海角大神

PARIS 鈥� In Europe, the detention of director Roman Polanski in a Swiss jail on a 31-year-old US warrant is unfolding as a transatlantic cultural and legal clash.

In France, and in influential circles across Europe, the main position might be described as 鈥淔ree Polanski!鈥� But among ordinary Europeans, there鈥檚 an emerging outrage over what is seen as the elite classes defense of a man who fled justice.

The detention and possible extradition of the director of 鈥�Chinatown鈥� and 鈥�The Pianist鈥� 鈥� for fleeing the US in 1978 after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a 13-year old 鈥� has stoked animosities here about a perceived American petit bourgeoisie mentality. It also plays into a French cultural sensibility about 鈥渢he artist鈥� as a creature deserving special status and refuge.

Indeed, it is a case of crime and non-punishment worthy of a film script of aesthetic if not moral tension: An aged, Oscar-winning world celebrity who has lived three decades as a fugitive 鈥� and his now-middle age victim forgives him 鈥� is backed by the soft power of Hollywood. On the other side, California prosecutors, applying the letter of the law and doggedly chasing a man who admitted to "unlawful sex with a minor," have a case that is now laced with suspicion of legal tampering and judicial impropriety.

Polanski holds French and Polish passports. France and the US have an extradition treaty. But French citizens, like Israelis, are not extradited except under extraordinary circumstances, according to a US Embassy sources 鈥� enabling him to live in France.

Polanski鈥檚 Saturday arrest in Zurich, Switzerland, has brought a Monday roar of European official outrage and incomprehension. French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner described Polanski鈥檚 detention, en route to receive a film award, as 鈥渟inister.鈥� Cultural minister Frederic Mitterrand said, 鈥淛ust as there is an America that is generous and that we like, so there is an America that is frightening, and that is the America that has just revealed its face.鈥�

The deputy editor of the French daily L鈥橢xpress opined that US and Swiss authorities cut a deal for leniency on reporting Swiss bank shelters. Dominique Paille, spokesman for French president Nicolas Sarkozy鈥檚 party, said: 鈥淭he US is always portrayed as a great democracy and a role model.... Today we discover there is no limit on crimes and misdemeanors in that country.... Remission for good behavior does not exist.鈥�

鈥淔rance sanctifies writers and artists,鈥� argues Paris intellectual Karim Emile Bitar.鈥淔rom statements by French government officials and from Polanski鈥檚 numerous supporters in the cultural industry, there is an obvious underlying assumption: that talent and artistic genius should allow someone to get a free pass and be above the law,鈥� says Bitar.

French vs. American students
On Monday, at an international business school in Normandy, American and French students debated the case. The French entirely took Polanski鈥檚 side, and the Americans, with one exception, countered.

French students described the case as 鈥淧olanski Gate,鈥� a 鈥渂latant case of puritanism,鈥� and that 鈥渢ime has passed,鈥� according to a professor who witnessed the debate.

American students said the French did not want to hear that Polanski drugged and had sex with a 13-year old girl when he was 44, cared little for the girl鈥檚 suffering, and were exhibiting 鈥淧avlovian anti-Americanism.鈥�

Unofficial French opinions
Still, by Tuesday that French official position was taking some legal and cultural fire 鈥� aimed mainly at French elites. The website Le Point reported that 97 percent of comments opposed the French official position. Readers criticized the 鈥渉ordes from Boulevard St. Germain,鈥� a popular celebrity-intellectual area, and 鈥渢he politico-bobo-cultural elite鈥� who backed Polanski 鈥渨ith pompous sentences that defy common sense and the rule of law.鈥�

Other websites report similar comments, swinging well against Polanski.

Former student leader and current Green party member of parliament Daniel Cohn-Bendit criticized the authorities, telling French radio: 鈥淭his is a judicial problem and I think that a culture minister, even if his name is Mitterrand, should say: 鈥業 need to know the details of the case鈥欌�� This is the toughest story, because there was a rape on a 13-year-old girl. She said herself: 鈥業 didn鈥檛 file a complaint鈥� and also said 鈥業 got a lot of money.鈥欌��

The girl, now a married mother of three in Hawaii, has said that years ago she sued Polanski and settled the case out of court for an undisclosed amount of money. In January, she asked a California judge to dismiss the criminal case, and has said several times that she wishes the media coverage would stop.

Former legal columnist at Le Monde, Luc Rosenzweig, writes: 鈥淭he mobilization in Polanski鈥檚 favor is impressive: both states of which he is a citizen, Poland and France, are expressing all the more outrage since they have no chance of stopping the judicial process. Hollywood, 厂补颈苍迟-骋别谤尘补颈苍-诲别蝉-笔谤茅蝉, Prenzlauer Berg and other urban sanctuaries of culture and good taste are on the verge of insurrection and claim the immediate release of the author of the Pianist."

However, he adds: 鈥淔rom a strictly judicial point of view, Roman Polanski鈥檚 arrest at the Zurich airport is perfectly in accordance with the judicial conventions between Bern and Washington. A rape of a minor 鈥� of which Roman Polanski stands accused 鈥� does not have a statute of limitation in Swiss or American law.鈥