Author Claire Dederer started off writing a book about the film director Roman Polanski. Forty-five years ago, Polanski fled the United States after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
Dederer, who started her writing life as a film critic, has long been a Polanski fan. But for her, Polanski is a big problem. For more than any other contemporary figure, Dederer argues, it is Polanski who balances so equally the forces of ‘the absoluteness of the monstrosity and the absoluteness of the genius’.
