WFF Review: ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED
If Marina Zenovich was looking for a controversial topic, she nailed it by doing a doc on the scandalous case that forced Roman Polanski to leave the United States for good. But instead on trying to find out what actually happened between the Polish filmmaker and 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in 1978, she focuses on the long and tiresome trial that followed. More than an exploration of a hot subject, Roman Polanski : Wanted and Desired is also a fascinating look on how media and justice treat our celebrities.
While every cinephiles know who Polanski is, Zenovich takes a good part of her film reminding us how the director was seen by the public during his Hollywood years. With the help from a generous use of stock footages, we discover the director under a new face, a player everyone wanted to hang out with, a man known for his great parties and his love for young women, especially his wife Sharon Tate. One of the most tragic moments of the film is on the murders commited by the Manson Family. Poor Polanski had to go throught the loss of his family and being accused by the media as a satanist because of the release of Rosemary’s Baby. He was under the media’s radar and they were just waiting for the next scandal.
It is quite difficult to talk about the Polanski case without taking any position. The director decides to remain objective and actually give us both Polanski and Geimer’s point of view as recorded in 1978. Even known Geimer features among the interviewees, Zenodich do not take this opportunity to finally ask her the truth. Saying it doesn’t matter wouldn’t be true, the choice of remaining ambiguous seems more ethical and respectful than anything else. What interests the filmmaker here is a case that involved a judge who just happened to love stars and secretly wanted to make an exemple out of Polanski.
What makes Wanted and Desired a satisfactory viewing is learning new things on a subject most of us thought they knew by heart. I was personnally quite surprised to hear Polanski did follow everything he was asked to do and actually went to jail for a few weeks. As the opposant attorney points out, it certainly wasn’t enough to be considered a punishment, but the director did follow the law. There is a lot more to it and listenning to it is very compelling, maybe enough to make a good Polanski movie !
The research done by Zenovich is impressive, she managed to get interviews with the majority of the people involved in the case and mixing them with TV footages work perfectly. There is also a clever use of scenes from Polanski’s filmography that are used as metaphors. Of course, the only person missing is the star himself, but as we quickly found out, he said enough on the subject matter over the years.
Roman Polanski : Wanted and Desired is a very interesting doc and should be seen by anyone interested in the Polish filmmaker. Whatever your side might be, it could change your opinion and will definitely prove you that there is always more than we think in such circumstances.
