Roman Polanski

As Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor describe it, there was no need for the cast of Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" to have long, philosophical discussions about the movie's creepy real-life parallels. It wasn't necessary, for example, to dissect Brosnan's character, a hazily sinister British ex-prime minister who's a dead ringer for Tony Blair, or to over-analyze his seething, neurotic wife, played by Olivia Williams as a cross between Cherie Blair and Lady Macbeth. It was all pretty obvious and pretty amusing.

Roman Polanski is a cinematic genius with a tragic history. But he is also a fugitive from justice who pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and the U.S. Justice Department acted properly in asking Switzerland to extradite Polanski, regardless of how much time has elapsed and despite the fact that his grown-up victim isn't seeking his imprisonment. The 76-year-old director of "Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" was arrested over the weekend in Zurich, where he was to have received an award.

Roman Polanski's been in the news a lot lately but not for the best of reasons. Between his September arrest in Switzerland and the media rehashing of the case that made him flee the U.S. in the first place, it's been possible to forget that his powerful gifts as a filmmaker were what made him famous in the first place. With the deliciously unsettling "The Ghost Writer," however, a dark pearl of a movie whose great flair and precision make it Polanski's best work in quite a while, the 76-year-old director forcefully reminds us what all the fuss was about.

In the flat light of the grand jury room, a nervous, deeply embarrassed 13-year-old girl sat alone -- no attorney, no mother, no friend -- facing three tiers of middle-aged strangers silently studying her from their leather armchairs. The questions that day in March 1977 were clinical in tone. The answers would set off a furor from Hollywood to London and Paris that has yet to subside. Samantha Gailey -- sandy brown hair, dimpled chin, missing class at her junior high in Woodland Hills -- described her alleged rape by director Roman Polanski two weeks before at Jack Nicholson's home above Franklin Canyon.

For a man who didn't set foot out of his house Friday, Roman Polanski had an eventful day. His new film, "The Ghost Writer," a political thriller with a glamorous Hollywood cast, debuted at the Berlin Film Festival. And his legal battle to avoid returning to the U.S. got a boost when a Swiss official said extradition proceedings stemming from his three-decade-old child sex case were on indefinite hold. Polanski, 76, remained under house arrest, his round-the-clock presence in his Gstaad ski chalet secured by an ankle bracelet and $4.5-million bond.

Statutory rape convictions similar to Roman Polanski's typically result in sentences at least four times longer today than the 90-day punishment a judge favored before the director fled the United States in 1978, a Times analysis of Los Angeles County court records shows. Polanski's arrest in Switzerland on an international fugitive warrant -- and his pending extradition proceedings -- have sparked transatlantic debate about whether the 76-year-old Academy Award winner should serve additional time behind bars for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Q: Did you resist at that time? A: A little bit, but not really because . . . Q: Because what? A: Because I was afraid of him. That's Roman Polanski's 13-year-old victim testifying before a grand jury about how the famous director forced himself on her at Jack Nicholson's Mulholland Drive home in March of 1977. I'm reading this in the district attorney's office at the Los Angeles County Criminal Courts Building, digging through the Polanski file to refresh my memory of the infamous case, and my blood pressure is rising.

From Michael Moore's politics to on-screen sex and violence, the movie business is constantly being assailed for not sharing the country's values. Rarely has the morality argument been as rancorous as with the Roman Polanski case. Hollywood is rallying behind the fugitive filmmaker. Top filmmakers are signing a pro-Polanski petition, Whoopi Goldberg says the director didn't really commit rape, and Debra Winger complains "the whole art world suffers" in such arrests. The rest of the nation seems to hold a dramatically different perspective on Polanski's weekend capture.

Roman Polanski agreed to pay the victim in his child-sex case at least $500,000 as part of a civil settlement, but then failed to live up to the terms of the agreement, according to court filings reviewed Friday. The documents leave open the question of whether the fugitive filmmaker has ever paid the money he promised in the confidential 1993 settlement with Samantha Geimer, but a change in her approach to Polanski in subsequent years suggests they may have resolved the issue.

NO matter where he looks, Roman Polanski cannot find the study about the nutritional nightmare of children's cereals. For more than three hours, over tea in one brasserie, lunch in another, then a cigar in his office, the exiled filmmaker has talked about his life, his libel case, his legacy, his opinions about Hollywood and his new movie, Friday's "Oliver Twist."

