Two months ago, a photo of French director Roman Polanski sitting on a step was exposed on social networking sites. His new film "J'accuse/I Accuse" won the Silver Lion of the Venice Film Festival jury, but was unable to attend to receive the award because he was avoiding the sentence of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old underage girl, and Polanski had to sit alone on the steps to reply to a celebratory text message.
The picture shows the relevant Weibo. (Image source: Weibo screenshot)
The film was released in France on November 13, but Polanski was revealed to have raped an 18-year-old girl in the past few days, and the victim said he beat her and bestiality in his ski cabin.
Some say Polanski is borrowing a new film to imply his own innocence in the sexual assault of underage girls; others say the film is just a remake of real historical events. So what exactly does "I Accuse" say? What happened to the latest accusation he received? Let's look down with the editor.
New film "I Accuse"
Polanski can be said to be a talented director, in his career has won a variety of large and small awards, such as the Academy Award for Best Director, the Palme d'Or, the Golden Bear, and the César Award for Best Picture.
The new film "I Accuse" has also been recognized by the industry and won the Silver Lion Award of the Jury of the Venice Film Festival. It is adapted from a famous unjust case in French history, the "Dreyfus case".
The picture shows the poster of "I Accuse". (Image source: Douban Movie)
At the end of the 19th century, Prussia fought a war with France for hegemony on the European continent in order to unify Germany. Prussia won a great victory, but France suffered a crushing defeat, ceding the Alsace-Lorraine region, which made German-French relations quite tense.
In September 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a French artillery officer, was suspected of being the letter writer because of an anonymous letter claiming to be a German spy. Despite insufficient evidence of handwriting, Dreyfus was sentenced to life in prison. During his imprisonment, Dreyfus pleaded innocent, and his family believed him and campaigned for it.
Later, the French military discovered the real traitor, but because it did not want to admit its own major misjudgment, it suppressed the truth of the matter, and even did not hesitate to make perjury to blame.
In 1898, the famous writer Emile Zola learned the truth from a journalist and published a long article to the French president, "I Accuse.", in the Aurora newspaper L'Aurore. In the text, Zola, in a fierce tone, accused the generals by name of carefully planning the framing of Dreyfus.
"I Accuse"
As for the people I accuse, I don't know them, I've never seen them, and there's no grudge or hatred with them. To me, they are just an entity, just the embodiment of social mischief. My actions here are nothing more than a revolutionary way to urge the revelation of truth and justice.
I have only one purpose: to let the sun shine on the tormented in the name of humanity, and people have the right to happiness. My fierce protest is just a cry from my soul, if you dare to summon me to court, let them do it, and let the trial be held in broad daylight!
But under the rule of the powerful, justice is not easy. Brave as Zola, he also had to go into exile in London. Upon his return, he died of poisoning caused by a fireplace blockage. Many people think it was a political murder, but the truth of his death is buried in the long river of history. In 1908, Zola's ashes were moved to the Pantheon and placed side by side with the ashes of Voltaire, Lagrange, and Hugo, which is also an honor for Zola's precious qualities of not fearing power and speaking the truth.
It was not until 1906, when the political environment in France changed, that Dreyfus's stigma was finally completely washed away, which was the victory of many righteous people running, marching, and resisting.
In the war years, when the truth was toyed with in the hands of those in power and could be twisted into any version that was in their favor, the search for the truth became the most difficult path. But fortunately, justice, while it will be late, will never be absent.
It's a thought-provoking film filled with indictments of the military system and corrupt judges. It's reminiscent of director Polanski who was also resentful of the judge who promised him "only 90 days of psychiatric treatment" but actually sentenced him to 50 years in prison.
There was a 13-year-old girl sexual assault case before, and now he accused him of raping an 18-year-old girl, and the director who escaped legal punishment for more than 40 years inevitably casts a satire on the film. Let's take a look at the accusations against this famous director.
French director "accused"
Previously, Polanski had been accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
In 1977, Polanski was commissioned by a fashion magazine to photograph young girls around the world. While filming an American girl alone, Polanski seduced her with champagne and a slice of sleeping ketone. Polanski then had a relationship with the girl.
Regardless of the girl's underage age, if this sexual assault can still be called "seduction", then the latest accusation against him is really "rape":
In 1975, Valentine Monnier was just 18 years old and had just graduated from a private high school in Paris, in the prime of her youth. Valentina was invited by a friend to ski in Gstaad, Switzerland, and stayed in a wooden house in Polanski. Unexpectedly, after returning from a skiing, she was beaten and raped by Polanski on the upper floor of the villa, and the other people in her company did not come to dissuade her, "like a silent shadow".
After she left Switzerland, she tried to forget what had happened in the wooden house. With a good face and an elegant posture, she entered the show business circle. In 1977, she appeared on the September cover of the magazine Cosmopolitan, and later filmed a series of films and TELEVISION series.
After the 2017 Weinstein scandal in Hollywood, Valentina decided to bravely stand up and accuse Polanski. She wrote to the Los Angeles police, French First Lady Brigitte, and Marlène Schiappa, France's secretary of state for equal rights, but she specifically pointed out that Marlene Siapa did not respond at the time.
But with the imminent release of Polanski's new film "I Accuse", Valentina really can't stand it, which is why she disclosed the matter to the media and now public opinion is circulating.
She believes polanski used the new film to whitewash her 1977 case of sexually assaulting underage girls in the United States, which prompted her to make herself public before the film was released.
But Polanski's lawyer, Hervé Temime, said Polanski firmly denied the incident. Although Valentina was willing to go to court with her, the screenwriter Jéral Brash, who went skiing with her at the time, died in 2006 and director Hercules Belleville died in 2009, leaving few people with knowledge of the rape.
Polanski Biography movie poster. (Image source: Douban Movie)
Although Polanski firmly denied this accusation, when he checked his personal information, he found that he had been charged with several crimes:
At the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, British actress Charlotte Lewis accused Polanski of having "sexually abused" her when she was 16 in 1983.
The second accuser, alias Robin, accused Polanski of sexually assaulting her in 1973 at the age of 16 in August 2017.
In September 2017, former actress Rnate Langer claimed she was assaulted by Polanski in Gstaad in 1972, when she was 15 years old.
From the common characteristics of these victims, it is not difficult to see that Polanski is particularly interested in girls under the age of 16, even if the crime spans more than ten years, he chooses to attack the naïve girls who are ignorant and naïve from the beginning to the end of adolescence.
However, he has not paid a corresponding price for sexually assaulting underage girls until now, and the scandal exposed before the release of the new film has not led to the release of his new film, and perhaps this move will increase the box office for his film.
If the victims' accusations are true, then such a "demon" who wanders among the fancy girls to take advantage of the opportunity to spend years is not too free, not only do not have to bear the disaster of imprisonment, but also can shoot the subject they want to shoot, get the world-renowned award, the biggest trouble is probably sometimes unable to be present to receive the award. However, a photo sitting on the stairs can make fans shout "heartache", which proves that the French director's "charm" is indeed unstoppable.
The new film "I Accuse" uses historical events to publicize the righteous people's insistence on the truth and the people's desire for human righteousness, but the director does not even bear the corresponding responsibility for the sexual assault he committed.
In the face of so many accusations, in the face of the "words and no faith" of the judge in the case of the 13-year-old girl, I wonder if in his heart, there is also a loud voice, shouting "I complain"?