saura Del Pan, Sophie Schmit-Flageollet, Kristin Scott Thomas, William Shawcross, Olivier Soares Barbosa, Steven Soderbergh, Nil Symchowicz, Danie¨le Thompson, Traube Nathalie, Arnaud Trichet, Eugenia Varela Navarro, Jean-Pierre Vergne, Diane von Furstenberg, Margaret Walker, Elsa Zylberstein Organizations: ABC distribution, l’Acade©mie des Ce©sar, l€™API (Association des producteurs Inde©pendants), l’ARP, l€™ARRF € Association des Re©alisateurs et re©alisatrices de Films – Belgique, Artificial Eye, la Cine©mathe¨que Frane§aise, la Cine©mathe¨que de Dijon / Cine©mathe¨que Jean Douchet, Cinemien, Dogwoof Pictures, Epicentre, Les Films du Losange Filmtrade, le Festival de Cannes, le Festival des Rencontres internationales du cine©ma de patrimoine de Vincennes, le Fonds Culturel Franco Ame©ricain, Frenetic, le Groupe 25 images, Haut et Court, Members of the European Producers Club, la SACD, Le Bureau National du SFA, le SPI, Le Syndicat National des Techniciens de la Production Cine©matographique et de Te©le©vision, l’Union des producteurs de films, L€™e©quipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski « Ghost », Pathe©, PCV SA, Pyramide, Scott Foundas (LA Weekly), Teodora, Xenix