A case of morals

I have heard tell of this magical list of people whose movies I will no longer watch. Isn’t that handy?

Below are the names of the actors, directors, and others who have signed a petition demanding the release of Roman Polanski. The petition statement, also below, mainly makes it seem as if the signers are under the impression that Polanski’s arrest has something to do with the death of art; i.e. being arrested for rape is actually censorship. I guess I missed that Bizarro world where Polanski claimed drugging and raping a 13 year old was actually a form of art. Perhaps he had it down to one.

Bonus: the petition glosses over the crime artistic endeavor he was arrested persecuted for, calling it a “case of morals.”

Thanks, petition! You have whittled down my spiraling Netflix list just so.

God, I love the internet. In what other medium could you immediately create, acquire, and share a list of people who think rape is okay.

Excuse the bad formatting. The website that hosts this petition has an ass format.

Petition for Roman Polanski

We have learned the astonishing news of Roman Polanski’s arrest by the Swiss police on September 26th, upon arrival in Zurich (Switzerland) while on his way to a film festival where he was due to receive an award for his career in filmmaking.

His arrest follows an American arrest warrant dating from 1978 against the filmmaker, in a case of morals.

Filmmakers in France, in Europe, in the United States and around the world are dismayed by this decision. It seems inadmissible to them that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, is used by the police to apprehend him.

By their extraterritorial nature, film festivals the world over have always permitted works to be shown and for filmmakers to present them freely and safely, even when certain States opposed this.

The arrest of Roman Polanski in a neutral country, where he assumed he could travel without hindrance, undermines this tradition: it opens the way for actions of which no-one can know the effects.

Roman Polanski is a French citizen, a renown and international artist now facing extradition. This extradition, if it takes place, will be heavy in consequences and will take away his freedom.

Filmmakers, actors, producers and technicians – everyone involved in international filmmaking – want him to know that he has their support and friendship.

On September 16th, 2009, Mr. Charles Rivkin, the US Ambassador to France, received French artists and intellectuals at the embassy. He presented to them the new Minister Counselor for Public Affairs at the embassy, Ms Judith Baroody. In perfect French she lauded the Franco-American friendship and recommended the development of cultural relations between our two countries.

If only in the name of this friendship between our two countries, we demand the immediate release of Roman Polanski.

