For many, the Paris-born director Romain Polanski is a god-like presence, directing many works that can be written into the history of film, and has won many awards for it. Polanski's own life is also legendary, in 1969, his wife, Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant, was killed in a mansion in Beverly Hills, which was recently brought to the screen by another well-known director, Quentin Tarantino, also known as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".
Although Polanski was very successful in his career, there were many scandals around him, according to the Daily Mail reported on the evening of the 8th, French actress Valentin Monnier, gave up her right of anonymity, identifying Polanski as raping and hurting her. Ms. Monnier published a statement in Le Parisien that in 1975 she had been attacked by Polanski in a ski chalet in Gstad, Switzerland.
Stills from Valentine Monnier
Monnier, 62, said she was not familiar with Polanski at the time and did not want to get any contact with him, "He first beat me until I couldn't resist, and then raped me, which was just when I turned 18." After the incident, Polanski cried and apologized to her, while other insiders wanted her to remain silent. Monnier says she's always lived in the shadows, that traumatic memories never go away, and that she often feels guilty for not daring to call the police at the time. Prosecutions for crimes in France are valid for 20 years, and even if what Monier says is true, the police cannot arrest Polanski.
Monnier recalls that he was invited by a female friend of Polanski's to travel to the Alps together. Polanski, 42, used vulgar language to say that he wanted to have a relationship with her, and the director became angry after being rejected. One person in the know at the time was willing to confirm that what Monier said was true, but he did not want to reveal his name, saying that he had asked Monnier if he wanted to call the police, but she was too young to know what to do.
Stills from "I Accuse"
Polanski's lawyer has now responded, saying that Monnier's complaints are all false, "I regret that there was such a thing on the eve of the release of the film, and in the long years she has never made any voice". The film the lawyer is talking about is the 86-year-old director's new film "j'accuse", which recreates the Dreyfus incident, one of the well-known unjust, false and wrongly decided cases in France at the end of the 19th century.
But Polanski's scandal is not only Montnier's case, he was arrested in 1977 for raping a 13-year-old girl Samantha Geimer, confessed guilt, but then fled to Paris and has avoided extradition back to the United States. In 2017 Polanski was accused by two women under their real names, Renate Langer claiming to have been raped when she was 16 (1972) and Marianne Barnard claiming to have been sexually harassed when she was 10 (1975).