Roman Polanski Blogathon - Day One

Hosted by Tom Hyland of Cinema Directives

Welcome to Day 1 of the Roman Polanski blogathon!

I have been hearing from many of you and I want to thank everyone for their contributions and interest. To start things out, I want to let you know about a wonderful blog written by Jean Melkovsky entitled Polanski-Odd Man Out. Jean greatly admires Polanski's films and calls him, "an outstanding film director and equally outstanding, though greatly slandered person."

What I love about Jean's blog is the fact that he has gone to great depths to set the record straight about Polanski's legal troubles in the US. His case has been greatly discussed and more than 30 years later, there are all sorts of versions out there that conflict with the truth. Here is an excerpt from Jean's blog, in which she refers to Samantha Geimer, the under-age girl Polanski had sex with in California (this is text from one of her recent statements):

"At the time of his arrest, my family and I consented and encouraged the then District Attorney, John van de Kamp, to enter into a plea bargain with Mr. Polanski on three conditions. That Mr. Polanski admit the conduct, show contrition, and seek assistance in changing his life. He has admitted the facts underlying the crime for which he has pled guilty. He has publicly expressed contrition, and Mr. Polanski has had a significant life change which merits consideration in connection with his attempted return to the United States"

Jean goes into great detail about all the facts of the case and includes transcripts from the trial. He also explains all the angles in this case that have emerged over the past thirty plus years. Read more of what Jean has written here

My thanks to Jean not only for letting me know about his blog, but also a big thank you to him for doing a tremendous amount of research and setting the record straight. It is clear after reading this that Polanski has been very unfairly treated in the court of public opinion.

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The Tenant (1976)

By Jean Melkovsky

Jean also has film reviews on his site. Here is an excerpt from her commentary on The Tenant.

"Whatever the tenant might do to preserve his sanity won't work. He is trying to play by their rules, which is impossible by definition, - "they" are out to get him for no other reason than because they can..."

Read more here

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The Ghost Writer (2010)

By Tony Dayoub at Cinema Viewfinder

"You see while it is rather simple to draw the parallel with Lang - rich guy with a weakness for women who has to seclude himself far from home to avoid a public trial - it is also rather evident the Ghost represents a younger version of Polanski: the young, commercially driven artist who may have sown the seeds of his own destruction when he sold out to the mainstream."

Read more here

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Chinatown (1974)
By Tom Hyland


"Gittes was once a policeman in the Chinatown district of Los Angeles, where he received advice telling him to do "as little as possible." In other words, accept the madness you will witness from day to day, as you live in a world without rules or at least a world where the rules make little sense."


Read more here

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Rosemary's Baby (1968)

By Anna at Defiant Success

"It takes a lot for a horror movie to scare the crap out of me. Like Psycho, Rosemary's Baby did just that."

Read more here