Erika Abrams

Fatih Akin

Yves Alberty

Stephane Allagnon

Woody Allen

Pedro Almodovar

Gianni Amelio

Wess Anderson

Michel Andrieu

Roger Andrieux

Jean-Jacques Annaud

Tomas Arana

Frédéric Aranzueque-Arrieta

Alexandre Arcady

Fanny Ardant

Asia Argento

Marie-Hélène Arnau

Darren Aronofsky

Olivier Assayas

Alexander Astruc

Gabriel Auer

Zdzicho Augustyniak

Alexandre Babel

Vladimir Bagrianski

Lubomila Bakardi

Fausto Nicolás Balbi

Eleonor Baldwin

Jean-François Balmer

Alberto Barbera

Museo nazionale de Torino

Luc Barnier

Christophe Barratier

Ernest Barteldes

Carmen Bartl

Pascal Batigne

Anne Baudry

Juan Antonio Bayona

Xavier Beauvois

Liria Begeja

Matthieu Béguelin

Gilles Behat

Jean-Jacques Beineix

Marco Bellochio

Yannick Bellon

Florence Bellone

Monica Bellucci

Véra Belmont

Jacqueline Belon

Jean-Marc Benguigui

Djamel Bennecib

Luc Béraud

Jacob Berger

Alain Berliner

Gael Garcia Bernal

Pascal Berney

Xavier Berry

Bernardo Bertolucci

Giuseppe Bertolucci

Jean-Marie Besset

Marlène Bisson

Arnstein Bjørkly

Lucien Blacher

Jean-Marc Bloch

Léa Bloch

Catherine Boissière

Anne-Sylvie Bonaud

Olivier Bonnet

Thierry Boscheron

Renata Bosco

Freddy Bossy

Patrick Bouchitey

Cédric Bouchoucha

Paul Boujenah

Frédéric Bourboulon

Katia Boutin

Ian Brady

Jacques Bral

Sophie Bramly

Paulo Branco

Patrick Braoudé

Guila Braoudé

Edwin Brienen

Adrien Brody

Isabelle Broué

Max Brun

Merima Bruncevic

Anne Burki

André Buytaers

Emilie Buzyn

Anthony Byrne

Marco Cacioppo

Gerald Calderon

Monica Cannizzaro

Peggy Carajopoulou-Vavali

John Carchietta

Christian Carion

Henning Carlsen

Jean-Michel Carré

Esteban Carvajal Alegria

Lionel Cassan

Bryan Cassiday

Miss Catadler

Mathieu Celary

Teco Celio

Muriel Cerf

Dabiel Chabannes

Thierry Chabert

Chagi

Jean-Yves Chalangeas

Daniel Champagnon

Christophe Champclaux

Georges Chappedelaine

Fabienne Chauveau

Claire Chazal

Patrice Chéreau

Brigitte Chesneau

Michel Chevalier

Mishka Cheyko

Catherine Chiono

Catherine Chouchan

Elie Chouraqui

Elie Chouraqui

Souleymane Cissé

Jean- Pierre Clech

Henri Codenie

Robert Cohen

Catherine Colassin

Suzanne Colonna

Jean-Paul Commin

Anne Consigny

Alain Cophignon

Alain Corneau

Jérôme Cornuau

Guy Courtecuisse

Miguel Courtois

Antoine Courtray

Guillaume Cousin

Morgan Crestel

Rudyard Cretenet

Dominique Crevecoeur

Penelope Cruz

Alfonso Cuaron

Estelle Cywje

Frédéric Damien

Sophie Danon

Olivier Dard

Luc et Jean-Pierre Dardenne

Isabelle Dassonville

Bruno de Almeida

Bruno de Almeida

Marion de Blaÿ

François de Lamothe

Hervé de Luze

Artus de Penguern

Valérie de Saint-Do

Virginie De Wilde

Olivier Debert

Viviane Decuypere

Guillermo del Toro

Benoît Delmas

Michel Deloore

Jonathan Demme

Nicolaine den Breejen

Ruud den Dryver

Louisa Dent

dwin Dervaux

Dante Desarthe

Romain Desbiens

Sophie Deschamps

Thomas Desjonquères

Alexandre Desplat

Chris Devi

Rosalinde et Michel Deville

Guillaume D’Ham

Christelle Didier

Kathrin DiPaola

Claire Dixsaut

Julien Doger

Xavier Dolan

Ariel Dorfman

Jean Douchet

Fabrice du Welz

Marina Duarte Nunes Ferreira

Danièle Dubroux

Marc Dufrenois

François Duhamel

Sissi Duparc

Jean Dusaussoy

Georges Dybman

Daniel Edinger

Arne Eickenberg

Yaniv Elani

Gerónimo Elortegui

Elrem

Sam Enoch

Peter Lucas Erixon

Ann Eyckmans

Jacques Fansten

Joël Farges

Gianluca Farinelli (Cinémathèque de de Bologne)

Etienne Faure

Maud et Romain Ferrari

Michel Ferry

Jean Teddy Filippe

Aurélie Fiorentino

Alan Fischer

Martine Fitoussi

Sebastian Fleischhacker

Joy Fleury.

Michael Flynn

Hugues Fontenoy

Scott Foundas

Werner Fraai

Jean-Robert Franco

Stephen Frears

Marion Frelat

Thierry Frémaux

Marc Freycon

Nadine Fruchard

Sam Gabarski

Jean Francois Gaillard

René Gainville

Sara Gandolfi

Matteo Garone

Yves Gasser

Tony Gatlif

Catherine Gaudin-Montalto

Jean-Marc Gauthier

Costa Gavras

Nathalie Geiser

Lizi Gelber

Isabelle Gély

Jean-Marc Ghanassia

Alain Gil

Véronique Gillet

Terry Gilliam

Christian Gion

François Girault

Stéphane Gizard

Nelson Gonzalez

Carlos Miguel Bernardo González

Christophe Goumand

Michel Gras

Eric Gravereau

Martin Gregus

Thierry Grizard

Philippe Gruss            Florent Guézengar

Marc Guidoni

Marta Gutowska

Mikael Håfström

Ronald Harwood

Dimitri Haulet

Geert Heirbaut

Buck Henry

Nicole Herbaut de Lamothe

David Heyman

Laurent Heynemann

Joshua Highfield

Dominique Hollier

Isabelle Hontebeyrie

Frédéric Horiszny

Robert Hossein

Jean-Loup Hubert

Wendy Hudson

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Gilles Jacob

Eric et Veronique et Nicolas Jacquelin

Just Jaeckin

Thomas Jahn

Olivia Janik

Jean-Baptiste Jay

Anne Jeandet

Marie Jergan

Alain Jessua

Renate Jett

Sébastien Jimenez

Arthur Joffé

Pierre Jolivet

Kent Jones (World Cinema Foundation)

