Friday, September 19, 2008
Movie review: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
"This thing had reached the point where it was actually becoming surreal."
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Reopening a case that has inspired curiosity, controversy, and confusion for over three decades, Zenovich's film is an extensive exploration of the circumstances that led up to--and the circus that followed--Polanski's conviction for having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Zenovich had unprecedented access to several of the key players in the case, including the lawyers representing the case, the media covering it, and the unusually clear-eyed and candid victim. Unearthing a trove of telling footage from the past, and combining it with insightful interviews from today, she brings comprehension and clarity to events long clouded by myth and misconception. A thrilling examination of a trial that became the prototype for innumerable Hollywood courtroom scandals to follow, the film becomes a brilliant discourse on the attraction/repulsion that defines celebrity culture in contemporary America.
Source: Cinema Source
The remarkable thing about filmmaker Marina Zenovich's documentary, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, is that she found a way to conduct interviews with most of the principals involved in the events documented - 30 years after the fact.
The prosecution and defense attorneys on the case, the lead police investigator, news reporters who covered the story at the time - even the victim (Samantha Geimer) and her mother share their views with Zenovich's crew. As does actress Mia Farrow, who made Rosemary's Baby under Polanski's direction. We also hear from the court-appointed psychiatrist who evaluated Polanski's state of mind during the trial proceedings.
What results is a thorough and unbiased accounting of the Hollywood scandal to end all Hollywood scandals - pre-O.J., at least.
Conspicuously absent from the mix are only the judge who presided over the case (Laurence J. Rittenband, who died in 1994) and Polanski himself, who has lived in Paris since his flight from the U.S. in 1977 to avoid sentencing stemming from his guilty plea on a charge of having unlawful sex with a minor.
This is not to say that Polanski doesn't appear in the film - he does, by means of taped interviews and a wealth of newsreel clips and behind-the-scenes film set footage.
When the incident for which he was prosecuted occurred, Roman Polanski was doing freelance photography for French Vogue magazine. The young lady he chose as his model - Ms. Geimer - accompanied him to Jack Nicholson's house for the shoot. (Nicholson - who had worked with Polanski in Chinatown - was away at the time.) During the course of the photo shoot, it is alleged that Mr. Polanski took topless photos of the 13-year-old girl, then provided her with champagne and drugs before having sex with her.
Polanski never disputed the fact that he had sex with the girl, and the issue of mutual agreement was of course a moot point, she being far younger than the legal age of consent. What makes the remainder of the story compelling and worth revisiting after all this time is the way events played out in the media, in the public's perception and in the courtroom.
The media bit down hard on this sensational story and painted Polanski as the kind of demonic character posited in one of his films, going so far as to question whether he might have had a hand in the murders of his wife (Sharon Tate) and her companions at the hands of the Manson family. (He was devastated by the loss, as documented in the archival footage and in interviews with his acquaintances; at the time of the murders, he out of the country.) Ex-prosecutor/district attorney Roger Gunson admits to having attended a Polanski film festival in order to search for themes that might lend insight into the director's troubled psyche.
Judge Rittenband, who occupied the bench in Polanski's case, craved media attention and enjoyed the celebrity status that high-profile trials conferred upon him. (Rittenband presided over Elvis Presley's divorce, Marlon Brando's child-custody battle and a paternity suit involving Cary Grant.)
Both prosecutor Gunson (characterized as a "Robert Redford Mormon") and Polanski's defense attorney Doug Dalton (described as "Lincolnesque") considered the final disposition of the case by Judge Rittenband to be a sham, as the judge reneged on the sentencing agreement worked out that led Polanski to plead guilty to one of the criminal charges brought against him. (Rittenband felt he was receiving "too much criticism" from the press in relation to the probation stipulation, and was preparing to tack on jail time against the wishes of both sides.)
When, on the night before sentencing, Polanski asked his lawyer if the judge could be trusted, Dalton told him, "No." He hopped a plane to Paris.
While it's difficult to feel sympathy for someone who initiated sex with a girl young enough to be considered a child, it's also clear that justice in this case was far from blind, and that the defendant's identity contributed to the way he was treated in the halls of justice. The most telling argument in Polanski's behalf is the fact that even his victim thinks the judge acted unfairly.
Polanski was elected in 1998 to serve on the Académie des Beaux-Arts, a French learned society.
BRUTAL HONESTY: "I like young women, but I think most men do, yes?" - Polanski to interviewer, in Paris
"But the question is, how young?" - interviewer's follow-up
CRUEL TO BE KIND?: "I despise the press for its... deliberate cruelty." - Polanski to Dick Cavett, following the death of his wife, Sharon Tate
SALVADOR DALI - COURT REPORTER?: "This thing had reached the point where it was actually becoming surreal." - defense attorney Doug Dalton, re. the sentencing hearing
