Just yesterday, we discussed Roman Polanski’s comments at the Zurich Film Festival. Polanski was/is in Zurich to promote his new film, Based on a True Story, and during the media availability at the festival, he talked about how his case should be over by now because he “went to jail” (for about a month) and then spent the next four decades swinging around Europe, a fugitive from justice. Polanski’s fugitive status is based on a crime he committed in 1977, where he drugged and raped a 13-year-old named Samantha Geimer. Well, on the heels on Polanski’s appearance in Zurich, another woman has come forward with a claim that Polanski sexually assaulted her.
Just a day after making a rare public comment about his 1970s rape case, Roman Polanski has been accused of sexual misconduct by another woman. Renate Langer, a 61-year-old former actress from Germany, has filed a report with the Swiss police accusing Polanski of raping her at a house in Gstaad when she was 15 in Feb. 1972, according to The New York Times.
Langer is now the fourth woman to publicly accuse the Rosemary’s Baby director of sexual assault. According to the outlet, the public prosecutor’s office is still deciding if she can pursue a criminal complaint. Switzerland has reportedly eliminated its statute of limitations on child sex cases, but the law still limits prosecution in older cases.
Langer told The New York Times that she came forward in hopes that the law would allow her claim to be investigated. She also explained that she kept quiet about the incident at the time, mostly in fear of her parents’ reaction.
“My mother would have had a heart attack,” she told the outlet. “I felt ashamed and embarrassed and lost and solo.” A lawyer for Polanski reportedly declined to comment.
I didn’t realize that Renate Langer was the fourth woman overall to accuse Polanski of rape or assault. Yikes. And Langer’s situation happened years before Samantha Geimer. Ugh. It’s interesting to me that Switzerland has a different set of laws in which there’s no statute of limitations for sex crimes. That’s good – that’s how it should be in America too, especially with the advances in DNA testing and the backlog for testing rape kits. There should be no statute of limitations on prosecuting rape and sexual assault, in my opinion. As for Langer’s claim… I believe her. And I’m very concerned that Polanski has been assaulting and raping teenage girls in Europe for decades now.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
What a world. 🙁
He’s so disgusting. It kills me that he’s considered some amazing “artiste” and is allowed to roam free
It kills me that actors, producers, writers, etc. will overlook the fact that he is a sexual predator and child rapist to work with him.
Agreed 100%
This! I agree with you Megan. I mean this guy and Woody allen are monsters. They’ve sexually assaulted CHILDREN! How can you work with someone like that?! I won’t even watch their movies anymore. If you are so effed up that you are ok with enabling this monstrous behavior then shame on you. How selfish.
@Margo, you do Polanski a favor by grouping him with Allen. Don’t do it. Allen was investigated and never charged. He has denied and has reasonable doubt. There is no doubt with Polanski. He’s charged; convicted; ADMITTED!! Hatred against Allen may be well placed but grouping him with Polanski subtly groups Polanski in the “we don’t know for sure” area, especially for those who don’t know the cases well. We know with Polanski. We know. The legal system knows. 100%.
@Mia, Woody was investigated and the case was dropped because it was deemed to be too harmful to Dylan to proceed, despite the evidence.
A commenter on the last thread left a great link.
Allen has just done a better job at revamping his image, and a better job at picking his victims. I mean, just like Polanski, he’s married one. I think the comparisons are apt because they are on the same spectrum of awful, those two.
@Detritus the case was dropped because there was no prospect of a conviction on the evidence collected. If you have the evidence you proceed and take steps to minimize harm to the alleged victim. EVERY alleged child victim is fragile. To put it back on the alleged child-victim in a press conference (which is what the prosecutor did) is unconscionable. “Gee honey if only you’d been stronger, we could have charged him”. For the prosecution to go before the press and say “yeah I totally had the evidence but I’m not going to let him defend himself, oh and it’s on the kid”, is beyond unprofessional. What an AWFUL thing to put on that poor girl. Who explained it to her that way?? That’s horrendous.
My point was it’s easy to explain why Allen still works successfully. No charges, no conviction, no further allegations, reasonable doubt. I may not like it, but I get it. There is none of that to explain Polanski. None. Polanski fled the rape conviction and started “dating” 15 year old Nastassia Kinski. I mean…
Don’t you love white rich man privilege? Esp in hollywood where these predators are often “genius” when in reality they abuse countless women. Given the position of power these guys have (directors, producers, studio heads) its a wonder everyone in hollywood isn’t complete f*cked
Not just white. Look at Cosby…OJ… and before you tell me OJ went to jail, it was for armed robbery. And OJ was still getting white girlfriends prior to that.
