Polanski And The Crux Of Art and Excess

Benjamin Kerstein: The Disconcerting Question Raised Here Is Whether Great work Requires Some Measure Of Evil

(CBS)  The news of filmmaker Roman Polanski's arrest in Switzerland on an international warrant has, for me and a great many others, reignited an old dilemma, probably unresolvable, regarding art and artists: Namely, the indisputable fact that those who create work are often not great, or even good people.

There is no disputing the fact that Polanski is one of the great filmmakers of the post-war era; Knife in the Water, Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby, Macbeth, Chinatown, The Tenant, Tess, Bitter Moon, Death and the Maiden, and The Pianist are testimony enough for that. There is also no disputing the fact that 31 years ago he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl and then fled the United States to France rather than face the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence. Until now, it has been mostly assumed that Polanski would live out the rest of his life in Europe, safe from American justice and free to rehabilitate himself - as he quite successfully done - as a revered elder statesman of cinema.

Polanski's unexpected arrest has occasioned consternation on both sides of the Atlantic. French government ministers are up in arms, claiming that the long arm of American jurisprudence has maliciously seized one of their national treasures. Poland, which was home to Polanski for most of his youth and early adulthood, is equally outraged. These official voices have been joined by filmmakers and artists from around the world, as well as a few media outlets, who have protested both Polanski's arrest and the manner in which it was accomplished.

Given that Polanski has long since admitted guilt (though he has never really acknowledged wrongdoing) his defenders have generally turned to mitigating circumstances in order to make their case; and it must be admitted that there are a few. Polanski has led, in many ways, a hellish life. As a child, he survived the Nazi occupation of Poland by living as a street urchin in the Krakow ghetto. Once liberated, he was nearly beaten to death by a local psychopath who wanted to steal his bicycle. He watched his family destroyed twice over by mass-murdering lunatics, first Hitler and then Charles Manson.

Any one of these psychological shocks would have been enough to send most people around the bend, or at the very least into serious therapy. It is also true that Polanski did not use physical violence to coerce his victim, that he did serve some prison time for the offense, and that there was more than a bit of misconduct on the part of the presiding judge. Even the prosecutors have admitted that the case was mishandled. And, of course, Polanski's defenders have a bit of a trump card in the fact that his victim has publicly forgiven him.

I cannot shake the suspicion, however, that lurking behind all of these various excuses is the fact that Polanski is a great artist. It is decidedly doubtful that so many in Europe and elsewhere would be outraged if a factory worker, office manager, or Catholic priest, for that matter, were finally caught after so many years evading justice for statutory rape. It is much more likely that they would be outraged at the authorities for taking so long to get around to arresting the perpetrator. The simple truth is that many people - and I freely admit to being one of them - very much wish that Polanski had not done what he did, and are sorely tempted to pretend that, somehow, he didn't. Since we cannot deny the facts, we deny, in some way, his culpability; or, we tell ourselves that, in the end, all things considered, all things being equal, etc., it really wasn't such a big deal. And we do this, I think, for one reason only: We love his movies.

It requires a great deal of effort in the face of this to remind oneself that perhaps the foremost reason people get things wrong is wishful thinking. By and large, we do not listen to what we don't want to hear. Indeed, it is not easy for lovers of cinema, and especially Polanski's cinema, to be honest with ourselves and admit that the only really important question to ask about the Polanski case is this: Did he do it? There is no question that he did.

This in turn demands that we ask ourselves whether we think that having sex with a 13-year-old girl is acceptable. And there is another question that plagues us - or, at least, it plagues me - do we really think she was the only one? Given Polanski's admitted preference for very young women and the Hollywood zeitgeist of the 1970s, it seems sadly doubtful. If we answer no to both of these questions, as most of us will, then we must also force ourselves to recall something else: That producing great work does not constitute a perpetual indulgence. Bob Dylan once said, "Just because you like my stuff doesn't mean I owe you anything." This is true, but it cuts both ways. The artist owes no indulgences to the public; but the public also owes no indulgences to the artist, however brilliant he may be.

In the end, however, I fear this may not be enough. I have a vague suspicion - perhaps an unprovable conviction - that those of us who feel pangs of sympathy for Polanski may be suffering from something a bit more disturbing than mere wishful thinking. I do not put myself on Polanski's level, but the truth is that most of us who write, paint, make films, or engage in some other aesthetic endeavor in order to make some kind of a living, are at least vaguely aware of the fact that great work requires some measure of evil.

This does not mean crime or vice; but rather the kind of evil French critic Georges Bataille was alluding to when he wrote, "literature must plead guilty." Great work, he claimed, requires a kind of excess - excess of passion, excess of rationality, excess of religiosity, excess of atheism, excess of morality, excess of immorality - which inevitably transgresses the golden mean that is the most basic ordering factor of society. Bataille was thinking of writers like Blake and Sade; but he could easily have been talking about Polanski, or any of us. Many artists manage to contain this tendency to their work; abiding, perhaps, by Flaubert's dictum that one should be regular and orderly in one's life so as to be violent and original in one's work. Many artists, however, and Polanski is clearly one of them, cannot.

