Director Lucrecia Martel is President of this year’s Venice Film Festival jury, at the opening press conference this morning, Martel admitted that Roman Polanski and the overall anti-#MeToo movement happening within the festival is somewhat problematic, but she also defended the inclusion of his latest film in competition. (via Deadline).
Read moreReport: Roman Polanski and Woody Allen set to Premiere New Movies at Venice Film Festival
According to reliable sources, the heads of the Venice Film Festival are very close to nabbing both Woody Allen’s “A Rainy Day in New York” and Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy” as part of their upcoming lineup, set to unfold from August 28th to September 9th on the Lido. This could turn out to be a much-talked about event for the movie world, as Allen and Polanski have both been, by all accounts, blacklisted in Hollywood due to decade-old allegations of sexual misconduct resurfacing in the #MeToo era.
Read moreNew Roman Polanski Film Gets Secret Presentation, U.S. Buyers Don't Show Up — Cannes
Shame on whoever didn’t send me an email invitation which read "Confidential" in the subject line today.
Read moreSigourney Weaver Defends Roman Polanski: “He’s Changed His Life”
Sigourney Weaver was asked by THR about Roman Polanski, whom she's worked with in the past, on the 1994 film “Death and the Maiden.” When asked about how it was working with Polanski, Weaver immediately voiced support for the director:
“I have to say, looking back, and I wasn’t really in Hollywood [at the time of the Polanski crimes], but things that I would hear, it was a much different time and that’s no excuse for what he did at all but all I’m saying is it stands out more now than it did at the time because people were desperate to be in movies and I think it’s unimaginable now for a mother to drop off a thirteen-year-old with someone like Roman,” she explained.
Read moreRoman Polanski’s Name Not Found in Paramount’s Marketing for ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ 50th Anniversary Re-Release
I named Roman Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby” as the 4th greatest horror movie of all-time. It is, by all accounts, a masterpiece of the genre, but very much driven by its director's style and voice. However, don't expect to find Polanski's name anywhere near Paramount’s marketing for the movie’s 50th anniversary re-release. There's an official trailer, with no Polanski, a synopsis, with no Polanski, and a poster, with no Polanski. Blasphemous? You betcha. Out of the ordinary? Well, given the current times we live in, I have to sadly be inclined to answer, of course not.
Read moreRoman Polanski's Victim Tells Media to Let It Go Already: "I've grown up, why can't everyone else?"
When Roman Polanski and Bill Cosby were expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, I was rather flabbergasted at how that committee could possibly perceive Polanski to be in the same predatorial league as Cosby.
Cosby drugged and raped more than 60 women in his life. Polanski? He had sex with Samantha Geimer, an underage teenage girl back in 1977. Polanski, angered by the Academy's decision, called it “the height of hypocrisy.” Even Geimerhas been telling news outlets to let it go and stop harassing Polanski for something that happened more than four decades ago, "I've grown up, why can't everybody else?" she recently tweeted.
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The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.