Not long after Roman Polanski directed Chinatown, he committed a horrible crime, raping a 13-year-old girl. He's been busy escaping justice for the last 40 years.
Woody Allen had a string of successful comedies in the 1970s, but he took his game up a notch with Annie Hall:
Woody Allen is still working today, but he's had a slow slide into persona non grata status, as his ongoing depredations have been aired. Some still defend his honor, but there's not much of it left. His movies come and go and only his tribe really cares -- his last successful movie at the box office, Hannah and Her Sisters, is 30 years in the rear view mirror.
We're over 40 years away from when these films were made. Polanski and Allen are both with us, but they are decrepit. In the years since the release of these films, it has become simultaneously easier and more difficult to see them. We live in an on-demand world and you can stream both at any time, but the chances of seeing either film on the big screen is just about nil in 2019, as few theaters would risk the wrath of a public showing.
I have no brief for either Woody Allen or Roman Polanski; they are creeps and monsters. But ought we pretend their masterworks don't exist? Are there no pleasures to be found in either film? Or does the life of the filmmaker devalue his best work, or even render it worthless?
I was too young to see Chinatown when it came out in the theater, but I saw in on the big screen as a college student and it was a revelation. I did see Annie Hall when it came out; I was in high school and it played in my home town for a long time. I enjoy Annie Hall, but I really love Chinatown -- it's one of my all-time favorite films. I trust the tale, not the teller of the tale. And I don't believe those who say the tale is worthless. Do you?
3 comments:
I am dreading the day when some of the directors whose films I loved, or musicians I enjoyed, get caught in this. Never really liked Jackson, Allen, or Polanski's work.
I think where I am right now is that certain themes in the work of each are going to be hard to watch when you know what they'd done. Something of a foreshadowing, maybe.
It works at multiple levels, too. I just finished reading a biography of Peter Sellers, who made magic on the screen but was a very troubled person in real life (multiple divorces, violence, epic drug use, wild gyrations between being charming and being a looney). Am I still gonna watch Dr. Strangelove, Being There, or the Pink Panther movies? Yes, yes, and yes.
as a human, i seek pleasure, and it's release, where i can...
i was never w woody allen guy, so i never saw but just a few minutes of one of his films... (this coming from somebody who has seen more films than you may have)...
but thats just me: if others laud it, i tend to avoid it. i am like that.
that said:
if i ever find that Freddie Mercury, Mark Burgess, or Tommy Shaw did really really bad stuff... it would not change a thing in my life, or where i find my pleasures...
we are all sinners, of course. we are also all 'saints' in progress. thats the promise of the crucifixtion.
in the end, God's judgement will sort them all out.
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