Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

I was able to catch a screening of this film, and to my amazement my outlook on Polanski has changed. I read the review posted above and I drew the same conclusions as he/she did.

Polanski is one of our film history's greatest artists. Chinatown was one of the greatest films to ever grace the silver screen. The Pianist was such a powerful film that I actually cried when viewing it. To those who know me, I hardly cry at the movies.

I was 30 years old when his wife (Sharon Tate) and child (she was pregnant) was tragically murdered by Manson's cult. It was a terrible event, and I will never forget Polanski's public television address. He was devastated at the loss of his wife and unborn child.

Now the 70's were a turbulent and changing time. We had Vietnam drawing to a close, The Son of Sam and New York's violence, and people were just upset at the general status of the world. America was really trying to redeem itself.

I do remember the sexual revolutions occurring as well in the 1970s. The above post that mentions the ADA decision is correct, and in fact to this day many believe it was an unscientific pressured move to remove gays from the list. Also, NAMBLA was gaining momentum with their "Sexual Freedom for all" motto, and emerged from the (GAA) Gay Activist Alliance with acceptance. That is until the Stonewall Riots. I remember these events because I was living in Toronto at the time. Since then, the Gay Liberation Front ostracized NAMBLA and removed them from their festivities ever since. Though not all gay members believed NAMBLA was wrong. Harry Hay, the leading Gay Rights figure, wore a sign accepting NAMBLA in 1986's Gay Parade in Los Angeles.

Pedophiles are human beings, and though I agree with Nurture in the Nurture versus Nature schema, I can not label pedophiles as monsters. Many pedophiles are struggling with their sexual preference, just like many gays who've struggled for their acceptance. Polanksi is a normal male, with a sexual desire to be with young girls. Does he use force to have sex with young girls? No.

I have always seen Polanski as a coward. A monster who fled from punishment. This documentary gives us another side of the story. Polanski was targeted, and the sign of the times with gays and NAMBLA asking for rights was a wake up call to politicians and judges to make an example out of Polanski. They branded him evil and disgusting.

Say what you will, I'm sure many people will draw on their own ideas and use their own bias to draw their own conclusions on Polanksi. As a person who has lived through the 70s and went into this film believing that Polanski was a monster, I can walk away now forming the whole story with Mr. Polanksi. My outlook on him has changed, he is not a monster! As far as gay people and pedophiles go, there seems to be a lot of history linking these two groups together. The truth is out there, if people are open minded enough they will care to understand.

Roman Polanski's name, while illustrious, is clouded by both tragedy and scandal. Tragedy because his parents died in the Holocaust and his wife Sharon Tate, when eight months pregnant, was horribly murdered in the Manson Family massacre, scandal because of a notorious case of sex with a minor that led to his flight from the United States, where he is still "wanted." In France he is "desired," and then some. A lifelong French citizen and a member of the Académie des Beaux Arts, he is part of the cultural establishment there, and he has received frequent European awards. The Polanski of 'Knife in the Water', 'Repulsion,' 'The Tenant,' 'Rosemary's Baby,' 'Chinatown' and 'The Pianist' is a great director, but a flawed man. He never denied that he liked young girls. "I think most men do," he says in this film. Partying and women were essential to his life, and also partly how he coped with a singularly heavy past. This documentary shown on HBO and in a handful of theaters focuses on the 1977 case when Polanski was 43 and eventually pleaded guilty in a media-blitzed Santa Monica trial to the charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, 13-year-old Samantha Geimer, whom he plied with champagne and Quaaludes during a photo shoot for Vogue at which no one else was present. The film explains what happened and why Polansi left this country before the trial was quite over and has never returned since.

