HEROES AND VILLAINS: The Cases of Lance Armstrong and Roman Polanski
I am always on the look out for cultural phenomenon that can help me explain the differences between France and the U.S.A. I think I found the perfect illustration in the cases of the American cyclist Lance Armstrong and the Oscar winning film director Roman Polanski. Let us begin, shall we?
Lance Armstrong
Take the case of the seven times Tour De France winning cyclist Lance Armstrong. When I lived in the States, people I knew, including friends would often refer to Lance Armstrong as a hero. This was due partly due to his own autobiography where he documents his long fight with testicular cancer. It also goes on to catalogue his triumphs at the Tour De France after the sponsors who had once been behind him, lost confidence in their sick superstar. Armstrong proved them wrong in more than one instance after his bout with cancer and many took great courage from his story.
In France, however Lance is known less as a sporting and cancer survivor but more as a liar who has refused to confess.
The final proof for many here was when Floyd Landis, another controversial American cycling hero from the same team recently admitted that he was on performance enhancing drugs when he won his Tour De France. Not only that but he confessed in front of dozens of very concerned members of the French media that Lance Armstrong was also taking drugs during his time with him. This was more than enough for most Frenchmen to stamp Lance as guilty. Most Frenchmen were left wondering why there was no immediate press conference arranged by Armstrong to own up to the deception.
So you see. Here we have a classic case of a difference of perception.
In France, Armstrong’s triumphs will be forever tainted with the fact that he never owned up to his lies.
In America, Lance is still a hero who beat cancer, remains an incredible athlete (with or without the doping) and also has managed to hold up morally after a tricky divorce and a bit of philandering with film and music stars.
And then there is Roman Polanski
In the United States, most people consider Roman Polanski a pariah, a child rapist pedophile that does not seem fit to walk on this earth. We have all heard the case, thirty some odd years ago during a time of more freewheeling values and attitudes to drugs and sex, a famous Polish French film director drugged and raped a 13 year old girl. This fact alone is the open and shut case for many living in North America, the guy is criminal scum and any other factors offered in his defense are irrelevant (the fact that he served time, the fact that the woman has been paid off and also forgiven him, the fact that the media was out to try Polanski, the fact that the judge wanted blood etc etc) is all irrelevant. The guy is a convicted criminal.
France’s relationship to Polanski is shall we say, different. When he was arrested last year, one of the first people to his defense was Frederick Mitterand, the minister of Culture calling him a victim of Scary State Department America. Here was a genius artistic icon just trying to live out the rest of his years in peace, far from the media’s eye. Polanski is the last of the name directors, the last of the European auteurs. France does not expect its artists to be role models. It expects them to be messed up. Not mass murderers, mind you, but a little messed up. That’s what makes them interesting. There is no argument from most people that Polanski should have been punished for his crime, but the general consensus is that he has been punished enough. In France, artists are not role models. Abbe Pierre is a role model.
I believe this difference of opinion regarding Lance Armstrong and Roman Polanski has much to do with the things people in each nation value more.
In France, the tour de France is a big deal. Villages fight for the right for it to run through their town. It is a national point of pride in an otherwise lazy summer where most people are on vacation. It is, in my opinion, the closest France gets as a nation to getting patriotic. That is why the idea of an American sweeping in every year with his big corporate sponsors and his scary new technology angers most citizens who would ideally like to see one of their own riders win. They were for example a lot more relaxed when a Spaniard won last year. France cares about the Tour De France and therefore has strong opinions about Lance Armstrong.
America admires Lance’s achievement but could probably care less about the prestige of the tournament itself. Where as consider the following: if most people in the United States had to choose between a professional athlete and a arty film director, most would choose the athlete. Americans respect success and do not begrudge Lance for his means to attain it. They like achievement, results and superhuman feats of strength and Lance has provided them with all three. Most people in the States enjoy watching films but most don’t give a damn about who makes them and certainly they would never subscribe to the idea that an artist is more important than the movie. Someone is owed justice and most feel that they never got it. This matters. Morality is on trial here for Americans, a question of the enforcement of the law and the mockery of it by an old European power.
And so perhaps, I come a little closer to understanding what each of the countries I hold in esteem, holds in esteem.
