PARIS, France (CNN) -- French authorities expressed solidarity with Roman Polanski's family Monday after authorities arrested the filmmaker on a 1970s sexual-offense charge involving a 13-year-old girl.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he hoped authorities would respect Polanski's rights "and that the affair (will) come to a favorable resolution," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The French culture and communications minister, Frederic Mitterrand, said he "learned with astonishment" of Polanski's arrest. He expressed solidarity with Polanski's family and said "he wants to remind everyone that Roman Polanski benefits from great general esteem" and has "exceptional artistic creation and human qualities."
Investigators in the United States say Polanski drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl in the 1970s. Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, but he fled the United States before he could be sentenced and settled in France.
U.S. authorities have had a warrant for his arrest since 1978. Police in Switzerland arrested Polanski on that warrant Saturday after the 76-year-old tried to enter Switzerland to attend the Zurich Film Festival, which is holding a tribute to Polanski this year.
Filmmakers have reacted with outrage at the arrest.
"As a Swiss filmmaker, I feel deeply ashamed," Christian Frei said.
"He's a brilliant guy, and he made a little mistake 32 years ago. What a shame for Switzerland," said photographer Otto Weisser, a friend of Polanski.
The Polish Filmmakers Association posted a letter on its Web site Monday from the European Film Academy secretariat that protested "the arbitrary treatment of one of the world's most outstanding film directors."
The letter, which was read aloud at the festival, was signed by directors Wim Wenders, Volker Schloendorff and Bertrand Tavernier; actress Victoria Abril; cinematographer Peter Suschitzky; and screenwriter and actor Jean-Claude Carriere.
Mitterrand said he has spoken with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and that Sarkozy "shares his hope for a rapid resolution to the situation which would allow Roman Polanski to rejoin his family as quickly as possible."
Mitterrand said he "greatly regrets that Mr. Polanski has had yet another difficulty added to an already turbulent existence."
Polanski won an Academy Award for best director in 2003 for "The Pianist." He was nominated for best director Oscars for "Tess" and "Chinatown" and for best writing for "Rosemary's Baby," which he also directed.
A spokesman for the Swiss Justice Ministry said Polanski was arrested upon arrival at the airport.
A provisional arrest warrant was issued last week out of Los Angeles, California, after authorities learned he was going to be in Switzerland, Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, told CNN on Sunday.
There have been repeated attempts to settle the case over the years, but the sticking point has always been Polanski's refusal to return to attend hearings. Prosecutors have consistently argued that it would be a miscarriage of justice to allow a man to go free who "drugged and raped a 13-year-old child."
The Swiss Justice Ministry said Polanski was put "in provisional detention." But whether he can be extradited to the United States "can be established only after the extradition process judicially has been finalized," ministry spokesman Guido Balmer said in an e-mail.
Gibbons said the extradition process will be determined in Switzerland, but said authorities are ready to move forward with Polanski's sentencing process, depending on what happens in Zurich.
Polanski was accused of plying the then-teenage girl, Samantha Geimer, with champagne and a sliver of a Quaalude tablet and performing various sex acts, including intercourse, with her during a photo shoot at actor Jack Nicholson's house. He was 43 at the time.
Nicholson was not at home, but his girlfriend at the time, actress Anjelica Huston, was there.
She said Polanski did not strike her as the type of man who would force himself on a young girl.
"I don't think he's a bad man," she said in a probation report. "I think he's an unhappy man."
Polanski's lawyers tried this year to have the charges thrown out, but a judge in Los Angeles rejected the request. However, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza left the door open to reconsider his ruling if Polanski shows up in court.
According to court documents, Polanski, his lawyer and the prosecutor thought they'd worked out a deal that would spare Polanski from prison and let the teen avoid a public trial.
But the original judge in the case, who is now dead, first sent the director to maximum-security prison for 42 days while he underwent psychological testing. Then, on the eve of his sentencing, the judge told attorneys he was inclined to send Polanski back to prison for another 48 days.
Polanski fled the United States for France, where he was born.
In the February 2009 hearing, Espinoza mentioned a documentary film, "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," that depicts backroom deals between prosecutors and a media-obsessed judge who was worried his public image would suffer if he didn't send Polanski to prison.
"It's hard to contest some of the behavior in the documentary was misconduct," Espinoza said. But he declined to dismiss the case entirely.
