I guess I’m a bit more of a feminist than I realize. I can recall several times this past year where I’ve posted about the topic because a film touched a nerve. Marina Zenovich’s film, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which premiered at Sundance last week and was “picked up by HBO and the Weinstein Co.” according to Variety, is such a film.

This film is a strong feat of research and editing (Joe Bini winning the Documentary Editing Award at the fest). I’m so impressed by Zenovich’s persistence, leading her pull together a story most people assumed they know all about, but about which, I was squarely convinced, actually know next to nothing. What happened in the Polanski case is a far cry what many assume in many ways, except one. Without going into details, as that might spoil the experience of watching it, Zenovich paints a convincing picture of serious problems within the American justice system which are rooted in this 1978 case.

The one thing at the heart of the Polanski case, which as many probably know, is the alleged statutory rape of a 13-year-old Vogue-esque beauty. The fact that Polanski had sex with a minor is undisputed. I know that age limits are different in many states but in most places, a 13-year-old cannot grant consensual sex with an of-age adult, particularly where that adult has any power over the minor, such as a teacher, officer of the law or in this case, celebrity. Though Zenovich interviewed the victim, we hear only enough of her story to help illustrate and further the argument that Polanski was victimized by the US justice system.

Perhaps that is the point, given the story is titled Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, but I can’t help but feel that the important questions go unanswered and un-discussed. How does this kind of sexual abuse effect the life of a woman as she matures? How does the treatment of victims in high profile cases affect their lives beyond that moment of infamy? What are appropriate ways of dealing with sexual offenses that perhaps fall in some gray area? I feel, after watching the movie that Polanski was in a gray area, but am I even right about that? The victim never says outright that she feels well mentally; the filmmakers do not allow us to even hear the victim’s point of view on what happened between her and Polanski.

I don’t mean to knock the film. I watch true crime shows and this falls into the realm of compelling mysteries revealed. But I would like to see something within the text of film that acknowledges that whatever might have happened to Polanski after the incident, the initial act that prompted the legal debacle was neither condoned nor accepted by (the women) filmmakers. I could go on here, but instead I’ll be interested to hear from others who saw (or do see) the film, what is your reaction?

“Even as Zenovich is building a credible case that Polanski rights were perverted by the ulterior motives of [Judge] Rittenband, she’s undermining that evidence with a parade of excuses designed to diminish our perception of Polanski’s actual guilt. It’s very normal for Europeans to have sex with 13 year old girls! Also, Polanski survived the Holocaust and the Manson family, so cut him some slack. And ultimately, what 13 year old wannabe model in 1977 went to Jack Nicholson’s house with Roman Polanski *not* expecting to get slipped a luude and sodomized? BTW, that judge sucked. For a film seemingly so critical of the media’s complicity in abetting the myths of huge egos, Wanted and Desired uncritically indulges in its fair share of media-driven myths.” Spout review by Karina Longworth

ERRATA: I have to apologize to the filmmakers as I wrote the title of their film incorrectly in a recent article, and the correction took too long. I understand the stress in the lead-up to Sundance and I apologize for contributing to that stress.

Photo credit: Polanski with Dalton exiting court; courtesy of Los Angeles Times/UCLA Library Department of Special Collections