Free to roam: A newly-released Roman Polanski arrives at the Montreux Jazz Festival tonight
Shamed film director Roman Polanski made his first public appearance tonight after escaping extradition to the U.S. to face child-sex charges
Free after nine months of house arrest, the director arrived at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
Polanski, 76, pulled up at the festival in an SUV with tinted windows. He climbed out of the car running his fingers through his hair and was then was escorted into an elevator as security personnel surrounded him.
Support: Polanksi's wife, French actress and singer Emmanuelle Seigner, performing at Montreux
Doing time: Polanski walking on the balcony of his mountain chalet under house arrest in Gstaad, Switzerland last month
Polanski's wife, actress and singer Emmanuelle Seigner, 44, performed at the festival just after her notorious husband arrived.
'That was the theme to '"Rosemary's Baby,"' she said after the first song, a reference to Polanski's famous 1968 film.
Polanski served 42 days in detention in September 1977 in the psychiatric unit of a Californian prison after pleading guilty to having sex with 13-year- old Samantha Geimer, a model he took for a photo shoot in a hot tub at Jack Nicholson's Hollywood house.
He was to receive further sentencing in the US, but fled to Europe first, spending nine months in prison and under house arrest in Switzerland while the two countries wrangled over his extradition.
In an interview on with Swiss television tonight, Polanski thanked 'the millions of people who kept sending me messages of support during those nine long months.'
He added: 'I would also certainly thank my wife Emmanuelle (and) my children, without whom I would have never been able to hold onto my dignity and perseverance. For the moment, I'm happy to be free and to be able to do the things I was kept from doing'.
He said his son Elvis, 10, cut off the electronic bracelet that Swiss authorities had made him wear while he was under house arrest.
'They told me to throw it away, that's it,' the director said of the Swiss. His son 'couldn't stand it anymore,' so he was given permission to personally remove the tracking device.
Indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molestation and sodomy, Polanski has pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse.
He still faces an Interpol warrant in effect for 188 countries for the 1977 child sex case.
Polanski, whose hits include Rosemary's Baby and The Pianist, completed his latest film The Ghost, based on a Robert Harris's best-seller, while under arrest in Switzerland.
Following his release this week, there is no chance of Polanski ever entering Britain again.
Under the terms of an Anglo-American extradition treaty, Polanski would be arrested and sent back to the U.S. the moment he landed in the UK.
0 comments:
Post a Comment