Peter Josy

Alexandra Julen

Paola Jullian

Roger Kahane

Pierre Kalfon

Elisabeth Kalinowski

Reena Kanji

Nelly Kaplan

Wong Kar Waï

Nicolas Kermel

Darius Khondji

Ladislas Kijno

Muriel Kintziger

Richard Klebinder

Jonathan Klein

Harmony Korinne

Jan Kounen

Chantal Krakowski

Sylvia Kristel

Diane Kurys

Elzbieta Kusak-Majchrzak

Emir Kusturica

Irene Kuznetzova

Jean Labadie

Eliane Lacroux

Eric Lagesse

Michel Laigle

Stéphane Lam

John Landis

Claude Lanzmann

David Lanzmann

André Larquié

Pauline Larrieu

Jacques et Françoise Lassalle

Marc Latil

Carole Laure

Christine Laurent-Blixen

Pierre Laville

Emilien Lazaron

Eric Le Roy

Pierre Le Scouarnec

Fábio Leal

Vinciane Lecocq

Patrice Leconte

Linda Lefebvre

Béatrice Lefoulon

Delphine Legros

Claude Lelouch

Ann Lemonnier

Julieta Lencina

Alain Lenglet

Gérard Lenne

Les Nanaqui

Larry Levine

Charlotte Levy

Lorraine Lévy

Pierre et Renée Lhomme

Katarzyna Lipinska

Jean-Claude Irving Longin

Marceline Loridan-Ivens

Michael Louis Wells

Boris Loundine

Rachel Lowenstein

Catalina Lozano

Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski

Flore Luquet

Laurence Lustyk

David Lynch

Bania Madjbar

Krzysztof Majchrzak

Laurent Malet

Tim Malieckal

Guy Malugani

Erling Mandelmann

Michael Mann

Yvon Marciano

François Margolin

Jean-Pierre Marois

Tonie Marshall

Alain Martin

Sandrine Martin

Danielle Martinetti

Florent Martinez

Didier Martiny

Mario Martone

Thierry Mathelin

Christine Mathis

Esmeralda Mattei

Nicolas Mauvernay

Yannick Mazet

Christopher

Spencer et Claire Mc Andrew

Natalie Mei            Guillermo Menaldi

Mathieu Mercier

Muriel Mercier

Frédéric Mermoud

Laura Metaxa

Allison Michel

Radu Mihaileanu

Jean-Louis Milesi

Claude Miller

Lionel Miniato

Nelly Moaligou

Jean – Marc Modeste

Mario Monicelli

Jeanne Moreau

Frédéric Moreau

Sarah Moreau-Flament

Gael Morel

Omayra Muñiz Fernández

Stephanie Murat

Christian Mvogo Mbarga

Anna N.Levine

Charles Nemes

Juliette Nicolas-Donnard

Sandra Nicolier

Rachel Noël

Rui Nogueira

Olivier Nolin

Alejandra Norambuena Skira

Fabrice Nordmann

Fabrice O. Joubert

Marc Obéron

Michel Ocelot

David Ogando

Mariana Oliveira Santos

Szentgyörgyi Ottó

Martine Pagès

Eric Pape

Abner Pastoll

Alexander Payne

Nicola Pecorini

Richard Pena (Directeur Festival de NY)