Boggles the mind; HOW can a woman be with monsters like these subhumans, and they *are* subhuman, (I won’t upgrade them and call them animals, animals wouldn’t do this to other animals). Allen, Polanski, OJ, Cosby…. just makes me sick to my stomach.
Please, Switzerland, finally serve justice for these women. I can only imagine how many more there are out there that don’t want to come forward due to his fame and power. Please stop rewarding this man Hollywood.
Exactly. That’s why I said yesterday that regardless of whether one of his victims forgives him or not (they have the personal right to do so) he still owes a debt to society for breaking our laws. Society has to hold him accountable to help any potential victims in the future or in hiding and to show value for women who make up 50% of the population.
I really hope he gets charged for this. This man has gotten away with crimes for too long. He’s used his status as a victim of the Holocaust and of the Manson Murders to get away with raping teenage girls for way too long.
I hope this encourages other women to come forward.
^^^^^This.
Yes!
+100000000000000000000 THIS
For real. Also, people forget that he was also physically and emotionally abusive to Sharon Tate.
He was such a POS to Sharon. Have you ever listened to the podcast You Must Remember This? They did about ten-ish episodes about the Manson Murders and in one of the episodes they talk about Sharon and Roman’s relationship. He cheated on her all the time and it really sounded like had she lived, they would have ended up divorced. He was intentionally out of the country for most of Sharon’s pregnancy and would pick up teenage girls at their boarding schools to take them out. He’s such a creep.
This doesn’t surprise me . I stated yesterday that he’s a rapist and I stand by it. Frankly , I’m surprised more women haven’t come out and spoke against him. It would be foolish to think he only stopped with one child. I think he’s a pedophile rapist who needs to be locked up and the key thrown away permanently .
Also the argument of this happens decades ago, let’s move one is a ridiculous argument . Because , if you let him off the hook he will re offend. As we’re seeing now. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg and he has a long list of children he’s hurt.
By the way, if anyone agrees to be a part of his movies, pays money to see his movies . Your saying you’re okay with his crimes and that is disgusting . Yes, I feel that strongly . If you cannot take a stand against crimes against children , then what will you?
I’ve also pointed out that his movies nearly always feature rape scenes and other forms of humiliating women. He truly hates women and his that oozes out of his “art.”
I could barely sit through Repulsion. It seemed voyeristic in its joy at her destruction.
He is seriously sick. He’s a risk to humanity . I honestly feel that there are many women he’s hurt as children. If it were anyone else who committed these crimes they would be locked up for a long time . As they should be .
@Aims:
I agree with you 100%. I’ve been thinking all of the same things.
Serial rapist. There’s sadly probably many more victims out there who will not come forward. He’s sick and Hollywood should have shunned him, not embraced him.
More people should be like Brie L. I know it takes guts, and its hard, and you’ll take some hits, but I will watch her in anything now.
@detritus: I agree w you about the ominous, voyeuristic, misogynistic “Repulsion.” It *was* repulsive—to see him revel in the mental collapse of a beautiful young woman whose downfall is triggered by her terror of men. (Some say there are shades of incest to the story, that her father molested her, though this is never made clear.) I was chilled by Repulsion not b/c it is powerful “art” but b/c it takes misogynistic glee at a woman’s sense of powerlessness amidst the men in her life–and finally, her powerlessness over her world and mind and her whole self altogether. I got such a strong feeling of Polanski’s view of young women from this film, his objectification of and casual lust for them, his love of authority over them, and his basic contempt and indifference towards their *selves*: their strengths and their independent identities. Watching a fragile, young, beautiful woman broken down to just her catatonic body was entertainment for him. That told me all I needed to know about the psyche of this particular monster right there.
I’m shocked, simply shocked, that Roman Polanski is a serial rapist who prefers underage girls. /s
This f*cker should be in jail, rotting. Who knows what he’s doing right now that we will hear about in 20 years?
I am not catching the tone of your comment. Are you actually shocked?
I hope he is eventually punished for his crimes, although I am cynical. I would settle for people in the film community to stop fawning over this vile little rapist. Again, I am cynical.
I mean, he’s essentially able to get away with it – it only (sadly) makes sense that it wasn’t a one-off. He’s a piece of garbage – I don’t care if he’s considered talented – he’s a human dumpster fire.