Most of us would like to find some way to forgive him for that. Perhaps because, if only on a subconscious level, we see a bit of ourselves in him and his transgressions; and feel that, in accusing him, we are in some way also accusing ourselves. And perhaps we cover this up with all manner of various remonstrations because we are more keenly aware than most that, as one of Polanski's own characters put it in Chinatown, "Most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and place, they're capable of anything." To think this way, however, would be the easy way out. It is to mistake the evil that makes for great art with the evil that violates children. They are not the same. It is possible to be violent and original in one's work and regular and orderly in one's life. This fact alone demands that the artist, any artist, live up to a responsibility that is in some ways more onerous than others. In a sense, the fact that Polanski is a great artist only indicts him further.

Those who make their living by acknowledging and exploiting their own capacities for evil ought to be the most careful in preventing it from bleeding out of their work and into their lives; if only because, when they fail to do so, there are so many in high and low places willing to forsake both reason and basic human decency in order to absolve them of it.

[toldyouso21]

by pigsinlipstick September 30, 2009 10:24 AM EDT
yeah, like you stood up to george bush, cheney, rove, rumsfeld,

when they stood above the law and killed over a million

men, women, children, and thousands of unborn little babies,


conservative are hypocrites
*********************************************

I think the above mentioned men should be turned over to the Hague and most definitely tried for war crimes and I think Mr. Polanski should be sent back to America to face and be sentenced now on all 6 original felony counts and in addition add to that fleeing from justice, lying to the court, ad check deception (they said the first check the victim was given was bogus and she was never compensated) H face 12 years, make it 15 to 20 with no chance of Parole. Great director , actor singer or Indian chief, no man is above the law and we do not excuse crimes because people are rich, famous or have free pass to ravage due to their talents.

[wyattnevada]

OK - so let me get this straight.

All of you who have supported Roman Polanski and have basically said what he did was not "rape rape" and he did nothing wrong to the 13 year old girl he had sex with and, he should not be prosecuted - right?

OK - now that we have that straight - I guess (according to you) it's OK to give 13 year old girls alcohol and drugs and have sex with them - right?

Cool - let's start with your daughters!

[chekitout]

Hey where were her parents?.. there partly guilty for being idiots,what if it was "joe bloe"...and he was on the run for 30 years and John Walsh and AMW caught him, people would applaude,this guy is a scumbag and its to bad Hitler and the Boys didnt put him in the front of the line.

[Vic_at_CBS]

The following statement is the sort of philosophical-******** banality that had me running out of art school screaming:

"but the truth is that most of us who write, paint, make films, or engage in some other aesthetic endeavor in order to make some kind of a living, are at least vaguely aware of the fact that great work requires some measure of evil. This does not mean crime or vice; but rather the kind of evil French critic Georges Bataille was alluding to when he wrote, "literature must plead guilty."

Get the facts straight, Ben. Polanski drugged and plied a young girl (he thought a woman) with alcohol in order to have sex with her. She repeatedly said NO. Had she been a harlot, a mother of 13, a grandma of 81, the very fact that she said NO over and over and over again would have made the act a RAPE. I don't care that little miss thing at 13 was not a virgin. To this man she said NO. Even when she was drugged she said No.

No amount of la-dee-da ******** statements and petitions will make this situation anything other than what it was: a sophisticated man in his 40's raped a nubile young thing, and then ran like a chicken when, even after receiving a sweet deal of a plea bargain that most rapists cannot afford to pay for, he decided that those paltry few days in jail were too high a price to pay for his deed.

Ben, you artsy fartsy types need to re-examine just how far into La-La land you've descended. Michaelangelo was a great artist. This in no way made him a likable man. Carravagio was a great artist. He was also a criminal.Did the actions and personalities of these talented men detract from their great art? No. Will Polanski's movies be anything less than great? No.

Does the fact that he's talented absolve him from his actions as a rapist? A resounding NO.

[mikevetman]

There shold be no question, he is a rapist. Serve jail time like everyone else, then get out in 15-20 years and register his movements. He is not beter than everyone else because he is tied to Hollywood. He should be held to a higher standard. Hollywood and and the money. Look at all the highly intelligent, law abiding citizens we see from there. That is why we have all the trash papers, and junk tv programs. They are an industry of greed, corruption and a lack of morals and people look up to them. thye think they do good by giving money for causes that support the dmocratic party line. Kind of like Washington.

