Monday night, I took time away from research films which I’ve been working my way through and popped into the dvd the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted & Desired . This documentary directed by Marina Zenovich is a VERY non-biased look at Roman Polanski spending a good deal of time on the legal battle which Polanski has faced since the late 70’s and now has him sitting in a Swiss jail awaiting extradition to the U.S.
If you don’t know anything about Polanski, this movie is a good primer. He survived the Holocaust as a boy then got himself to Hollywood where he directed several big hits. He married one of his actresses, Sharon Tate, and from this movie is clear to see they were very much in love, and she was pregnant with his child when she was murdered by Charles Manson and his bunch of sickos. Needless to say, Polanski had to struggle with that and he talks about it briefly in the film.
The film is very good about using Polanski’s own comments to give his side of events and equally good in that it has all the major players giving in-depth interviews. You really do get to know Polanski as a person to some degree in this film.
The bombshells – and there are numerous ones -mainly center on his legal troubles. He was accused of rape when he had sex with a 13 y.o. girl and plead down to unlawful sex which with he did some jail time and which every department recommended probation for him having determined he wasn’t a sex offender.
Things you learn in this film are:
1. The girl had a very active sex life before she met Polanski and her mother didn’t seem to mind. It was one reason the girl’s attorney – both of who were interviewed in the film – agreed to a plea. In fact, their side initiated the plea process first.
2. The Judge was corrupt. More interested in fame then justice and did several illegal things. When you have both the guy prosecuting the case, and the defense lawyer agreeing the judge was corrupt, then you pretty well know things aren’t right.
3. The Judge was going to violate the plea and sentence Polanski to decades behind bars just to make his own reputation.
4. The victim doesn’t want Polanski prosecuted further.
5. The prosecutor said he totally ‘understood’ why Polansk fled. In other words, he didn’t blame him for doing so because justice wasn’t going to be dealt.
One thing I learned that surprised me is how people and the press in America have always treated Polanski. They have ALWAYS villified him. When his wife was murdered, even though he was on a different continent making a movie, they said he was behind the murder because he had made the movie Rosemary’s Baby. And anyone who makes such a good movie about the occult must actually be involved and thus he had to be behind the murder. They actually printed this stuff in the papers. Neighbors didn’t want him living in their neighborhood because of it. It was like a modern day witch hunt without any real witches.
I have never figured out how Polanski has kept his sanity. Surviving the holocaust is bad enough. Surving the brutal murder of your wife and daughter on top of it almost too much to bear. Add all the legal troubles etc. Most of us would’ve gone off the deep end.
The Swiss making a deal with the Americans and locking Polanski up is going to keep Polanski in the news probably for a long time. If you want to know something about Polanski, the case, his life, this movie is definitely the one to watch.
