Man on Wire

by Jillian Leigh, Ampersandology

I'm still working on the next installment of my three-part homage series (it's akin to giving birth to a long-winded baby with multiple personalities) but in the meantime I thought I'd briefly (ha) weigh in on Roman Polanski's recent arrest.

And what can I say: it's a war of my head and my heart (or, the film reel where my heart should be). My rational side says that no one, visionary artist or lowly street urchin alike, should be above the law. But the cinephile in me hates the idea of grouping a man I and so many others admire into such humdrum, ordinary circumstances.

And as much as my heart sides with the creator of marvelous films, my head still says that no matter what 'mitigating circumstances' the Polanski apologists throw out, he still committed a crime, and a pretty unspeakable one at that. It's a war inside my better judgement, actually. I've been reading a handful of commentaries against the arrest, and it takes a heaping of salt to get past the flimsiness of most of these arguments. He's an artist? He's had a tragic past? It was 30 years ago? Apply these circumstances to any other criminal and the argument dissolves. It's not logic that drives his loyalists to take up his flag, or even injustice. It's reverence and affection.

Unfortunately, I add. Because, as I said, my heart wants everything to be okay. But my head thinks my heart is a moron, and tends to win all the underhanded arguments, because my brain is stubborn and always needs to be right, as opposed to a heart that is is a film reel and only pretending it's a heart. Honestly, I don't know how I get anything done.