Mainly this is a story of media frenzy and a corrupt, foolish judge, Laurence J. Rittenband. In determining the case, it emerges, Rittenband was so frivolous and uncertain that he sought and followed advice from a cub reporter, his two girlfriends, and his bailiff. The course this celebrity-mad magistrate ultimately followed was illegal. The upright defense lawyer, Samantha Geimer's lawyer, the lawyer for the prosecution and Geimer herself, all of whom contribute to the documentary, have nothing positive to say about Rittenband. His conduct of the case is shown to have been contradictory, erratic, and profoundly injudicious. Polanski, it emerges, did not flee "justice" under the California DA's office, to which he had willingly submitted, but the unpredictability of Judge Rittenband.

Director Zenovich seeks to show that some media-mad American judges (Rittenband is clearly not the only one) cannot be relied upon for justice or even sane behavior when celebrities are on trial. You have to watch the movie to get the intricate, far-fetched details of Rittenband's oscillating procedures, which wind up with him hoping to get the lawyers' complicity in his pretending to give a more severe sentence--to give the media what he thought it craved--than was justified by the case or he wanted to give. Note: unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor was the only charge that held, not rape or anything else, and the decision from various sides was that Polanski should be given probation. In an earlier compromise Rittenband had already confined him to the California State Prison at Chico for 43 days of "observation" in that dangerous environment, misusing this procedure as a sentence. After the judge's erratic behavior, neither defense nor prosecution lawyers had any confidence that he would hand down a logical or appropriate sentence if Polanski submitted again. The film conveys a sense that the director had endured enough.

Though the film doesn't say so, it seems important to note that Polanski was never a resident of the US but only here on visits to make a few films and a longtime resident of England. Hence his 30-year absence from the US to avoid legal hassles is "exile" from a country he never intended to make his permanent home. He was offered the option to return to complete the trial with the same lawyers and a new judge and the promise of no sentence ten years ago, but ironically that judge insisted the proceedings be televised, so Polanski refused. Many Americans, conditioned by the media hysteria of those years, continue to see the diminutive Polanski, a horror movie director in his mid-career, as a monster "dwarf" of dark intent.

The film also presents much information about Polanski's life, with glowing descriptions by friends and associates of his talent, his technical rigor, and his joie de vivre. To the film's credit, it speaks in favor of Polanski (even his victim has forgiven him) without in any way seeking to gloss over any of his misconduct. In interview excerpts from various times he never tries to excuse himself either--even at the height of the scandal, which came on top of the Sharon Tate murder and his depiction at that time as somehow to blame for what was in fact a great personal tragedy for him.

'Wanted and Desired' may surprise and shock in its careful rehabilitation of the director's personal reputation for American viewers. The whole case, through the cooperation of the principals, is outlined with admirable thoroughness. Alas, there is not as much as there could have been about the larger themes of sex crime and the corrupting effects of media overexposure and celebrity worship on the American legal system. Zenovich has wielded her magnifying glass with skill, but if she'd stepped back for a longer look her film could have taken on more significance.

Seen at the Roxie Film Center, San Francisco. The film's music director Joe Rudge was on hand for a Q&A after the screening.

There is no doubt that America lost one of its greatest directors when Roman Polanski fled to France after pleading guilty to having sex with a minor. He already had Oscar nominations for Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, which won him a Golden Globe. He has gone on to win a shelf full of awards, including an Oscar for The Pianist.

There is also no doubt that Polanski was guilty of much more serious crimes against a 13-year-old girl, and this documentary shows the glaring difference that justice in America has for the rich and connected. He could return today and serve 48 days and all would be forgiven. How sad is that? The one question that the film does not answer is why the girl's mother was not arrested and charged for child neglect. It was obvious that she knew the danger she was placing her daughter in.

We do not forgive sex crimes because they happen in Hollywood, or do we? Polanski is one of the greatest directors in the world, and, as a movie lover, I applaud his talent. But, he still committed a heinous crime and should suffer the consequences. Exile to France may seem punishment to the extreme right wing in this country, but we know different.

Marina Zenovich did an outstanding job with this film and should at least receive an Oscar nomination.

