Now Even The French Are Bashing The French

The arrest of Roman Polanski reveals a chasm between France's glitterati and their Great Unwashed:

PARIS — After two days of widespread expressions of support for jailed filmmaker Roman Polanski, from European political leaders as well as leading cultural figures there and in the United States, the mood was shifting among French politicians Tuesday about whether the government should have rushed to rally around the Oscar-winning director.

Marc Laffineur, the vice-president of the French assembly and a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling center-right party, the UMP, took issue with the French culture and foreign minister’s remarks supporting Mr. Polanski, saying “the charge of raping a child 13 years old is not something trivial, whoever the suspect is.”

Within the Green party, Daniel Cohn-Bendit — a French deputy in the European parliament whose popularity is rising — also criticized Sarkozy administration officials for leaping too quickly to Mr. Polanski’s side despite the serious nature of his crime. On the extreme right, the father and daughter politicians Jean-Marie and Marine Le Pen also attacked the ministers, saying they were supporting “a criminal pedophile in the name of the rights of the political-artistic class.”

And a bit later:

For two days, supporters in the demi-monde of movies and media circulated petitions and took to the airwaves in his defense. Among them was the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who suggested that perhaps the Swiss had more serious criminal matters to attend to than Mr. Polanski, who, he said, “perhaps had committed a youthful error.”

Marie-Louise Fort, a French lawmaker in the Assembly who has sponsored anti-incest legislation, said in an interview that she was shocked that Mr. Polanski was attracting support from the political and artistic elite. “I don’t believe that public opinion is spontaneously supporting Mr. Polanski at all,” she said. “I believe that there is a distinction between the mediagenic class of artists and ordinary citizens that have a vision that is more simple.”

The mood was even more hostile in blogs and e-mails to newspapers and news magazines. Of the 30,000 participants in an online poll by the French daily Le Figaro, more than 70 percent said Mr. Polanski, 76, should face justice. And in the magazine Le Point, more than 400 letter writers were almost universal in their disdain for Mr. Polanski.

That contempt was not only directed at Mr. Polanski, but at the French class of celebrities — nicknamed Les People — who are part of Mr. Polanski’s rarefied Parisian world. Letter writers to Le Point scorned Les People as the “crypto-intelligentsia of our country” who deliver “eloquent phrases that defy common sense.”

Apparently Woody Allen is still in Polanski's corner - the laugh-track wants what the laugh-track wants.

NOT JUST THE FRENCH:  The Huffers are bashing the HuffPo.  No nuance in LA, either.

Comments

[gmax]

So just like here, its the lefty elistist supporting the pedophile. Birds of a feather...

[PeterUK]

Interesting man Cohn-Bendit.

[Ignatz]

Here's Beldar's amusing take on Polanski's lawyers' motion to dismiss from Patterico's comments:

--Beldar’s paraphrase of Polanski’s lawyers’ motion:

An HBO documentary about our guy shows that the DA’s office and judge behaved very badly. Did you get that? HBO! All the newspapers that reviewed the HBO program agreed with the Hollywood guys who made it. And that trumps everything else, like the fact that our guy once again violated the law — committed a new and independent felony — by fleeing the jurisdiction before his final sentencing. Because, you know, it was HBO.

I cannot imagine that a lawyer in Texas could file such a motion without being ridiculed by everyone who read it, including the judge.

I hope that the judicial system in California is not yet so depraved that the “considered judgment” — meaning one-sided, ill-informed, hyperbolic, highly spun, and culpably misleading judgment — of Hollywood producers doesn’t displace the considered application of clear law to clear facts, under which Polanski should do hard time in prison.--

Comment by Beldar — 9/29/2009 @ 3:34 pm

[JM Hanes]

"Apparently Woody Allen is still in Polanski's corner"

Where else would a guy who left pictures of his naked step daughter on the family mantel be?

[Jane]

I hope that the judicial system in California is not yet so depraved that the “considered judgment” — meaning one-sided, ill-informed, hyperbolic, highly spun, and culpably misleading judgment — of Hollywood producers doesn’t displace the considered application of clear law to clear facts, under which Polanski should do hard time in prison.--

Don't hold your breath.

