Film-maker is accused of rape, sexual battery and intentional affliction of severe emotional distress for alleged incident
Film-maker Roman Polanski will face a civil trial in Los Angeles in 2025 for allegedly raping a teenager in 1973.
Attorney Gloria Allred, who has represented the victims of Jeffery Epstein and Bill Cosby, confirmed in a press conference on Tuesday that a judge has set Polanski’s trial for August 2025.
Continue reading...Film-maker held to account for dismissing claim of 1983 sexual assault against Charlotte Lewis as ‘heinous lie’
The film director Roman Polanski has gone on trial for libel in Paris after accusing a British actor who claimed he abused her of “a heinous lie”.
Charlotte Lewis, who was in court in Tuesday at the opening of the hearing, said she had been the victim of a “smear campaign” after she accused the film-maker of sexually abusing her as a teenager.
Continue reading...Hollywood films vying for Golden Lion include Bradley Cooper’s Maestro and Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things, with non-competition films by Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater
The Venice film festival appears to have largely shrugged off issues caused by non-attendance of Hollywood actors due to the Sag-Aftra strike as it unveiled its lineup for its 2023 edition.
Venice has traditionally functioned partly as a platform for major American releases looking for strong positioning in the autumn awards season, and it has already seen its originally announced opening film Challengers, a tennis drama starring Zendaya, drop out after it was forced to delay its release date.
Continue reading...Prestige slot for Jeanne de Barry, featuring Depp as Louis XV, has drawn criticism but general delegate Thierry Frémaux says it is not ‘a controversial choice’
Cannes film festival general delegate Thierry Frémaux has defended the decision to hand the prestigious opening slot to Jeanne du Barry, in which Depp stars as Louis XV.
Directed by and starring Maïwenn, Jeanne du Barry is a biopic of the famous 18th-century maîtresse-en-titre, who was executed in 1793 during the French revolution. Speaking to Variety, Frémaux said it was not “a controversial choice”, adding: “If Johnny Depp had been banned from working it would have been different, but that’s not the case. We only know one thing, it’s the justice system and I think he won the legal case.”
Continue reading...District attorney George Gascón says his office has asked to unseal transcripts in effort to re-examine case
The Los Angeles district attorney’s office will no longer object to the release of documents in the 45-year-old rape case against the film director Roman Polanski, the office said on Tuesday.
George Gascón, the Los Angeles DA, said his office had reversed its position and asked to unseal the transcripts of the testimony of the former deputy district attorney Roger Gunson as part of an effort to re-examine the case against the 88-year-old film-maker.
Continue reading...Critics say best director award for J’accuse highlights a deep problem in French society
The elite world of French cinema, one of the pillars of the country’s exception culturelle, was bitterly divided after Roman Polanski was named best director at France’s equivalent of the Oscars.
Several actresses walked out on Friday night as the César was awarded to the Franco-Polish director who is still wanted in the United States after he admitted the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.
Continue reading...Activists protest against director who pleaded guilty to statutory rape in US but fled before sentencing
Police and protesters clashed briefly outside the French “Oscars” ceremony on Friday evening as the Franco-Polish film director Roman Polanski was awarded the prize for best director.
Immediately after the announcement there was shouting and booing among the audience, and the two actors who announced the award quickly left the stage.
Continue reading...Film director denies claim by Valentine Monnier about alleged incident at ski resort
A Frenchwoman has accused Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski of raping her in a Swiss ski resort when she was a teenager.
It is the latest accusation against the Polish-born director who fled from the US to France in 1978 after admitting the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.
Continue reading...Comic book movie starring Joaquin Phoenix takes top award and An Officer and a Spy wins grand jury prize
Joker, Todd Phillips’ mordant spin on Gotham’s grinning antihero, has won the Golden Lion award at the 76th Venice film festival.
The film, which stars Joaquin Phoenix as a would-be standup comic, was ecstatically received at its premiere on the Lido last weekend, with critics immediately tipping it to be the first superhero film to take the best picture Oscar.
Continue reading...Actor says she would work with Allen again ‘in a second’ and that Polanski had ‘paid his price’ for his behaviour
Actor Anjelica Huston has come out in defence of under-fire film-maker Woody Allen, and expressed sympathy for other controversial entertainment industry figures including Roman Polanski and Jeffrey Tambor.
In an outspoken and wide-ranging interview published in New York magazine, Huston was asked for her thoughts on Allen, with whom she worked on his acclaimed 1989 film Crimes and Misdemeanors. Huston said she would work with him in again “in a second”, noting that “two states investigated him, and neither of them prosecuted him”. Allen is currently in a legal dispute with Amazon, which cancelled its four-film agreement with him in the wake of his daughter Dylan’s allegations of sexual abuse and his response to the #MeToo campaign.
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