Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

HBO is featuring Documentaries every Monday night throughout this summer at 9 pm. I was fortunate to meet director Marina Zenovich of tonight's documentary feature, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired at Sundance. Her film was the first film picked up at the festival. Interestingly, HBO is premiering it on cable TV, and then it will have a theater run later this summer. Marina Zenovich made a wonderful documentary film about Sundance called Independent's Day. I wasn't able to see her film on Roman Polanski at the festival, but had a delightful conversation with Marina and her husband. I wish her every success on this film, which looks fascinating. Roman Polaski is certainly a complex figure, winning the best director Oscar for The Pianist, but unable to come to America to accept his award.

LA Times:

Roman Polanski. You can start a heated conversation just uttering his name. He has led a life so large that it's often chopped down to a few phrases: Oscar-winning director of such film classics as "Chinatown," "Tess" and "The Pianist." Survivor of the Nazi occupation of Poland. Married to actress Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant when she was stabbed to death by members of the Manson Family. Had sex with a 13-year-old and, after being convicted of unlawful intercourse with a minor, fled the United States for Paris, where he has been for the last three decades.

This last bit is both the catalyst and subject of Marina Zenovich's compelling documentary “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," which premieres tonight on HBO. A surprisingly haunting examination of the politics, personalities and legal complexities of the 1977 case, the film dispels the conventional wisdom that Polanski ran away to France simply to avoid serving time.