Many feel that filmmaker Roman Polanski should be in prison for the rest of his life, although not everyone agrees. One of those who begs to differ is Samantha Geimer, who was just 13 years old in 1977 when the filmmaker drugged and raped her. Now middle-aged and more bitter with the justice system than Polanski, Geimer has published a new book about the ordeal and actually has something of a correspondence these days with her victimizer. From an interview with Geimer in the Guardian:

“In 2009, after the release of Marina Zenovich’s documentary on the trial, Polanski sent Geimer an email apologising. ‘I want you to know how sorry I am for having so affected your life,’ he wrote. It wasn’t an admission of guilt, exactly, but it was at least a softening of his customary flat denial of any wrong-doing. She didn’t reply, but since then they have been in touch sporadically. This seems extraordinary – both his apology and their continued contact – a subject that Geimer is reluctant to the point of coy about speaking of.

‘Over all these years, our attorneys have communicated. We’re not buddies. But, I mean, I have been in touch with him just a little bit by email. Just personal stuff, nothing worth talking about.’ She gives the impression she is protecting his privacy, and, one imagines, the fragile state of detente between them. Has she sent him the book? ‘No. I don’t know if he’ll read it. I don’t believe he’s seen it. He’s a busy person, so I’m not sure if it’s something that it’s important to him to get to.’ The tone of this – there is no mistaking it – is the deference that creeps into interactions with the famous. It is alive, even now.”