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This Monday, November 18, the ARP, association of professionals of the cinema, will rule on the sexual violence in the cinema. The meeting should also discuss the case of Roman Polanski whose new rape charge against the director tarnished the release of his new film "J'accuse".
J'accuse , the French-Polish director Roman Polanski, is showing, in France, since Wednesday, November 13. The film tells a major scandal of the Third French Republic, wrongly condemned, in 1894, Captain Dreyfus, accused of having delivered secret documents to the German Empire against a backdrop of espionage and anti-Semitism. The film is unanimously acclaimed by critics, and was awarded the Jury Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival last September.
Roman Polanski is one of the great directors devoted by international critics, he received the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2002 and an Oscar in 2003. But a new accusation of rape against the director has tarnished the release I accuse .
Polanski in France, his country of birth
A photographer said she was raped and beaten by Roman Polanski when she was 18 in 1975. The facts are prescribed. Roman Polanski absolutely refutes them, but this is not the first time that women have accused him of rape. Cases that were too old could not be judged.
Except for one, in 1977. The director is convicted of rape on a minor in the United States, he recognizes the facts and is sentenced to 90 days in jail, but in the midst of the excitement of the press and public opinion the Judge wishes to pursue it again. Polanski flees in France, his country of birth. He is still regarded by Interpol as a fugitive and can only move in three countries: Poland, France and Switzerland who refuse the extradition of their national.
The word of women is released
This new accusation of rape against Roman Polanski comes at a time when the word of women is released especially in the cinema. A few days ago, the actress Adèle Haenel revealed to have been the victim of sexual assault during a shoot with the director Christophe Ruggia.
So do we have to boycott Roman Polanski's films? Everyone is summoned to position themselves. The French Minister of Culture, Franck Riester, said last Thursday that " talent is not a mitigating circumstance " and that " genius is not a guarantee of impunity ", without ever appointing Roman Polanski and while warning against " the court of opinion ". Several members of the government, including spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye and the Equality between Women and Men, Marlene Schiappa, said they would personally refuse to go see the film, but they do not call not to the boycott that we can not convict someone in the absence of a court decision.
An evacuated cinema
A projection was disrupted by women last week in Paris and a cinema had to be evacuated in Rennes last Saturday, due to the irruption of protesters. But the film is released in 450 theaters in France and the startup figures are excellent. And even if the context of the film team has hardly promoted.
Meanwhile, this Monday, November 18, the Civil Society of Authors, Directors and Producers (ARP) which includes 200 directors brings together its board of directors. The PRA proposes that any member convicted of sexual offenses be excluded from the organization and that any indicted member be suspended pending trial. Roman Polanski could be suspended, because the procedure is still in progress in the United States ...
The Weinstein case changed the game
It has taken time in French cinema for the omerta, the law of silence, on sexual assault in the middle is no longer the norm. The testimonies are still shy, but the word is released little by little, two years after the Weinstein affair that has profoundly changed the situation in American cinema.