When most people think of Roman Polanski, they immediately remember his legal troubles over a sexual encounter with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, when he was 44. To counterbalance this common instant reaction, Marina Zenovich's new HBO documentary, ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED, does as much as it can to remind you about the other great hardships of Polanski's life. There have been plenty, that's for sure. He lost his mother and father during the Second World War, his mother losing her life in Auschwitz. He survived somehow and eventually made his way to London, where he pursued a career in film-making, something he always knew he wanted to do. It was there that he met his future wife, actress, Sharon Tate. They made a life for themselves in Los Angeles and for a while, they were happy. Then Tate, eight months pregnant at the time with Polanski's child, was murdered in her home along with four others in a horrific fashion at the hands of Charles Manson and his "family". Still Polanski soldiered on and he did so by producing some of Hollywood's greatest classics, like ROSEMARY'S BABY and CHINATOWN. Polanski has had incredible highs and horrendous lows and while he should be both commended and consoled, he still slept with a minor and that can't be forgotten.

With so many dramatic experiences to choose from, it isn't difficult for Zenovich to string her piece together. Despite its straightforward approach, it is never quite clear where she stands on Polanski's behaviour. She does focus her documentary to show how no matter how many other things have happened in Polanski's life that this one particular mistake is the event that defines it all. However, she never questions his judgment and leaves the opinion forming to her audience. This would ordinarily be a respectable decision but Zenovich's intentions may not be as noble as they appear. She presents us with a very well balanced argument regarding whether Polanski received a fair trial or not. Lead legal counsel for both the defense and the prosecution are interviewed and, lending volumes of weight to the film, they both present relatively similar accounts of the trial and what went on behind the scenes. It is the behind the scenes material that puts the issue of fairness into question. The proceedings were overseen by Judge Lawrence Rittenband, a judge notorious for his attraction toward celebrity and the idea of being one himself. Rittenband essentially orchestrated the proceedings of his court as though he were directing a film and the intended audience was the press. Zenovich has shown us the charade and while this is all horribly unjust, it still does not negate what Polanski did.

The next question is whether what Polanski did thirty years ago even matters now. Samantha Geimer, the plaintiff in the case, who also appears in the film, has forgiven Polanski publicly. The judge now responsible for the case has stated for the record that Polanski would not serve any jail time if he were to reenter the United States. The man even won an Oscar for directing THE PIANIST in 2002. Clearly the world has moved on but Zenovich has brought us back. Her approach is well-rounded; her style is formulaic but solid. The only thing missing is a genuine satisfaction that her efforts have been fully realized. ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED alludes to Polanski being wanted in one country and desired in others but does nothing to suggest what the wants and desires mean about those feeling them. So all we're truly left with is another reminder of what he did.

Roman Polanski is what I would consider a genius filmmaker. He is the consummate "filmmaker's director", and has made many excellent films--some of the most important films ever created-- for over 40 years.I think he is a highly engaging, intelligent and gifted human being. And I would treasure the opportunity to sit with him over a glass of wine and hear ,what I'm sure would be an amazing, riveting life story.

Having said that,the recent motions to dismiss his guilt regarding the 1977 child-rape case HE PLEAD GUILTY TO to me are belittling of our criminal justice system.

It boils down to his GUILT, not wheather or not the judge is an a**hole--right? Haven't many convicted members of the MANSON family ,guilty of slaughtering his pregnant wife and unborn son, attempted similar motions, pleas and tactics to reduce or overthrow THEIR sentences. Do THEY also deserve to "walk" just because it's "been a long time and things change"?

This is a compelling film and very, very absorbing and it is recommended viewing,regardless of your personal opinion regarding Polanski's guilt--but to what end? I do not agree with it's perspective,purpose and viewpoint so in that sense, it is an inherently flawed project.

We wish you could return to the USA, Mr.Polanski--But you have done something that you must pay for, just as Tex Watson and Susan Atkins have to pay for the crimes they inflicted in your rented home on Cielo Drive on that tragic summer evening in 1969.