1/ Just finished Allen v. Farrow, which was as gut-wrenching—especially to sexual assault victims, like me—as I knew it would be. As someone who’s followed this case over my lifetime, I’m ~same age as Soon-Yi, I have thoughts.
2/ I’ve already displayed my bias. But it is not bias. It is knowledge. But you don’t need a personal history of sexual assault to see what Allen himself put in his films all along.
3/ I think he’s a genius (or was) on some levels. But geniuses can be monsters. We know this, but we struggle with it. But I knew, the first time I saw Manhattan, as a teen, that something was deeply deeply off. And that young women were being gaslit as Mariel was in the film.
4/ I could not have articulated it so clearly back then, not just because I was young, but because the culture particularly at the time had a “loosen up baby” vibe that was so often not based on consent, but coercion.
5/ This cultural predilection, of course, advantages predators. Especially those with extreme power over their victims.
6/ There are many types of predators. But is it the global Q-type cabal to fear, no. It is overwhelmingly your supposed friends and caretakers. In @realdylanfarrow’s case, the most horrible perp: the father.
7/ Twice I’ve taken a decently deep look into the evidence on this case, once in the 90s and again when Dylan came forward herself 2013. This doc is weighted by cooperation from the @MiaFarrow camp. But if there’s prevailing counter evidence I haven’t seen it.
8/ While covered well in the doc, the complicity of the (male-led) media and NYC political establishment, IMO could have been it’s own episode. I remember, as someone in their early 20s, a stomach churning "this isn't right" feeling particularly about local/NYT coverage.
9/ The other thing I wish the doc had covered has to do with Mia. I think she was grotesquely portrayed as either a woman scorned or—as in Hannah and Her Sisters, ffs!!!—as some kind of smothering/obsessed with kids grotesque figure.
10/ But Mia’s own history with MUCH older men, Sinatra {whom she married at 21), Andre Previn (23), i think could have been better explored. Did that normalize grotesque “May-December” relationships to her, to Soon-Yi, to the public? Was as she groomed, also?
11/ With hindsight: What does she think about Dory Previn’s "Beware of Young Girls” song about her and Previn’s affair/marriage (again Mia was 23,). And how Dory’s mental health was imperiled/implicated in the fallout. Ditto the Previn kids? Esp w/r/t Soon-Yi?
12/ And speaking of grooming, what does Mia now make of "Rosemary's Baby" director/child rapist Roman Polanski? I hope these are questions that she or perhaps @ronanfarrow could eventually explore.
13/ Disclosure: I've interviewed Ronan before a big SF audience before. And saw so so so many victims of sexual assault thank him for his work.
That family has been through so much, but I do think these are elements worth probing, by them or others.
That family has been through so much, but I do think these are elements worth probing, by them or others.
14/ Because there’s a legal “of age” and a cultural “gross/not gross” line that ALWAYS benefits men, and ALWAYS pushes aside the experience and value of young women, especially when the men are rich and powerful
15/ I mourn for Soon-Yi. She had a terrible very early childhood, and was (at the most mild interpretation) caught up in a maelstrom of predation and celebrity and I hope once Allen dies she gets her own life and act.
16/ There is NO Allen film safe from what we now know. Midnight In Paris? Sorry, see how he told his daughter as he was sexually abusing her that he wanted to take her to Paris. Zelig, the one I clung to? Nope, psychological shapeshifters are horrifying.
17/ Anyway he is credibly accused of rape or other serious sexual assault of two of his daughters and strong-armed the media and NYC to protecting him and everybody should just stop pretending his (shopworn) vision matters more.
18/ My point about Mia is that she may be in an incredibly unique position to explore how non-rape but abusive cultural gender dynamics are at play, or not. I think it could be fascinating and enlightening. (But get why this has not been a top priority.)
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
