Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, 2008

I knew very little about this case prior to watching this film, and having seen it, I'm just appalled (again) at the US justice system. What a farce. From the outset, the whole thing was an almighty sham headed up but a judge who did nothing but make a complete mockery of the entire case, and cause unnecessary disruption to the life of Samantha Geimer, the girl Polanski raped.

The judge was known to be a womaniser and a wannabe celebrity. He made every decision in this case based on how the press would view it and him, with absolutely no reagrd for actual justice, the victim, the perpetrator, or the legal system itself.

That's my take, anyway. I think the lawyers should have spoken up about the judge's handling of the case and attempted to have him removed earlier. I don't think the arguments surrounding the case should be about whether or not Polanski was justified in his self-imposed exile. They should be about how ridiculous the thing was from the very start. Polanski would be forgiven for being elated that it went the way it did, that he got the judge he got. It's because of that judge that he ended up getting off scot-free from a serious, horrible, disgusting crime that he admitted to committing.

I'm floored that the family sought no incarceration. He drugged and raped Samantha Geimer -- she says this, Polanski admits this. I am astounded that the parents of this girl haven't been asked to account for just why they let their daughter to go to photo shoot with a man known to have had an affair with a 15-year-old model. I'm driven to distraction by the outpouring of support for Polanski by the Hollywood community. He drugged and sodomized a child. How is this a man we can stand by because of his "treatment" by the courts, or the quality of his art? The crime was committed, and everyone seems to be forgetting about, or ignoring the severity of that crime.

Or is this the sort of thing we just overlooked in Hollywood in the 1970s? Is this something we overlook because of varied cultural practices? Polanski stated in the intial police report that Samantha acted erotically towards him, and that her level of experience was obvious. He says this for no other reason that to attempt to justify his actions, blame his victim. She was 13. There is no such thing as consenual sex by an adult with a 13-year-old child. The man's arrogance overwhelms me. I was nearly sick to my stomach when, at the beginning of this film, Polanski tells Clive James that he likes young women, that he believes all men do. Still, after all that happened, he justifies his urges and his actions. There is no doubt Polanski has been through absolute hell in his life, from his childhood during the Holocaust, to the murder of his pregnant wife by the Manson Family. But this kind of trauma does not justify his causing such gross trauma to someone else.

I think it's horrendous the way the hearing went down, but I think Polanski needs to face this. I hope someone out there, whoever handles the case, treats it with the seriousness it deserves and properly executes justice. Samantha Geimer doesn't want the publicity -- that's fine, but Polanski is the reason this has happened. He is the reason this story has flared up again. The judge was removed from the case not too long after Polanski fled -- wasn't that an opportunity to see justice done? But Polanski doesn't seem to want justice, not the right kind anyway. He just wants to be left alone.

The film is very well done, eye-opening, with interviews from most of the major players in the case. It attempts to leave the viewer questioning the rights and wrongs of the case, even making us shake our heads in the final moments that yet another judge, years down the track, promised Polanski time served if his handling of the case were televised. It's all about the cameras isn't it? Poor Roman. Poor Roman who used those same cameras to his every advantage when it suited him. Publicity is a bitch when the shoe's on the other foot.