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Geimer is among those calling for the case to be tossed out. She filed court papers in January saying, "I am no longer a 13-year-old child. I have dealt with the difficulties of being a victim."
Geimer, now 45, married and a mother of three, sued Polanski and received an undisclosed settlement.
And more on this from Time:
Polanski's Arrest: Why the French Are Outraged
Although the cultural divide between Europe and the U.S. has narrowed over the years, the legal fate of director Roman Polanski shows there are still major differences. Polanski's arrest in Switzerland on Sept. 26 was greeted with satisfaction in the U.S., where authorities hope he will face sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. Europeans, meanwhile, are shocked and dismayed that an internationally acclaimed artist could be jailed for such an old offense.
"To see him thrown to the lions and put in prison because of ancient history — and as he was traveling to an event honoring him — is absolutely horrifying," French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand said after Polanski was arrested upon arrival in Switzerland to attend the Zurich Film Festival, where he was to receive a lifetime achievement award. "There's an America we love and an America that scares us, and it's that latter America that has just shown us its face." In comments that appeared to be directed at Swiss and American authorities to free Polanski, Mitterrand added that both he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy hoped for a "rapid resolution to the situation which would allow Roman Polanski to rejoin his family as quickly as possible." (See the top 25 crimes of the century.)
Polanski, who won an Academy Award in 2003 for directing The Pianist, admitted to having unlawful sexual intercourse with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer as part of a plea bargain in which other charges — including drugging and raping the girl — were dropped. However, fearful that the Los Angeles judge in the case was about to renege on the deal and slap him with a long prison sentence, Polanski fled the U.S. in 1978 and never returned. He has spent the past 30 years in France, where he has raised a family and continued his career unhindered. That is, until Saturday. Swiss police seized Polanski on an international warrant issued by U.S. authorities in 2005 and, under bilateral treaties, will now extradite him to the U.S. unless barred from doing so by Swiss courts. (Read "Redeeming Roman Polanski.")
France never complied with the arrest warrant because its laws prohibit the extradition of its citizens to other countries. At the same time, many people in France have over the years downplayed the gravity of Polanski's crime because of his immense talent and artistry as a director. The 76-year-old, who was born in France, has increasingly been seen as the victim of an obsessive U.S. justice system that is ready to pluck him up and drag him off to prison at any moment. Those feelings were reinforced by the 2008 documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, in which filmmaker Marina Zenovich argues that the judge and prosecutor in the case may have engaged in legal misconduct in obtaining Polanski's guilty plea. The film also contains an appeal by Geimer, the victim, for Polanski to be pardoned — leaving his European supporters perplexed as to why U.S. officials wouldn't finally close the book on him. (Read "More Sex, Please, We're French.")
"The French view Polanski as an artist and celebrity and feel he deserves a different kind of treatment than ordinary people, which just isn't an option in the U.S.," says Ted Stanger, an author and longtime resident of France who has written extensively on the differing public views and attitudes across the Atlantic. "The French in particular, and Europeans in general, don't understand why it isn't possible for American officials to intervene and say, 'Hey, it's been over 30 years and things look a little different now. Let's just forget this thing.' "
Indeed, police in other European countries have turned a blind eye to Polanski's travel across the continent for work and pleasure over the years. The director has even made frequent visits to Switzerland in the past without any problem. His supporters claim that Swiss authorities finally caved in to U.S. pressure to nab the director. But Swiss and U.S. justice officials say they knew where he would be thanks to press releases by the Zurich Film Festival touting his presence to accept the award. "There was a valid arrest request, and we knew when he was coming. That's why he was taken into custody," says Guido Balmer, spokesman for Switzerland's Justice Ministry. Adds Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office: "It wasn't a big secret that he was going to be in Zurich — they had announced it on the Internet."
As Polanski's fans across Europe decry his detention, his lawyers say they're filing appeals of both his arrest and eventual transfer to the U.S. "To the French mind, this has made Polanski a combination of Oscar Wilde and Alfred Dreyfus — the victim of systematic persecution," Stanger says. "To the American mind, he's proof that no one is above the law." That's a perception gap as wide as the Atlantic.
Dear Europe. There are times I don't understand you at all.
OK, so it was 30 years ago. But this is child molestation we're talking about. And that bit about him being a famous movie director, so that should somehow influence whether he should be given his freedom? I just don't understand.
He hasnt been allowed into the UK for years, because he would have been nicked on sight. 