Lindsey Pence

Olivier Père

Suzana Peric

Jacques Perrin

Cesare Petrillo

Thomas Pibarot

Michel Piccoli

Arnaud Pierrichon

Stéphane Pietri

Anne Pigeon Bormans

Samuel Pinon

Claude Pinoteau

Michele Placido

Sabrina Poidevin

Agnès Catherine Poirier

Jean-Yves Potel

Stéphane Pozderec

Harry Prenger

Jean et Marie Prévost

Gilbert Primet

Marie-Hélène Raby

Philippe Radault

Tristan Rain

Florence Raphaël

Florence Raphel

Jean-Paul Rappeneau

Joseph Rassam

Rolandas Rastauskas

Brett Ratner

Raphael Rebibo

Carol Reid

Jo Reymen

Laurence Reymond

Yasmina Reza

Christiane Rhein

Jacques Richard

Dominique Robert

Margarita Robski

Jean-Jacques Rochut

Christian Rogler

Yannick Rolandeau

Paul Rondags

Avital Ronell

Frank Roozendaal

Graciela Rosato

Elisabeth Roudinesco

Kontochristopoulou Roula

Laurence Roulet

Joshua Rout

Paolo Roversi

Isabelle Ruh

Martin Ruhe

Sonia Rykiel

Anita S. Chang

Esteban S. Goffin

JOAQUÍN Sabina

Marc Saffar

Ludivine Sagnier

Gabriela Salazar Scherman

Walter Salles

Jean-Paul Salomé

Jean-Frédéric Samie

Marc Sandberg

Léo Scalpel

Jerry Schatzberg

Richard Schlesinger

Daniel Schmidt

Georg Schmithüsen

Julian Schnabel

Pierre Schoendoerffer

Barbet Schroeder

J. Neil Schulman

Pierre Schumacher

Pierre-Alexandre Schwab

Ettore Scola

Luis Gustavo Sconza

Zaratin Soares

Martin Scorsese

Carole Scotta

Steven Sedgwick

Andrea Sedlackova

Frank Segier

Michèle Seguin-Sirhugue

Guy Seligmann

Elis Semczuk

Lorenzo Semple Jr

Julien Seri

Joël Séria

Catherine Sermet

Ken Seton-Vyhnal

Sophie Sharkov

Boris Shlafer

Antoine Silber

Pierre Silvant

Charlotte Silvera

Noel Simsolo

Christophe Sirodeau

Abderrahmane Sissako

Beatrice Sisul

Petter Skavlan

Marcin Sokolowski

Loïc Sorel

Paolo Sorrentino

Vassilis Sourapas

Roch Stephanik

Karen Stetler

Denise Stieglitz

Guillaume Stirn

Bernard Stora

Gérard Stum

Jean-Marc Surcin

Tilda Swinton

Piotrek Szymanek

Jean-Charles Tacchella

Radovan Tadic

Mickael Tanguy

Danis Tanovic

Bertrand Tavernier

André Techiné

Cécile Telerman

Harold Alvarado Tenorio

Marie-Ange Terrier

Alain Terzian

Christian Texier

Jean-Paul Thaens

Valentine Theret

Virginie Thévenet

Pascal Thomas

Jeremy Thomas

Marc Thomas Charley

Cyril Thurston

Giuseppe Tornatore

Serge Toubiana

Daniel Treichler

Nadine Trintignant

Julie Turcas

Mitja Tu_ek

Tom Tykwer

Alexandre Tylski

Stephen Ujlaki

José Antonio

Valdés Peña

Jaques Vallotton

Phil van der Linden

Betrand van Effenterre

Leopold van Genechten

Christophe van Rompaey

Dorna van Rouveroy

Elbert van Strien

Vangelis

Alessio Vannetti

Lucília Verdelho da Costa

Christian Verdu

Jean-Pierre Vergne

Sarah Vermande

Julien Veyret

Francesco Vezzoli

Régine Vial

Vivien Villani

Marc Villemain

Jean-François Villemer

Daria Vinault

Verde Visconti

Alain Vorimore

Thomas Vossart

Gilles Walusinski

Eric Watton

Monika Weibel

Dominique Welinski

Wim Wenders

Andy Whittaker

Anaïse Wittmann

A Wolanin

Margot Wolfs

Peter Woltil

Arnaud Xainte

Steve Yeo

Paule Zajdermann

Christian Zeender

Terry Zwigoff

- l’Académie des César
- l’API (Association des producteurs Indépendants)
- l’ARP
- l’ARRF – Association des Réalisateurs et réalisatrices de Films – Belgique
- la Cinémathèque Française
- la Cinémathèque de Dijon / Cinémathèque Jean Douchet
- le Festival de Cannes
- le Festival des Rencontres internationales du cinéma de patrimoine de Vincennes
- le Fonds Culturel Franco Américain
- le Groupe 25 images
- Members of the European Producers Club
- la SACD
- Le Bureau National du SFA
- le SPI
- Le Syndicat National des Techniciens de la Production Cinématographique et de Télévision
- l’Union des producteurs de films
- L’équipe du dernier film de Roman Polanski « Ghost »
- Pathé
- Scott Foundas (LA Weekly)