Intestinal shudder. How many kids has he victimized. It’s obvious he has the money and connections to order whatever age he wants like pedo curb service.
I watch mostly documentaries these days. All the sex abuse in Hollyweird has kind of turned me off. I live in a bubble and didn’t realize how twisted and seedy the whole industry really was.
Same here. Everything is kind of tainted now, the more I know. Like when I saw IT I couldn’t stop wondering how many of these kids Will come forward with dreadful stories in the years to come, or will become total messes because of what been done to them. Entertainment you said? I’m done with movies starring kids.
I am also very ashamed with how polanski is overall welcomed in my country. Fck him and all his admirers.
Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking it is just Hollywood. The world is a cesspool and sadly, there are monsters lurking everywhere. There are estimates that there are 1 million women and children forced into sexual slavery inside the US alone, 21 million worldwide. Sex trafficking is a real thing, and it doesn’t just exist in Hollywood or big cities. A 2007 study claims that Atlanta’s sex trafficking industry generates $290 Million PER YEAR.
Additionally, people in positions of power will use it to victimize people and children, as we saw at Penn State, the Catholic Church, in the military, etc.
And I’m sure there are more victims that just haven’t spoken out yet. What a POS this poor excuse for a human is.
He is a predator. Plain amd simple. I don’t know why we should believe that he no longer abuses young girls.
This is NOT a man who just randomly stopped raping teenagers after these victims. Sadly, it’s much easier now to find young girls who have already been trafficked and brainwashed and turned into slaves. He’s probably still doing this all the time, but he’s targeting more marginalized girls, victims of child sex trafficking who won’t come forward.
I doubt that. He’s still targeting girls who will be quiet for their big break, because of who he is and how he could help him. Hollywood is a cesspool. He’s another sewer rat.
Sadly, this is unsurprising. We need to start boycotting actors who work with him (as well as his movies). Maybe if there was an impact on their bottom line Hollywood would stop supporting him so vociferously.
And this is why I freak out at seemingly ‘jokes’ or ‘just words’. Polanski has been very obvious about his issues with consent and lust for young girls. It is very obvious by his words that he would have done this, and many times. I do not believe these women are the only ones.
This type of man has let us know who he is, again and again. We need to take those lessons, and make sure we don’t let this happen anymore.
Anyone saying teens are the pinnacle of sexiness has divorced themselves from viewing women as complete people, and does not want a partner – they want an underling.
I wish he would spend the rest of his pathetic life in jail.
The sad thing is you can’t even get excited about this. It’s obvious that he is a rapist and I completely believe her but thinking of how awful people are I can’t help but see a future where people question her because it happened over 40 years ago. She’s going to be accused of lying for attention, asked why it took so long to come forward, accused of trying to destroy an “artists” career, etc. I wish that wasn’t the case.
He had no issue to recognize he had a sex relation with a 12 years old and he drugged her and that didn’t destroy his career so nothing will destroy his now-career
Will the poor Emmanuelle Seigner now wake up? Hopefully she will see what he’s done, finally. And hopefully she’ll be surrounded by many good friends (not the one who signed the stupid petition for him).
Wasn’t Natasha Kinski 14 or 15 when they were ‘dating’. That should have been the beginning of the end right there. The press called them a couple, ugh.
Sounds like a bill Cosby type. You’d have to lie to yourself to look yourself in the mirror after committing statatory rape/assault, etc. Hopefully charges are brought, women should feel safe and abusers like this shouldn’t be sent he message they can get away with this
Sadly with the 13 year old it was not ‘only’ statutory rape. He didn’t solely use his age, experience and authority to persuade her, because there wasn’t much persuasion – not even manipulated consent.
It’s rather appalling that he has managed to convince so many that what he did was seduce a child in an age when people were more tolerant of that conduct. He didn’t. It was a violent assault. No rape is lesser, and no rape is acceptable, but he has sought to use beliefs on that score to disguise the several aggravating factors that mean he deserves a long time in jail.
I don’t think you can call sex with a drugged 13 year old statutory anything. That’s just 100% rape
They’re all 16 and younger at the time, too. The pattern is fairly clear: the man is a predatory, recidivist child rapist, and yet he still gets a free pass from much of Hollywood. Just astonishing.
Uh huh not surprised about this at all. Just because there was never any news while he’s in exile didn’t mean he kept his hands clean. I do recall his wife being awfully younger than him. Are they still married?