[Gregory Koster]

First: "Marie-Louise Fort, a French lawmaker in the Assembly who has sponsored anti-incest legislation,..."

implying that said legislation has either a) not passed or b) has only passed recently. Either way, France doesn't see this legislation as a high priority.

Next: "The mood was even more hostile in blogs and e-mails to newspapers and news magazines. Of the 30,000 participants in an online poll by the French daily Le Figaro, more than 70 percent said Mr. Polanski, 76, should face justice. And in the magazine Le Point, more than 400 letter writers were almost universal in their disdain for Mr. Polanski."

Then maybe these dolts could get in touch with Ms. Fort and holler that she sponsor legislation whereby France joins the ranks of nations that provide extradition. No. This isn't going to happen until anti-Semitism + the rising Muslim population can tailor a treaty that will allow extradition only so long as the requestee is Jewish. That's what France is noted for, these days.

Mr. Dyer's comments are always a treat (meaning: post more, Beldar!) but it would be nice to see him lead a discussion, taking the affirmative side on "Resolved: There are limits to what attorneys can do to grab dough from rich clients." Mr. Dyer's disgust will bounce off the legal profession's hide until the Code of Professional Responsibility starts scowling at such squid tactics.

[Gregory Koster]

I almost forget. C.S. Forester is rightly remembered for his Hornblower series of novels. But for all their merits, the best of CSF's novels is his account of a foot soldier's experience in the Peninsular campaigns of the Napoleonic wars, well titled:

DEATH TO THE FRENCH

[Thomas Collins]

I never thought I would be humming La Marseillaise twice within a few days, but I have (first for Sarkozy's reminder to Obama that international relations operates in the real world, and now for the good common sense of the French people in the Polanski arrest).

[Thomas Collins]

OT, but forgive my rant. See LUN for another example of degraded state busybodies versus the common sense of the people. This is another attempt by the state to stop people from showing any initiative at all; this time, the activity is babysitting by a neighbor, but it could be anything.

[Janet]

The key word here is depraved. A line from my Bible radio program today - "Live like animals in the name of freedom". Awhile ago I saw some photos at zombietime taken at a gay street festival in Calif. and I just couldn't believe it. Total lawlessness (police were all around) and serious depravity. It was very sad. Those men and women weren't free, they were slaves to some sick sexual addictions. Our children are being bombarded with this stuff,,on tv, in the movies, in advertising, teen books, magazines, the internet. The coming generations will have a lot of little Polanskis. How can it be otherwise?

[Janet]

If we as a society can't condemn a child rapist then we are doomed.

One set of laws for actors, politicians, and Kennedys....another set for the rest of us.

[clarice]

Credit Obama..when the world sees what it's like not to have a responsible US president they kind of realize they'll have to step up to the plate.

[Lesley]

“If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!” 1979 Interview of Roman Polanski by Martin Amis.UK Telegraph HT: Ace

They say the French don't care what you do actually as long as you pronounce it properly. 'Les Peoples', in the "grown-up" city of Paris must have admired his pronunciation of the word "f*ck" and its variations.

I think the "Last Tango" was in Paris for a reason. I was absolutely sickened by that film, but my friend (who went to this movie WITH HER FATHER) thought it brilliant. But then, she also voted for Jimmy Carter and oft opined that she'd "love to f*ck him." I found that beyond odd.

Yes, she was a nut. But, poor girl, laughed about once encoutering her prominent lawyer father with a black prostitute in a seedy bar in Minneapolis.

I'm starting to connect some weird dots in my old age.

[Barry Dauphin]

The more that the Hollywood elite talk, the better. Let them reveal who they are to the public and what they really stand for. The average person understands what the concept of raping a girl means and how the perpetrator should face justice. This is exactly the kind of out-of-touch reaction that any of them will wish they had never opened their mouths about. I mean with Woody Allen on your side…

Too many Hollywood folks often preach to the great unwashed masses. If they stand for protecting Polanski, perhaps they can stand to be out of work. With the rise of other forms of entertainment, they are slowly losing their economic and cultural clout. Let them talk, for they bury themselves with every Whoopi Goldberg pronouncement and every Harvey Weinstein petition. They pave their own road to oblivion. They are nothing more than entertainers with no special knowledge of how the world works and no moral authority. There are other forms of entertainment. Good grief, when 70% of the French public believes Polanski should face justice, even Monica Belluci should get it. But let them drink the Kool-aid; couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.

