Roman Polanski | Roman Polanski
Aug.16.2012
Does knowledge of the artist affect the perception of the art?
Have you ever watched the superbly crafted horror film “Rosemary’s Baby”? Does your enjoyment of the movie change when you learn that the director, Roman Polanski, was arrested for and plead guilty to statutory rape? ...
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May.23.2010
Genius and the lure of young flesh.
Until recently, in the western world, the right of a Great Man to man-handle a reluctant, pliant young woman was simply not questioned. With the advent of sexual harassment laws, the old order is under attack. It won't go down easily. Novels by and about angry...
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May.10.2010
I've just posted a new short story on my main blog over at Wordpress--a tale of psychological suspense titled "Bedevilled".
This one was inspired by incidents we're all familiar with--a delusional individual enacting a horrific crime for motives that are obscure...or completely...
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May.02.2010
I’ve been feeling like Woody Allen in one of his early movies where he’s sitting among dour people on a stopped train, and he looks over and sees another train with happy, laughing people. For me, the other train is filled with people reading and loving the book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by...
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Apr.29.2010
Every week or so an alert zaps into my email account informing me that I can read my books for nothing in Norwegian. My Norwegian’s not exactly fluent and I can read my books for nothing any time. But that’s not the point.
Scandinavia is a major center of so-called Cyberpunks who have willfully...
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Apr.23.2010
Robert Harris has been one of my favorite authors since I first laid hands on “Fatherland,” his “what if the Nazis had won” thriller. “Enigma” and “Archangel” were even better. His first two Roman ventures “Pompei” and “Imperium” were by no means the worst books I read in the years of their...
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Dec.06.2009
The other night, in the midst of a period of discussions of L’Affaire Polanski, where I am of the leave-the-old-scoundrel-alone persuasion, we caught, via On-Demand, the semi-charming 1987 release, “In the Mood” (Patrick Dempsey, Talia Balsam, Beverly D’Angelo), based on true events. It...
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Nov.28.2009
I recently re-watched most of HBO’s documentary on Roman Polanski. Since he’s been a frequent topic of discussion here, I thought some of the facts it recounts might be of interest. 1. Polanski pled guilty to unlawful sexual misconduct with a minor, a crime which connotes participation in...
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Nov.08.2009
Okay, so here we go.... I swore I'd never write about this, and haven't in the nearly 40 years since it happened, but since there's been so much attention focused on a similar crime committed more than 30 years ago by Roman Polanski, I thought it might be helpful to hear from someone who knows...
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Oct.08.2009
When the Roman Polanski story broke, I pretty much ignored it: A paedophile, albeit a very successful and famous one, was finally brought to book and about time. Then the media circus started, led by Polanski's equally or more successful and famous friends who insisted that "genius" was...
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