I am always on the look out for cultural phenomenon that can help me explain the differences between France and the U.S.A. I think I found the perfect illustration in the cases of the American cyclist Lance Armstrong and the Oscar winning film director Roman Polanski. Let us begin, shall we?
Lance Armstrong
Take the case of the seven times Tour De France winning cyclist Lance Armstrong. When I lived in the States, people I knew, including friends would often refer to Lance Armstrong as a hero. This was due partly due to his own autobiography where he documents his long fight with testicular cancer. It also goes on to catalogue his triumphs at the Tour De France after the sponsors who had once been behind him, lost confidence in their sick superstar. Armstrong proved them wrong in more than one instance after his bout with cancer and many took great courage from his story.
In France, however Lance is known less as a sporting and cancer survivor but more as a liar who has refused to confess.
The final proof for many here was when Floyd Landis, another controversial American cycling hero from the same team recently admitted that he was on performance enhancing drugs when he won his Tour De France. Not only that but he confessed in front of dozens of very concerned members of the French media that Lance Armstrong was also taking drugs during his time with him. This was more than enough for most Frenchmen to stamp Lance as guilty. Most Frenchmen were left wondering why there was no immediate press conference arranged by Armstrong to own up to the deception.
So you see. Here we have a classic case of a difference of perception.
In France, Armstrong’s triumphs will be forever tainted with the fact that he never owned up to his lies.
In America, Lance is still a hero who beat cancer, remains an incredible athlete (with or without the doping) and also has managed to hold up morally after a tricky divorce and a bit of philandering with film and music stars.
And then there is Roman Polanski
In the United States, most people consider Roman Polanski a pariah, a child rapist pedophile that does not seem fit to walk on this earth. We have all heard the case, thirty some odd years ago during a time of more freewheeling values and attitudes to drugs and sex, a famous Polish French film director drugged and raped a 13 year old girl. This fact alone is the open and shut case for many living in North America, the guy is criminal scum and any other factors offered in his defense are irrelevant (the fact that he served time, the fact that the woman has been paid off and also forgiven him, the fact that the media was out to try Polanski, the fact that the judge wanted blood etc etc) is all irrelevant. The guy is a convicted criminal.
France’s relationship to Polanski is shall we say, different. When he was arrested last year, one of the first people to his defense was Frederick Mitterand, the minister of Culture calling him a victim of Scary State Department America. Here was a genius artistic icon just trying to live out the rest of his years in peace, far from the media’s eye. Polanski is the last of the name directors, the last of the European auteurs. France does not expect its artists to be role models. It expects them to be messed up. Not mass murderers, mind you, but a little messed up. That’s what makes them interesting. There is no argument from most people that Polanski should have been punished for his crime, but the general consensus is that he has been punished enough. In France, artists are not role models. Abbe Pierre is a role model.
I believe this difference of opinion regarding Lance Armstrong and Roman Polanski has much to do with the things people in each nation value more.
In France, the tour de France is a big deal. Villages fight for the right for it to run through their town. It is a national point of pride in an otherwise lazy summer where most people are on vacation. It is, in my opinion, the closest France gets as a nation to getting patriotic. That is why the idea of an American sweeping in every year with his big corporate sponsors and his scary new technology angers most citizens who would ideally like to see one of their own riders win. They were for example a lot more relaxed when a Spaniard won last year. France cares about the Tour De France and therefore has strong opinions about Lance Armstrong.
America admires Lance’s achievement but could probably care less about the prestige of the tournament itself. Where as consider the following: if most people in the United States had to choose between a professional athlete and a arty film director, most would choose the athlete. Americans respect success and do not begrudge Lance for his means to attain it. They like achievement, results and superhuman feats of strength and Lance has provided them with all three. Most people in the States enjoy watching films but most don’t give a damn about who makes them and certainly they would never subscribe to the idea that an artist is more important than the movie. Someone is owed justice and most feel that they never got it. This matters. Morality is on trial here for Americans, a question of the enforcement of the law and the mockery of it by an old European power.
And so perhaps, I come a little closer to understanding what each of the countries I hold in esteem, holds in esteem.
Comments