For some reason, Ewan McGregor tends to slip under the radar despite countless brilliant performances, the latest as a ghost writer working on the memoir of a Tony Blair-styled prime minister in Roman Polanski's excellent murder mystery. An actor of great subtlety, beginning with his drug-addicted star turn in 1996's "Trainspotting," McGregor has only gotten better: the tragic lover in "Moulin Rouge!," the intrepid reporter in "Men Who Stare at Goats." But as a writer trying to survive the shark-infested political waters he's thrown into, McGregor is at his best yet. -- Betsy Sharkey

Roman Polanski won the Silver Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival last weekend for this film, and it is easy to see why. Made by a filmmaker suddenly returned to the height of his powers, "The Ghost Writer" is a thriller wrapped around a roman à clef about contemporary politics wrapped around Polanski's perennial blanket cynicism about the helplessness of individuals against the entrenched strength of the powerful. His effortless blending of personal preoccupations with audience preferences recalls, as so much of this film does, the classic work of Alfred Hitchcock.

Roman Polanski's been in the news a lot lately but not for the best of reasons. Between his September arrest in Switzerland and the media rehashing of the case that made him flee the U.S. in the first place, it's been possible to forget that his powerful gifts as a filmmaker were what made him famous in the first place. With the deliciously unsettling "The Ghost Writer," however, a dark pearl of a movie whose great flair and precision make it Polanski's best work in quite a while, the 76-year-old director forcefully reminds us what all the fuss was about.

As Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor describe it, there was no need for the cast of Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" to have long, philosophical discussions about the movie's creepy real-life parallels. It wasn't necessary, for example, to dissect Brosnan's character, a hazily sinister British ex-prime minister who's a dead ringer for Tony Blair, or to over-analyze his seething, neurotic wife, played by Olivia Williams as a cross between Cherie Blair and Lady Macbeth. It was all pretty obvious and pretty amusing.

For a man who didn't set foot out of his house Friday, Roman Polanski had an eventful day. His new film, "The Ghost Writer," a political thriller with a glamorous Hollywood cast, debuted at the Berlin Film Festival. And his legal battle to avoid returning to the U.S. got a boost when a Swiss official said extradition proceedings stemming from his three-decade-old child sex case were on indefinite hold. Polanski, 76, remained under house arrest, his round-the-clock presence in his Gstaad ski chalet secured by an ankle bracelet and $4.5-million bond.

L.A. authorities are trying to clarify the status of Roman Polanski's extradition to the U.S. after a Swiss justice official said the country won't extradite the director to the United States until L.A. courts resolves related legal disputes. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said in a statement that it was looking into "somewhat conflicting news reports from Switzerland" over the extradition process. "At present, this rests with the Swiss courts," spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Friday denied Roman Polanski's request to be sentenced in absentia, scuttling the director's latest bid to end his three-decade-old child sex case. Polanski hoped that such a sentencing would allow his lawyers to lay out evidence of judicial misconduct in his case and secure him a sentence of no further time behind bars. Although a state appeals panel had suggested that Polanski be sentenced in absentia, as the director is facing extradition proceedings in Switzerland, Judge Peter Espinoza said he was not bound by the higher court's suggestion.

A judge has rejected director Roman Polanski's bid to be sentenced in absentia in a three-decade-old child-sex case. Judge Peter Espinoza ruled that Polanski, 76, will have to come back Los Angeles to be sentenced. "I have made it clear he needs to surrender," the judge said. Polanski's attorneys said they would appeal. The famed film director is under house arrest in Switzerland, where he is waiting to learn whether the Swiss government will extradite him to the U.S. to face sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

In the 33 years since she accused Roman Polanski of rape, Samantha Geimer has publicly forgiven the acclaimed director, accused the U.S. justice system of mistreating him and urged a dismissal of his still pending criminal case. Today, Geimer is expected to act again on Polanski's behalf and ask that a Los Angeles County judge halt efforts to extradite the filmmaker from Switzerland. In papers filed in Superior Court on Thursday, Geimer's lawyer accused the Los Angeles County district attorney's office of violating state victims' rights statutes by not consulting Geimer before seeking extradition.

In the 33 years since she accused Roman Polanski of rape, Samantha Geimer has publicly forgiven the acclaimed director, accused the U.S. justice system of mistreating him and urged a dismissal of his still pending criminal case. On Friday, Geimer is expected to act again on Polanski's behalf and ask that a Los Angeles County judge halt efforts to extradite the filmmaker from Switzerland. In papers filed in Superior Court on Thursday, Geimer's lawyer accused the Los Angeles County district attorney's office of violating state victims' rights statutes by not consulting Geimer prior to seeking extradition.