[hnk111]

Rape of a child ? Huh ! What a bunch of goats repeating each other. I guess everybody is being played for a fool by the redneck-loving LA attorney. Typical US DA ploy, at a convenient time when everyone is getting "warmed-up" by the bad economy, throw a moralizing "bone" that is taken obediently by a provincial, narrow-minded mob that constitutes most of US. Paint an abused child anywhere on the planet and this proto-feudal mob will go on any "adventure" - Afghanistan, Iraq, Serbia, etc. First thing that they learned is to make a quick-packaged documentary, throw it on CNN, ABC, etc with child, woman suffering and then get them revved-up to support any stupidity. So, Polanski rape charge is infused with saliva inducing words like rape, child, fugitive, etc. This is quickly pushed through so called "independent" media to grease the jaws of US injustice. Forced rape it was not, not in a million years. The girl was a 13 year old groupie going on "35" with sexual experience galore. So Polanski got suckered into this and had sex with a girl that later agreed to drop ALL charges and currently protesting all charges against him. Little b**bo, and there are many bi*bos around the world, including streets of LA selling themselves at this age with more experience then one can handle. How many south-of-the-border "friends" set-up shops in California to peddle young flash to lonely and exploited workers ? Who cares ! 31 years ago !! Hello, normal societies have statute of limitations ! This is not a habitual molester and has lived his life as a talented without perpetuating anything remotely associated with accusations against him. Man that brought forth culture that will live for future generations. Most of the posters here have not even been alive during that era and they act like they know everything just by listening reports infused with propaganda venom of a proven, politically motivated charlatan-careerist.

[Vic_at_CBS]

So, the victim is at fault? At 13? She said no and no and no over and over again. That makes the actions of this sophisticated 40 something man illegal. Oh, by the way, there is no statute of limitations for a cowardly chicken who skips bail and runs. When he reneged on the deal, all bets were off. FYI, having sex with any woman who says no, whether she lives in the US, Afghanistan, France, or your neck of the woods, is RAPE. I was alive during that era, and though I think him a great director, and I pity the sad events in his life, his actions of raping and running were criminal.

[africanamericanartist]

Mr Kerstein,

Thank you for your frank and thoughtful analysis, particularly of the possible origins of artist support for Mr Polanski in the wake of his recent arrest.

It is rare that I should check in with a website remotely connected to one of our television news services (of course, many non-TV new sources leave me similarly cold); one need only scroll through CBS.com's "Most Popular" stories list and note the promise of a "Derrion Albert Uncut Beating Video" to learn why.

That said, your headline drew me, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a well-reasoned piece, in terms of both method and of the substance involved.

What I haven't seen any other artists do up to now is look inward long enough, or unflinchingly enough, to spell out for us precisely why the arrest of a confessed child-sex offender and fugitive might be so deeply infuriating to them on a personal level.

Mr Polanski's first action clearly constituted a harrowing affront to human dignity; and his second equally clearly left him vulnerable to capture by any legal means, and at any time, US authorities saw fit to arrange.

I suspect the problem for many of these artists and intellectuals (and I use this last word with ever-increasing caution as time passes) is that most of them, deep down, despise the very notion of an adult furtively scheming to incapacitate a child in order to repeatedly rape her with ease. But the fact is, at least at this moment, that they love Mr Polanski even more. And so in defiance of all logic and compassion, his is the flag they must now wave.

Since they do not see the child in question as one of their own (literally or figuratively), she can be perceived in strictly theoretical terms for this exercise, as may Mr Polanski's dismissal of her rejection, and his ultimate violation of her person. Throw in the difficult circumstances of certain points in his own life, for starters, and relegating the child to the realm of the abstract becomes easier still, if that is an outcome one is looking to achieve.

You even dared address, Mr Kerstein, how the compulsion that led to Mr Polanski's 1979 arrest is not generally played out in a one-off fashion, underscoring the possible dangers associated with having a wealthy, resourceful, and influential child predator at large.(Even with no knowledge of his purpose of travel, simply reading the words "Polanski" and "Thailand" in the same sentence yesterday automatically filled me with dread.)

Perhaps if I myself could come to grips a bit more effectively with the truth you posit concerning the makeup of the creative soul, I would write less--and less innocuously--on behalf of other people, and more in connection with my own purpose for having come here, whatever that might be.

If any of the outraged artist-signatories of these "Free Roman" petitions is fortunate enough to happen upon your article, I do hope it will give at least a few of them pause. It looks as if the dialogue concerning Mr Polanski's arrest is slowly taking on a more rational air than it had in the very beginning. Your piece may contribute significantly to the continuation of this process.

