Protesters disrupt Polanski retrospective after new rape allegations

PARIS (Reuters) - Protesters have disrupted the opening of a retrospective of Roman Polanski’s work in Paris following new rape allegations against the French-Polish film director.

Feminist protesters gather outside the Cinematheque Francaise to demonstrate upon the appearance of director Roman Polanski at an event organised by Cinematheque Francaise in Paris, France, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

Some 80 protesters outside the Cinematheque Française, which is showcasing Polanski’s films next month, banged on windows and carried posters with slogans such as, “If rape is an art, give Polanski all the (French movie award) Cesars”.

Two members of the Femen group briefly exposed their breasts and shouted “no honors for rapists” in the presence of Polanski before security pushed them outside.

Polanski, who had entered the building through a back entrance, was set to present his new movie “Based on a True Story” at the event.

Earlier this month, Swiss prosecutors said a former German actress and model had told authorities that Polanski raped her at his mountain chalet in 1972 when she was 15 years old.

Langer is one of four women who have publicly accused Polanski, 84, of sexually assaulting them when they were teenagers.

The allegations predate the Hollywood film mogul Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal.

(L-R) Director Costa Gavras, French actor Emmanuelle Seigner, director Roman Polanski and Cinematheque's General Director Frederic Bonnaud pose prior to the screening of Polanski's movie "D'apres une histoire vraie" (Based on a true story) at the Cinematheque in Paris, France, October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

Polanski, director of classic films like Rosemary’s Baby, The Pianist and Carnage, has fled U.S. sentencing in 1978 for unlawful sex with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in Los Angeles in 1977 in a case where he pleaded guilty at the time.

“Polanski has no place in an homage organized by a public cultural institution in France. He should be in a US court of justice,” Raphaelle Remy-Leleu, spokeswoman for feminist group “Osez le féminisme” said on French CNews television.

She said the Cinematheque Française was “spitting in the face of victims of male aggression” and complicit to the impunity of the aggressors.

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The Cinema said in a statement to French media that the organization is honoring Pulaski’s work and wants to steer clear of the legal case against him. French Culture Minister Francoise Nissen has also defended the Pulaski retrospective.

“This is about his life’s work, not about the man,” she said on radio France Inter on Friday.

In a statement to Reuters last week, Pulaski’s lawyer Here Tem mime reiterated that Pulaski has acknowledged having had a sexual relationship with Geiger, and repeated that he strongly denies all other allegations against him as totally baseless.

In 2009, Swiss authorities arrested Pulaski on his arrival in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival. Two months later, he was released on bail and put under “house arrest” in his Gstaad chalet.

In July 2010, he was released from house arrest after authorities decided against extradition because of potential technical faults in the U.S. request and because he had for years come to Switzerland in good faith.

Writing and additional reporting by Geert De Clercq

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