Kate Winslet really looks great. The poster really captures the essence of the play, which I hope is translated into the movie.
God of Carnage always reminded me of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Maybe this film will follow in the other's footsteps and garner Oscar noms for all four of them.
Polanski is the main reason I think this will be a fantastic project. He's just an incredibly brilliant director, CHINATOWN and specially ROSEMARY'S BABY are some of the best movies I've seen. This cast and Polanski together could create something really special. Love the poster.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Great design. Although I'm not sure I like the change of title. Makes it sound like a musical version, everything but the exclamation point at the end.
Not only did he commit a heinous crime, he fled from the punishment, shows no demonstrable remorse, and seems to think that he is above the law because he is an acclaimed director. Sadly, this perception of his is likely true because he did not have to serve his sentence. Plus he still directs movies, actors still appear in his films, and audiences still see them.
I don't care how great of a director he is, what he did was reprehensible and I will never give any money to see his work. I know that you often have to separate the artist from the person, but when it comes to certain actions I just cannot do it.
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
The title change is unnecessary. Henrik, I did laugh at your comment that it sounds like the musical version, CARNAGE!
Polanski has said that the whole film (or a majority of it, can't remember exact quote) takes place in the apartment so I imagine it's going to be very claustrophobic, tense, and hopefully funny too. The only person I'm still not sold on is Jodie Foster just because I've never seen her being as hilarious as Marcia Gay Harden was in the stage production, but Polanski is a master of getting the right performance out of his actors.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
What Polanski has done in his private life, and what he has more or less gotten away with is between himself and the legal system. He may not be a good man, but he is a damn fine director. Nobody is asking me to hang out with the guy, they are just asking me to watch his movies, and that I will do. Carnage is one of the films I am looking forward to this year.
Not only did he commit a heinous crime, he fled from the punishment, shows no demonstrable remorse, and seems to think that he is above the law because he is an acclaimed director
Not to open this Pandora's box but Polanski has never expressed an attitude that says he is "above the law," he fled the country only after serving time and learning that the settlement that his lawyers had reached was not being honored. You can hate what he did and look at it as an isolated event, but you should at least get the facts right and not say that he "shows no demonstrable remorse" and that he thinks he is "above the law," because neither one of those statements is true.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Thanks Ray, I wanted to offer a similar statement, but I just didn't have the political will. As you've stated, the Polanski's leaving the country is much more complicated than his merely being a fugitive who couldn't face the music. The system was extremely corrupt and unfair in the handling of his case.
Which in no way excuses the crime itself.
Finally, just as I can allow myself to enjoy Wagner, Joan Crawford, Woody Allen, Ezra Pound, Norman Mailer and other artists in spite of the fact that I object, and in some cases revile, certain horrible acts they have committed, or evils they promoted, I feel no remorse in admiring Polanski's films.
Not to open this Pandora's box but Polanski has never expressed an attitude that says he is "above the law," he fled the country only after serving time and learning that the settlement that his lawyers had reached was not being honored.
That's not 100% true.
According to court documents obtained by the Smoking Gun, Polanski was fully aware that the plea bargain he reached with the 12-year-old's attorneys (not a settlement) would not have to be upheld by the judge.
He expected to do a 90 day psych evaluation and get probation afterwards. He did 42 days of that, and when he learned that he'd probably face jail time, he fled.
I'm not saying that the judge didn't have an agenda, but it's not quite as black and white as "the judge was corrupt, so Polanski fled injustice."
It was more like, "Polanski didn't think he did anything wrong, so he just went home."
(Though I personally think he definitely did something wrong. According to testimony by the little girl, he gave her alcohol and a Quaalude. And according to her, she repeatedly told him to stop. And, on top of it all, she was 12 at the time.
But it's not like he's ever going to step foot in a country that could possibly extradite him ever again, so oh well. That's "Hollywood justice" for ya.)
Of course, it wasn't an isolated event. Polanski started seeing Nastassja Kinski...when she was 15. Not long after the whole 'rape of a 12 year old' thing.
Not only did he ply the vicitm with a auaalude, he sodomized her in order to keep her from getting pregnant. Not that I have anything against sodomy. But on a 12 year old girl? Come now.
Generally, I won't pay money to see any of his films. If Rosemary's Baby is on TV, though, I'll watch that. It's my minor moral compromise regarding this issue.
Well, Polanski claims that she took the quaalude herself, not at his urging. But the fact remains that even if she did take it herself, she was not in any mental state to legally consent to sex even if she had been of age.
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
"According to court documents obtained by the Smoking Gun, Polanski was fully aware that the plea bargain he reached with the 12-year-old's attorneys (not a settlement) would not have to be upheld by the judge."
Huh? The 12-year-old was not a party to the criminal case, she was the complaining witness. The plea agreement was with the L.A. District Attorney's Office, who were not the child's attorneys; they represented the State of California, not her.
Also worth noting that Polanski's victim has publicly advocating for dropping all charges against him:
In her declaration, Samantha Geimer said, "I am no longer a 13-year-old child. I have dealt with the difficulties of being a victim, have surmounted and surpassed them with one exception.
"Every time this case is brought to the attention of the Court, great focus is made of me, my family, my mother and others. That attention is not pleasant to experience and is not worth maintaining over some irrelevant legal nicety, the continuation of the case."
Geimer, who has spoken publicly about the case before, including a 2003 appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live," added, "I have survived, indeed prevailed, against whatever harm Mr. Polanski may have caused me as a child."
She chided the district attorney's office for not dismissing the case earlier and for "yet once again (giving) great publicity to the lurid details of those events, for all to read again. True as they may be, the continued publication of those details cause harm to me ... I have become a victim of the actions of the District Attorney."
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body