[mgmfos]

Based on the logic in the article, Mike Tyson should have been forgiven since we used to love his fights.............what a croc. you make money and live in the u.s., you are subject to our laws

[OregonJames]

Forgive him??? Heck no! This man gave alcohol and drugs to a 7th grade girl, and then raped, sodomized, and buggered the girl, even taking time to photograph himself in the act. She was just 13 years old and he was in his mid-forties. She was drunk and drugged and too young to give her approval to the act, and he was certainly old enough to be aware of the crime he was committing. He should never be released from prison. It does not matter that he was smart, well liked, or generous to others. He drugged and raped a child, and ran away to avoid paying for his crime. He deserves no mercy.

[RCC_Soldaten]

Polanski drugged, disrobed, photographed and sodomized this young girl.

He is in need of justice.

[freddyfrugag]

This article is crap.

[LtSmily]

Adults should never do harm to children, he is a pedofile, plain and simple, mark him as such and lock him up, then see justice served (without the champagne of course).

[phwtb]

"by mal2cats September 30, 2009 12:49 PM EDT

But the main point I want to make (to others here, pigsinlipstick doesn't have a clue) is that this isn't about politics. It's about a ghastly sick excuse of a man raping a child."


I only have one point to disagree with you on mal2cats. When you say it's "a ghastly sick excuse of a man raping a child..."

It is NOT a MAN raping a child. A MAN wouldn't do what he did.
It's an ANIMAL raping a child.

And animals need to be shot to put them out of their misery...

I wonder if they are taking volunteers for his jury.

[kerry4ever]

Well done America for not falling for the sob story. How disgusting that Oprah should try to justify it. What if a Polanski figure had drugged her, sodomized her and taken obscene pictures of her when she was a thirteen year old child. Would she be so forgiving? Or is is only celebrities who should be protected from the law?

[hnk111]

So 31 years is not enough to erase the rape charge ? Ok, so now we can go for all the rapists then by the same logic. Ok, so lets go after all the American GI's in postwar Germany and Japan. Lets go dear mob and start going after your own grand dads. Make sure you got the DA ready or is he busy with this one case. Lets go there are thousands ! Hurry, there are a few hundred more here that Japanese government wants for physically raping children on a street here in Okinawa. No drugs given to them, but horribly brused and gang-raped.

[SusanStoHelit]

He plead guilty - then fled the sentencing. So, no, no number of years is enough, because there is no statute of limitations once the trial is over. There's no question of faded memories, of lack of availability of witnesses - the trial was over. He plead guilty - all done. So, no 31 years or 300 - he needs to go serve his time.

[toldyouso21]

erase a rape charge? surely you jest? sickly--but surely you jest. NO amount of time can change a rape charge--can a rape be undone? Ideally the sentence for the perp should be as long as the horrific memory is for the victim. As for other rapes--we can only stop the ones we know of and that are proven--Polanski helps that part with his confessions and the pics he took--and he drugged her too which means he knew it would not have been consensual. He is a demon and no--he gets no free time for time passed and as for Okinawa, America will pay for all the rapes of Japanese children when Japan pays for all the rapes of children and people in China and Korea. OOOOPS--not enough money in the world to repay all of that? Maybe we should just have Japan pay for all the rapes in China during WWII? Oooops--still not enough money?

[irreverent1-2009]

I would call it even if Roman voluntarily surrendured himself to a Turkish prison for a couple of months. Just think of the artistic inspiration that would be derived from it! Maybe a couple of his staunch supporters could volunteer to go with him.

[imnho]

This guy needs to go to jail. He may not need a jail sentance as long as some rapist, but he needs to do time. This is a question of him not being above the law. There was another rapist who fled to Mexico to avoid serious(and deserved) jail time. He is presently in jail and Roman should be joinning him

[gildabob]

my anger this morning was because i was in california at the time, i also had two daughters. they havent printed enough money to pay for what he did. thak you all for showing me my opinion wasnt wasted.

[Henri_Rochard]

"...31 years ago he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl..."

This is a crime. A serious crime. No matter what city or town it occurs in.

"then fled the United States to France rather than face the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence..."

Polanski was apparently safe in France. A smart person would've just stayed there. Any time he left France, he was subject to local laws different than the local laws in France. He knew this and didn't travel to, for example, England. Polanski took a chance one too many times by traveling to Switzerland and was picked up on the outstanding warrant. Had he just stayed in France we wouldn't be reading this story.

I applaud Switzerland for honoring the outstanding warrant in the U.S. This isn't some sort of political crime or embezzling or evading taxes. This crime is a rape of a 13-year old girl.

If a person committed a crime against a Swiss citizen and fled to the United States, then I presume that U.S. authorities would similarly detain that individual and extradite them to Switzerland.

[RCC_Soldaten]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/roman-polanski/6245219/Roman-Polanski-backlash-as-Whoopi-Goldberg-says-director-didnt-commit-rape-rape.html

[AOCGUY]

"[he]had plied her with champagne and drugs and taken nude pictures of her in a hot tub during a fashion shoot. Polanski then had sexual intercourse with her despite her resistance ..."

Sounds like Rape-Rape to me