POLANSKI: “I’VE BEEN ON PROBATION LONG ENOUGH”

In a combative interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine, director Roman Polanski has complained that he still has to deal with the consequences of the tragedies of his life, including the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, by the Manson family, his guilty plea to charges of having sex with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer, and his recent arrest and detention in Switzerland following efforts by the state of California to extradite him. Polanski consented to the interview, which was conducted in his Paris office, to promote his latest film, Venus in Fur, which is being released in France today (Wednesday) and in Germany on Nov. 21 (it does not have a scheduled U.S. release), but he bridled when asked whether he takes a different view of child abuse now that he has a 20-year-old daughter himself. “It has now been more than 35 years. Would you say that I’ve been on probation long enough? If you were my probation officer, would you say that it’s okay now?” Later, Polanski maintained that he still must deal with the “consequences” of his behavior. “That’s one reason I try to avoid the press. An interview is an unpleasant event for me. Why should I submit myself to this? Dipping back into the tragedies of my life with you, which is dominant in this interview, is of course unpleasant for me. It’s a never-ending story.” Asked what it was like for him to spend two months in a Swiss prison in 2009, followed by seven months under house arrest, Polanski seethed, “Thanks for asking. What do you think it was like? It was bad for my family, especially for the children. They suffered a lot. Losing your father for almost a year at that age is terrible. And I had to finish editing The Ghost Writer. Not being able to turn in a film is the worst thing that can happen.” He said he was finally able to convince the warden to allow his editor to come to the prison and bring his editing gear. “And so we sat in a room where prisoners normally peeled onions and edited the film. There was a terrible smell of onions.”