Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (Marina Zenovich, 2008)
The entry in the Melbourne International Film Festival program for Marina Zenovich’s documentary about the trial of Roman Polanksi for unlawful sex with a thirteen year old girl film poses the question: “Was Polanski guilty, or was it the case of a trial judge seeking personal notoriety?” It’s an idiotic question: of course Polanski was guilty. He plead guilty at the time, has always admitted to having sex with the girl, and there is no suggestion otherwise in the documentary.
This basic fact hangs uneasily over the whole film, and despite it being quite sympathetic to Polanski, there’s little doubt that he wouldn’t relish the case being thrust back into the public eye: I can’t think of anyone else who has been rehabilitated into public life like Polanski has been after such a crime. And while the documentary is entertaining and interesting for its full length, I felt uncomfortable in its first half at the apparent implication that Polanski had in some ways been a victim of the trial process. In the early stretches, Polanski’s difficulties seemed merely to be the expected firestorm of publicity and the obvious problems that would accompany being charged with a serious crime, and I was having trouble making sense of the allusions to Polanksi’s apparently unjust treatment.
As the story unfolds, though, Polanksi’s causes for complaint become clearer, and the film becomes much more interesting. The latter portions of the film document the way the sentencing process ran out of control, due to outrageous mismanagement by the presiding judge. None of this exonerates Polanski, and the film lacks the power of a film such as The Thin Blue Line because at the end of the day Polanksi remains guilty and got off lightly even with the sentencing shenanigans and self-imposed exile. But certainly his decision to flee the United States becomes a lot more understandable, and you can appreciate how nobody was well served by the ultimate outcome of the case. The film will therefore probably be of most interest for laywers or those interested in the functioning of the justice system, as Zenovich does an excellent job in laying out the twists and turns of the legal events with clarity. It also becomes clear how hard it is to make sense of legal proceedings through media reports: the events of the case against Polanksi were just too complicated for the media to accurately explain on the evening news.
Zenovich benefits from the involvement of all the important parties, except Polanski: crucially, she talks to the victim, which is vital both in helping to avoid the Polanski apologia getting out of hand, and in providing context for that which is present. (In particular, she is given a nice chance to rebuff the comments of another interviewee who questions the role of her mother in allowing her to be alone with Polanski). Zenovich assembles the material with clarity, but also with an eye for keeping things interesting through the kind of playful devices we’ve become used to in this sort of film. The use of footage from Polanski’s films struck me as perhaps a little too cute (and in one case – the use of the rape dream from Rosemary’s Baby – both unfair and in poor taste) until right at the very end, where here’s a very clever use of a clip from one of Polanski’s early shorts (The Fat and the Lean). The main diversion for me, though, was how much the DA and defence attorney looked like Robert Redford and DeForest Kelly.