Producer bemoans no consumers for Polanski movie in France, US and UK

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The producer of Roman Polanski’s newest film, “The Palace”, lamented that nobody needed the distribution rights for the movie within the United States, Britain and France, saying morality mustn’t weigh on artwork.

Polanski, some of the profitable administrators of his era, fled the United States over a conviction for assaulting a 13-year-old lady in 1977, against the law he admitted.

After the #MeToo motion gained international traction in 2017 following abuse allegations towards US movie producer Harvey Weinstein, a number of ladies alleged that Polanski had assaulted them as youngsters.

Polanski, a twin French-Polish nationwide, denied the allegations, which by no means went to trial. However, he has since discovered it onerous to safe international distribution offers for his films, even when actors are nonetheless lining as much as work with him.

“The Palace”, a comedy set in a Swiss resort peopled with a solid of grotesque characters, stars Mickey Rourke, John Cleese, Oliver Masucci, Fanny Ardant and Joaquim De Almeida.

The producer Luca Barbareschi mentioned he had bought distribution rights throughout continental Europe however not in France, Britain or the United States, regardless of well-known actors from all three nations showing within the movie.

Barbareschi mentioned Polanski’s final film, “An Officer And A Spy”, which opened on the Venice Film Festival in 2019 to essential acclaim, had additionally by no means been seen in cinemas within the United States, Britain, Australia or New Zealand.

“And we ask ourselves why there are wars. The Anglo-Saxon world has to respect artists like the rest of the world does,” he mentioned, including: “There is no moral judgement on art.”

He added that Polanski’s films had been proven on quite a few streamers, comparable to Netflix, “making millions” for these platforms. “Someone explain to me the logic for that,” he mentioned.

Polanksi, who turned 90 final month, just isn’t in Venice for the premiere of his movie, which isn’t within the working for the principle Golden Lion prize. Among his earlier credit as director are “The Pianist”, “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown”.