[matt]

Danny the Red standing against Polanski? Interesting.

The man spearheading the Free Roman movement in Hollywood is that paragon of virtue and occasional pederast Harvey Weinstein. Maybe Breitbart can take them down like he's doing to ACORN.

The other day a comedian, Evan Sayet, was discussing his experiences with the Hollywood Leftists and their blacklist.If the bookers book actors/comedians/etc of the wrong political persuasion, the commies won't work with that show/director/studio again.

Since the majority of the acting community these days are a bunch of pinheads with no inner dialog they all willingly drank the leftist kool aid as well. Mass groupthink.

[Gregory Koster]

Tom Collins, thanks for that link. What I'd really like to know is the name of the neighboor who turned in Lisa Snyder. There's the real busybody, using the state as a chained bulldog to even some score. This is a great reason to resist The Once (and tell such imbeciles as David Brooks this is what your National Greatness nanny state leads to.)

Janet, cheer up. You don't mention the ages of the drug addled zanies who were wallowing at "zombietime" but I'd bet they were way under 40. Let 20 years go by and they will seem ever more ridiculous. Ridicule, to such prideful spirits, is the best cure for this disease. They aren't celebrating freedom, but spitting in the old man's eye, before asking for another handout. Radical Islam will have something to say to them as well, as their European consorts could tell them.

[Ignatz]

--You don't mention the ages of the drug addled zanies who were wallowing at "zombietime" but I'd bet they were way under 40--

Actually GK, there is a large contingent of grey haired freaks at every zombietime shoot, and they are debauched in a way that Janet was much too polite to describe. Stomach turning.

[bgates]

Les People

I love that.

You know, once in a while, something hits the news, and I think, "while this arouses strong emotions, at least it's the kind of universal, apolitical thing that every sentient being will agree on." I thought this was going to be one of those things.

Nice to agree with most of the French, anyway.

[Barry Dauphin]

Interesting bit from Jay Leno tonight. He says maybe the way to get Polanski to come back to the US is to give him quaaludes like he gave the girl, and he'll do anything we want. Some members of the audience went, "OOOOOO", to which Jay replied sarcastically, "Yeah I'm really out of line with that joke, shut up"

Another thought on how to get Hollywood to break with Polanski: spread a rumor that at the time he raped the girl, he was a Catholic priest.

[Gregory Koster]

This is late but Althouse links a petition from Bernard-Henri Levy bawling that Roman was jugged like a "common terrorist", and such an action is unworthy of two democracies like Swtzerland and the US and "good sense" and "honor" dictate he be released immediately. To my dismay, one of the signers is Salman Rushdie. You'd think he would have seen evil closely enough to know better. Once a liberal bigot, always a liberal bigot, I guess.

Althouse, in her "good" persona, fisks this imbecility well. Worth a read.

Ignatz, you depress me, but thanks for turning over this rock hiding the creepies. I still think laughing at such zanies is the best approach, though bringing busloads of communicants from mosques to their doings would be fun to watch too.

[daddy]

I find this interesting.

The Anne">http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/09/the_outrageous_arrest_of_roman.html">Anne Applebaum WaPo Column of 27 SEP, "The Outrageous Arrest of Roman Polanski," has at least 500 comments below it.
Yet when I go to the Wapo's ">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/opinions-most-viewed.html"> "Most Viewed in Opinions" page, I found 34 current and recent columns by many WaPo writers, but mysteriously the Applebaum Polanski column with the hundreds of comments is not included.

[daddy]

Shoot, posted the above too soon. Simply meant to say that Cohen's column is still up and being viewed, as well as an Applebaum column on Iran, but the point is that excepting the Cohen column, no Wapo column in the past few days could possibly have generated as many views or hits as Applebaum's monstrosity, so it's almost as if the Post knows she screwed up royally and they are rapidly trying to bury it down that memory hole. At least that's my opinion.

