How poisoned the debate about Roman Polanski's participation in the Venice Film Festival is mainly led by US media, was revealed in a "Breaking News" heading of the industry journal "Hollywood Reporter": "Polanski skips premiere of 'An Officer And A Spy '"- that's the name of the 86-year-old's new film in the English-speaking world. He was shown to the press in the morning with great applause, later there was a press conference in which Polanski did not attend.
Of course he did not do that: Polanski, who lives in Switzerland today, has been prosecuted by the US judiciary since 1977: he is accused of sexual abuse of a 13-year-olds. Polanski has to expect to be delivered by Italy when he arrives.
Nothing about his absence in Venice is so "breaking news", as the "Hollywood Reporter" then immediately in the opening credits of the associated article classifies. Especially as it was clear in advance of the festival that Polanski would not show up. But the title insinuated that he would skip, if not skip, possibly to escape protests and critics who see a scandal in that "J'accuse" - the name of the new film in this country - is shown in Venice.
The Polanski debate dominated the first days of the festival, after director Lucrecia Martel, chairwoman of the competition jury, had been vague about participating in the gala in honor of the film because she was reluctant to celebrate Polanski ,
In some media, it was alleged that she considered not watching the movie, which Martel corrected in an extra statement: If she were biased toward competing films, she would have quit the jury presidency.
Nevertheless, Luca Barbareschi, the Italian producer of "J'accuse", briefly threatened to withdraw the film on Thursday. At the press conference on Friday, in which also main actor Jean Dujardin and Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner took part, Barbareschi then did not allow a discussion about the "Polanski affair": This is not a moral court, he said.
But is it that easy? Rather, it is highly complicated.
Of course, Polanski's past is currently blended with current # MeToo allegations - which, see "Hollywood Reporter" headline, in truth, probably the zeitgeist of a public now extremely shortened scandal and indignation match.
Nevertheless, there was the rape of the 13-year-olds. And then again there's Polanski's new movie "J'accuse", which, that does not make it any easier, an impressively precise staged, gripping historical drama is:
Like no other film in this competition so far, Polanski's film comments on the threat of overturning the current socio-political discourse into traditional fascism patterns. As a justice thriller, the uncovering of the so-called Dreyfus affair in France is told by the intelligence chief Georges Picquard (Dujardin): Shortly before the beginning of the 20th century, the officer Alfred Dreyfus, the only Jew in his regiment, dishonorably from service because of espionage and treason dismissed and banished to the "Devil's Island", a penal colony in French Guiana.
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Against the massive resistance of his commanding Picquard unmasked, however, an ultimately anti-Semitic motivated plot against Dreyfus, who was convicted with fake evidence. The affair overthrew France into a domestic political crisis, and the state apparatus was called to account by the writer and journalist Emile Zola in his famous newspaper article entitled "J'accuse" ("I complain"). There are book burnings of Zola's works and pogrom-like scenes against Jewish shops.
It is above all these almost incidentally interspersed images that cause great discomfort, because they recall the horror of the Nazis in Germany, but at the same time make it clear once again how everyday and institutionalized hatred of Jews was decades earlier. The message is painful: Right now, as Jews and migrants are increasingly being discriminated against and persecuted all over Europe, the memory of this case of state-sanctioned anti-Semitism seems like a reminder from history.
Polanski, himself a Holocaust survivor, tells no story of sacrifice in "J'accuse". Dreyfus (Louis Garrel) plays here only a not necessarily sympathetic supporting role. The focus of the director is entirely on Picquard, the one man in a corrupt system who is not fit as a hero, but considers it his duty to bring the truth to light. Polanski's hope is clear from the scenes with Zola and the L'Aurore newspaper team, based on the integrity and moral courage of each individual, but also on the Enlightenment power of the press.
A Dreyfus affair could happen again at any time, Polanski said in an interview attached to the press footage: "All the ingredients are there to make it happen: false accusations, miserable lawsuits, corrupt judges - and especially the social media who condemn and condemn without a fair trial or the right to appeal. "
It sounds as if Polanski is misplacing his person with the mechanisms he dissects so magnificently in the film.
Sorting out more clearly, you have to endure instead of complex issues, just: Polanski is a man who has abused his power on the one hand. On the other hand, he is also a gifted director who has made a great film.