Yesterday, comments made by filmmaker, and current Venice Film Festival jury president, Lucrecia Martel caught fire, after she seemingly criticized director Roman Polanski. The reason Martel’s words became headline news is that she said she couldn’t separate the “man from the art” and wouldn’t “congratulate” the controversial director when his film premieres at this year’s Italian festival. As you might imagine, the president of the jury that is set to judge Polanski’s film calling into question the filmmaker’s personal life and criminal history might lead some to believe that she might have a bit of bias.
And according to THR, it’s that fear that reportedly almost led Luca Barbareschi, an Italian producer on Polanski’s film, “An Officer and a Spy,” to pull the project out of competition at Venice. Fearing that the director’s film would be unfairly scrutinized, based on the fact that Martel doesn’t like that Polanski was convicted of sexual assault against a minor and fled the US to avoid prison time, the producer demanded that the jury president give an apology.
As we reported yesterday, Martel did issue a clarification of her comments, which honestly falls short of an actual apology. However, Marvel said that she would, in fact, watch ‘Officer’ but wouldn’t attend the film’s gala on Friday.
A portion of the statement said, “I don’t have any prejudice towards it and of course I will watch the film like any other in the competition. If I had any prejudice, I would have resigned my duty as the president of the jury.”
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THR says that Barbareschi was satisfied by Martel’s statement and, thus, “An Officer and a Spy” will keep its place amongst the other films in competition at Venice. This news, combined with the recent, official Venice interview with Polanski, continues to show how steadfast supporters of the filmmaker have been in their defense.
Now, the only question that remains is whether or not “An Officer and a Spy” is actually any good?
