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French actor booed for condemning Polanski lynching

By RFI
France French actor booed for condemning Polanski lynching
MAR 5, 2020 LISTEN

Protesters have booed French actor Lambert Wilson, star of a film biography of General Charles de Gaulle, for Wilson's condemnation of attacks on the controversial film director Roman Polanski as an "abominable public lynching".

A group of demonstrators whistled and shouted slogans as Lambert Wilson, who plays French war hero and president Charles de Gaulle in a movie released this week, gave a concert of Kurt Weill songs in the northern French city of Lille on Wednesday.

"Polanski rapes and Wilson endorses it!" they shouted after the actor criticised actress Adele Haenel for walking out of last Saturday's César awards ceremony, the French equivalent of the Oscars, after Polanski won the best director prize.

Polanski, wanted in the United States since 1978 for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl, sparked fury when he got 12 nominations for his historical drama "J'accuse," translated into English as "An Officer and a Spy".

A call for a boycott of the movie did not stop it becoming a box office hit in France. The film won two of the top prizes at the Venice film festival last September.

Sexually harrassed at the age of 12
Haenel, who shook the French film industry last year by accusing the director of her first film, Christophe Ruggia, of sexually harassing her when she was only 12, stormed out of the Cesars ceremony when Polanski won the third of the three awards for his movie about the Dreyfus affair.

Wilson, who won international acclaim for "Of Gods and Men" in 2010, said on  French radio, "You do not walk out of a ceremony because Polanski receives a prize. It is not done."

Haenel -- who had been nominated for best actress for "Portrait of a Young Woman on Fire" -- was heard to say "Shame!" and "Bravo the paedophile!" as she left the theatre with other members of her film's team.

Polanski won two other awards, including best adapted screenplay, at the rancorous awards ceremony in central Paris, which protesters chanting "Lock up Polanski!" tried to storm before being pushed back by police firing tear gas.

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