The Weekly Whims Of HatManJim: Shit Vampire Films And Rape… Things To Consider About Roman Polanski

HatManJim // A weather-beaten eye cast over the media: HatManJim looks at a story in the headlines and as a feminist with a penis (Menimist? Femi-meni-mist? I just believe i n women’s rights, I’m not having gender-reassignment. OK?), attempts to map the sexism inherent in the press, without inadvertently saying anything lecherous about breasts.

The whole point of this column is contradiction. The point is that I believe in feminism and espouse it whilst staring at your tits.

Now, how much this is true and how much this is a persona created for dramatic effect I will leave for you, dear readers, to decide. But one thing I have noted is that contradiction seems to be quite prevalent in the echelons of liberal/creatives (of which I snivellingly consider myself a part).

A topical case in point would be film director Roman Polanski, currently cooling his heels in a jail in Switzerland. I know that his situation has already been covered on this site in an objective and even-handed way in the article Roman Polanski Should Be Shot so I wont go into too much detail. I am more interested in the reaction of certain people to his case.

The contradiction here, from that liberal/creative standpoint is that rape and paedophilia are, generally speaking, bad things. But not, it seems, when the perpetrator is a genius.

I’m not that well acquainted with the films of Roman Polanski but a lifetime of insomnia has acquainted me with one of his earliest works: The Fearless Vampire Killers (also known as “Dance of the Vampires”), which came about in 1967, five years after his feature debut, Knife in the Water and a year before his commercial breakthrough Rosemary’s Baby. It’s one of those films that tend to act as a filler for schedulers when there is nothing else to show at 1am.

My booze-filled memories of this film are that it has a genuinely odd and overwhelming visual style that has always endeared it to me. But generally it fails in that it is not actually funny. Polanski has no excuse – as well as directing he co-wrote and starred in it. If anything says vanity project this is it. At this point I think its fair to say Polanski’s vanity was baseless.

Here’s a clip.

Now I know I’m going to get various people pointing out that I can’t judge the man on the strength of one film and they are quite right. But it certainly opens up debate and allows me to question exactly how much artistic vision it took to decide that camp, German vampires are funny.

So the term “genius” is debatable. The fact that he cajoled into getting drunk, drugged and then raped (both vaginally and anally) a 13 year old is not.  Polanski has claimed that she was sexually experienced (she had by her own admission had sex twice before) and consented. This is irrelevant. She was 13 – that alone means it was statutory rape. The fact that she didn’t wholeheartedly resist is something that Polanski’s defenders could, and probably have, used against her. But according to this court transcript (which is from the web and I, therefore, cannot completely vouch for) it was for a simple reason; “I was afraid of him”.

I’m a great believer in the idea of the artistic libertine. But genius does not pardon monstrosity.

HatManJim’s column will appear every Saturday.