By 1976, Roman Polanski had cultivated a reputation for being a great moviemaker and a great auteur: With films like Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby on his resume, he proved that directors could work within the studio system and still preserve their artistic integrity. In 1977, however, he was charged with statutory rape and it was this very public case that destroyed any opportunity he had to pursue a filmmaking career in Hollywood. This documentary not only explores Polanski's troubled background and his rise to fame in the early 1970s, but carefully follows the events in his rape trial, filtering the very public trial through our ongoing obsession with celebrity culture and the harsh toll that gaze takes on its objects of desire.
For the few who don't know, Polanski's early life was beset by tragedy. His mother was killed by the Nazis during WWII and his father sent to the concentration camps. After becoming a prominent filmmaker in Poland, he moved to France, and finally America. But in the months after the release of his 1968 breakthrough hit Rosemary's Baby, his pregnant wife Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson family. While director Zenovich certainly references these experiences liberally throughout the film, she doesn't emphasize them as specific, formative experiences, or suggest that it was because of these traumas that he committed statutory rape. Rather, she uses these events to create a psychological profile of the filmmaker, and then to contrast his reactions to the accusations, and with the way in which other participants and observers characterize the way the case itself was conducted.
Importantly, the filmmakers never express approval or provide justification for Polanski's behavior with the 13-year old, even if they do suggest (albeit vaguely) that it was a product of his sense of escapism after losing not only his mother but his wife. Instead, Zenovich interviews all available participants in the events in question, in the process creating an incredibly unflattering portrait of Judge Laurence Rittenband, who applied justice as if his courtroom were a theater or soundstage over which he presided as director. Defense attorney Douglas Dalton offers an incisive portrait (confirmed by District Attorney Roger Gunson) of Rittenband's tactics, which included staged exchanges after which he would deliver verdicts or decisions, and which ultimately laid the groundwork for Polanski's eventual flight from the United States (where he has never returned).
That the documentarians successfully included so many perspectives creates a very specific and well-rounded look at the case's particulars, and really distinguishes the film from other similar films. So often these stories are adapted from a single source or from limited access, which results in a one-sided portrait that, again, either vilifies or vindicates the subject. Does that make this a better documentary than others where the filmmaker is actively arguing a point? Certainly not -- objectivity is a concept that doesn't exist the second a filmmaker chooses his or her subject, regardless of their point of view.
But Zenovich's latest is a great documentary, and a great film, precisely because it makes its arguments so effectively that you're not aware of what they are and, more importantly, when they're happening. Overall, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired is a remarkable, engaging, insightful, and best of all, complete portrait of an artist. Which means that love Polanski or hate him, after watching this film, you'll at least understand him.
4 out of 5 Stars, 8/10 Score
