Revisiting Roman: Marina Zenovich's ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED

Roman Polanski being mobbed by the press in an early court hearing in 1977.


Editor's Note: In light of Roman Polanski's arrest for his 1977 charge of statutory rape in Zurich yesterday, we thought we'd re-post this June, 2008 piece Terry wrote on filmmaker Marina Zenovich and her documentary on Polanski, his infamous trial, and subsequent flight from the U.S. to avoid sentencing. Regardless of how you feel about what Polanski did, it's a great read.

By Terry Keefe

There are few figures in Hollywood history more controversial than Roman Polanski. One the one hand, he's the undeniably great filmmaker behind Rosemary's Baby and, Chinatown and on the other….he also was charged with sodomizing a 13-year old girl in 1977, faced a host of related rape counts, and ran to exile in France, where he remains to this day and is regarded as a national treasure. At the time of the rape proceedings, and since then, rumors have swirled about serious misconduct in the handling of the case by the presiding judge, Laurence J. Rittenband, whose actions led Polanski to believe that he had to flee the country because he would never get a fair sentencing. It has taken some three decades for anyone to do a true in-depth documentary examination of what went on behind the scenes during the proceedings, perhaps largely because of the reluctance of any of the principals in the case to go on the record. That film, containing a number of exclusive interviews, has now arrived in the form of Marina Zenovich's feature documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which was a hit at both Sundance and Cannes this year, and will premiere this month on HBO.

Zenovich first started kicking around the idea of doing a documentary on Polanski after reading a 2003 article in the Los Angeles Times which focused on whether Polanski would be allowed back in the United States to pick up the potential Best Director Oscar for The Pianist,an award he eventually did win. When Zenovich made a phone call to a friend of hers, explaining that she was hoping to speak to the attorneys in the Polanski rape case, she hit the documentarian's version of paydirt. Recalls Zenovich, "My friend informed me that the D.A. (Roger Gunson) in the case was also now in his church. And then he said that I should also talk to his friend Adam, who turned out to be Roman Polanski's godson. So, with one phone call, I had not necessarily access, but at least an entry into this particular world."

What allows Zenovich to do a deeper investigation into the case than any filmmaker or journalist has to date are the interviews with Gunson, as well as Polanski's attorney, Douglas Dalton, who has rarely spoken about the case until this film. The story that emerges contains a particularly damning portrait of Judge Rittenband, who seems to keep moving the finishing line for Polanski's punishment, at one point deciding to make the previously agreed terms harsher after the media whirlwind condemns him for going too light on the director. Says Zenovich on the subject of Rittenband, "I think the judge didn't know what to do and was buying time. He was in a very difficult position because there was a lot of press on the case."

Polanski himself declined to be interviewed for the film, although Zenovich has met him during the course of the production. Zenovich obviously had to walk a fine line during the filmmaking process, particularly during post-production, to present an objective point of view on the subject matter, as the facts of the case could easily be arranged as an outright condemnation of Polanski, or an attempt at rehabilitating his image. Says Zenovich, "This isn't any type of apology for Roman. I was just curious about the whole side of this case that people didn't know about. Most people can't get past the charges and the fact that he fled the country. But it was interesting to me to step back and explain through the people who were there what else really happened."

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired premieres June 9th at 9PM on HBO.

The HBO Trailer below:




For a totally different look at the life of Roman Polanski, check out our interview with filmmaker Damian Chapa about his biopic feature Polanski:Unauthorized.