Director Roman Polanski has spoken out about the decades-old rape case in which he pleaded guilty and the extradition order that he flouted by fleeing America.
“As you know Samantha Geimer has been asking for over 30 years for this thing to end,” Polanski said about the victim, who was 13 years old in 1977 when he drugged and raped her. “But, I’m sorry the judges who dealt with it the last 40 years were corrupted, one covering for the other. So I don’t know, maybe one of them will (eventually) stop doing it.”
Polanski was speaking to The Hollywood Reporter during the Zurich Film Festival, where his latest movie, Based on a True Story, was premiered.
“On March 11, 1977 Polanski, at the time the toast of Hollywood as the director of Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown, was arrested and charged with drugging and raping then-13-year-old Samantha Gailey (now Samantha Geimer,” The Hollywood Reporter reminded readers. “As part of a plea bargain, Polanski pled guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, underwent psychiatric evaluation and spent 42 days in jail. But in 1978, when he heard that a judge was going to disregard the plea bargain and make an example of him, reportedly by giving him up to 50 years in prison, Polanski fled to Paris. He has remained a fugitive ever since, despite repeated attempts, including several pleas by the victim, Samantha Geimer, to have the case dismissed.”
In September, a California judge rejected Geimer’s request, saying that the Polanski case needs to be heard in court.
“As far as what I did: It’s over. I pleaded guilty,” Polanski said in the interview. “I went to jail. I came back to the United States to do it, people forget about that, or don’t even know. I then was locked up here (in Zurich) after this festival. So in the sum, I did about 4 or 5 times more than what was promised to me.”
Based on a True Story has been screened at the Cannes and Zurich film festivals and will also be shown at the Mumbai Film Festival. Emmanuelle Seigner plays an author who develops a relationship with a mysterious woman (Eva Green) while trying to overcome writer’s block and depression.
