So speaks Roman Polanski in an interview given in 1969.
In 1979, a year after he was on the run after being convicted of drugging and raping a child, he gave this far more graphic interview to novelist Martin Amis:
"If I had killed somebody, it wouldn't have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!"
This interview, nor his penchant for "young girls", makes it into this extremely biased "documentary". Even the title is dishonest "Polanski: Wanted and Desired". By who? It almost seems to imply that his victim actually "wanted him". I watched this, actually believing I was going to watch a documentary. Instead, I watched an hour and a half PR campaign about what a brilliant filmmaker Polanski is, along with long clips of his work (which has nothing to do with his case) and other people gushing over him. A long section of it is devoted to his tragic childhood and life. Finally, we reach the point where he is charged with drugging and raping a 13 year-old girl. The 13 year-old victim, and what he did to her (which I can't print here on IMDb), is diminished and devalued as much as possible. The filmmaker goes into great length about possible misconduct on the part of the prosecution and the judge (strangely, she doesn't talk about the nature of the sleazy plea bargain offered to the victim's family, or the fact that the child only agreed to it because she didn't want to be humiliated by talking about it in court. She also didn't want the stigma of being identified as a victim of rape.)
This film comes across as a disturbed fan-pic made by a devotee of Polanski, who has total empathy for the victimizer she adores, and no empathy for the victim she disregards.
I give this film one star, because it lies about what it is; it is not a documentary (which is supposed to report facts and be neutral) in any sense of the word. Instead, it comes across as a distorted valentine by a disturbed fan, justifying the actions of a disturbed individual. Its overall effect when you step back and look at it is frankly creepy.
In 1979, a year after he was on the run after being convicted of drugging and raping a child, he gave this far more graphic interview to novelist Martin Amis:
"If I had killed somebody, it wouldn't have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!"
This interview, nor his penchant for "young girls", makes it into this extremely biased "documentary". Even the title is dishonest "Polanski: Wanted and Desired". By who? It almost seems to imply that his victim actually "wanted him". I watched this, actually believing I was going to watch a documentary. Instead, I watched an hour and a half PR campaign about what a brilliant filmmaker Polanski is, along with long clips of his work (which has nothing to do with his case) and other people gushing over him. A long section of it is devoted to his tragic childhood and life. Finally, we reach the point where he is charged with drugging and raping a 13 year-old girl. The 13 year-old victim, and what he did to her (which I can't print here on IMDb), is diminished and devalued as much as possible. The filmmaker goes into great length about possible misconduct on the part of the prosecution and the judge (strangely, she doesn't talk about the nature of the sleazy plea bargain offered to the victim's family, or the fact that the child only agreed to it because she didn't want to be humiliated by talking about it in court. She also didn't want the stigma of being identified as a victim of rape.)
This film comes across as a disturbed fan-pic made by a devotee of Polanski, who has total empathy for the victimizer she adores, and no empathy for the victim she disregards.
I give this film one star, because it lies about what it is; it is not a documentary (which is supposed to report facts and be neutral) in any sense of the word. Instead, it comes across as a distorted valentine by a disturbed fan, justifying the actions of a disturbed individual. Its overall effect when you step back and look at it is frankly creepy.