France delivered mixed messages about Roman Polanski and cancel culture over the last week.

His new film, “J’accuse” — known in English as “An Officer and a Spy” — opened days after a photographer publicly accused the director of violently raping her in 1975, which he denied. Following protests, a few screenings were nixed, promotion was curtailed, a French filmmakers guild leaned toward expelling him, and the country’s culture minister said an artist’s potential misdeeds were not excused by the merit of his art.

The critics were in the minority. The film, which tells of the historic miscarriage of justice known as the Dreyfus affair, topped the country’s box office, and, according to its sales distributor, has distribution throughout Europe, Russia and China. Even so, it still does not have a distributor in the large film markets of the United States or Britain.

Two years after sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein ushered in the #MeToo era, directors accused of sexual misdeeds are still experiencing fallout, but to what degree depends on how big their star was to begin with. (Mr. Weinstein, who is facing a criminal trial on charges of sexual assault and rape, has denied ever having had nonconsensual sex and pleaded not guilty.)