[Gregory Koster]

Daddy, that is odd. But you can find the piece quite easily by a simple Google search: polanski "anne applebaum." But when you try to find it by searching the POST's website, you don't. It's as if they don't care if the general public knows about AA's idiocy, but don't want their usual readership to know. What a show!

[daddy]

Thats my guess Greg,

That having been caught off guard by the general public's anger at Applebaum's stupidity, the Editors decided to shuffle it off the WaPo Home Page sites as quick as possible. Its still gratifying to scroll down anywhere on the offensive columns massive comments section and see her just getting righteously hammered.

[Janet]

...this same crowd that adores Polanski, thinks their country is pure evil because of the criminal actions of some guards at Abu Ghraib. Nudity, humiliation, underwear=criminal. Nudity, Rape, Sodomy, drugging=no problem.

[Captain Hate]

To my dismay, one of the signers is Salman Rushdie. You'd think he would have seen evil closely enough to know better. Once a liberal bigot, always a liberal bigot, I guess.

I was disappointed to see the names of Milan Kundera and Paul Auster, two writers whose output I've gotten a great deal of pleasure from. I guess it doesn't diminish their artistry but it certainly does my opinion of them and their sets of values. Love the art; the artist not so much...

[Porchlight]

Love the art; the artist not so much...

This tenet becomes harder and harder to live by as I get older, esp. for contemporary artists who are vocal with their opinions. I can think of a half-dozen writers I've given up on because I can no longer stand their extracurricular mouthing off.

[John]

"love the art, the artist not so much..."

Hmmmm... is this not our problem? We keep sending billions to a hollywood that scorns and mocks our values? That participates vigourusly in funding left-wing nutters?

We keep losing our nation because we keep funding the garbage that misleads our children down a path of debauchery and irresponsible lifestyles. Where rarely do people turn around after years of indoctrination from TV shows and movies.

Unless we change our own behavior, our families and start funding better art, media, etc., then we have no one else to blame ourselves.

We must cut off the foolish, or our children will follow them and so goes our nation.

We cannot win the fight while serving two masters. We need to decide. How hard is it to turn off such artist in our lives? And turn to a much more useful enterprise in our lives?

We are hypocrites if we cannot truly change.

[Captain Hate]

Sorry but I'm not gonna impose a loyalty oath on what I choose to read or listen to (movies are another matter; if Horrorwood depended on everybody acting like me they'd have gone belly up years ago). I learned a long time ago to completely ignore anything of a political nature coming from the mouths of musicians. Same with writers.

I think artistry as a whole has been a giant vat of malaise for quite some time; primarily because of art schools and colleges encouraging the submediocre and skewing the market. The creative impulse is still strong in some individuals though, and will exist divorced from garbage like the NEA.

[Tully]

My opinion of the French public just improved.

[Janet]

I agree John.

[Extraneus]

Jim Lindgrin had a good piece about this at Volokh Monday, quoting extensively from George Orwell on Dali, if anyone missed it.

[Extraneus]

Orwell:

If Shakespeare returned to the earth to-morrow, and if it were found that his favourite recreation was raping little girls in railway carriages, we should not tell him to go ahead with it on the ground that he might write another King Lear.

[Janet]

Great link Extraneus.

[MayBee]

I had to stop reading the list. It's better for me just not to know who signed it.

[Gregory Koster]

"My opinion of the French public just improved."

Too early to allow this. When the French public demands France allow extraditions (and not just of Jews, please) we can allow our opinion to improve. Until then, stick to Forester.

[Sotos]

Generally the French public is not the problem: their system is corporatist, and designed to prevent any popular movement from rising against the ENArchs and the historically established political orders or movements. Popular will is usually frustrated through the Judicial system, and personality based politics, except when it is convenient to have a referendum, the reuslt of whickh is foregone.

Sometimes the Le Pen group is held up as an example against this: in fact they are a straw man. They represent the long strain of anti Semitic, anti capitalist politics that has dominated the reactionary right since the Boulangists in the 19th century through Vichy - the last legitimate government of the 3rd republic, no matter what De Gaul said. Their only uses have been to scare people back to the institutionally corrupt parties or individuals or the murderous ideological parties, or as a safety valve.