MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Down 210 this week

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008)

7.4
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.4/10 from 2,985 users   Metascore: 78/100
Reviews: 38 user | 69 critic | 16 from Metacritic.com

Examines the public scandal and private tragedy which led to legendary filmmaker Roman Polanski's sudden flight from the United States.

Director:

0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 184 titles created 12 Feb 2012
 
a list of 164 titles created 8 months ago
 
a list of 82 titles created 30 Oct 2011
 
a list of 84 titles created 1 month ago
 
a list of 21 titles created 05 Dec 2011
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008)

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008) on IMDb 7.4/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.
Won 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 2 wins & 7 nominations. See more awards »
Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Man on Wire (2008)
Documentary | Biography
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century."

Director: James Marsh
Stars: Philippe Petit, Jean François Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau
Documentary | Crime
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

In the 1980s, ruthless Colombian cocaine barons invaded Miami with a brand of violence unseen in this country since Prohibition-era Chicago - and it put the city on the map. "Cocaine ... See full summary »

Director: Billy Corben
Stars: Jon Roberts, Al Sunshine, Sam Burstyn
Documentary | Crime
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

Nick Broomfield's second documentary on Aileen Carol Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was executed in 2002 for killing seven men in the state of Florida. This second installment includes the filmmaker's testimony at Wournous's trial.

Directors: Nick Broomfield, Joan Churchill
Stars: Aileen Wuornos, Nick Broomfield, Terry Humphreys-Slay
Crime | Documentary
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

Oscar-winning documentary that documents a murder trial in which a 15-year-old African-American is wrongfully accused of a 2000 murder in Jacksonville, Florida.

Director: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
Stars: Ann Finnell, Patrick McGuinness, James Williams
Ônibus 174 (2002)
Documentary | Crime
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

Documentary depicts what happened in Rio de Janeiro on June 12th 2000, when bus 174 was taken by an armed young man, threatening to shoot all the passengers. Transmitted live on all ... See full summary »

Directors: José Padilha, Felipe Lacerda
Stars: Anonymous, Sandro do Nascimento, Rodrigo Pimentel
Documentary | Crime
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

"The Trials of Darryl Hunt" is a feature documentary about a brutal rape/murder case and a wrongly convicted man, Darryl Hunt, who spent nearly twenty years in prison for a crime he did not... See full summary »

Directors: Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg
Stars: Evelyn Jefferson, Fred Flagler, John Reeves
Documentary | Crime
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

The War on Drugs has become the longest and most costly war in American history, the question has become, how much more can the country endure? Inspired by the death of four family members ... See full summary »

Director: Kevin Booth
Stars: Joe Arpaio, Jello Biafra, Osama bin Laden
Documentary | Crime
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X  

A documentary of the decline of America. It features a lot a great footage (most exclusive to this film) from race riots to serial killers and much-much more.

Director: Sheldon Renan
Stars: Chuck Riley, Ed Dorris, Thomas Noguchi
Documentary | Crime
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

Documentary about Father Oliver O'Grady, a Catholic priest who was relocated to various parishes around the United States during the 1970s in an attempt by the Catholic Church to cover up his rape of dozens of children.

Director: Amy Berg
Stars: Adam, Jeff Anderson, Thomas Doyle
Documentary | Crime
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.6/10 X  

The true-life story of a Harlem's notorious Nicky Barnes, a junkie turned multimillionaire drug-lord, MR. UNTOUCHABLE takes its audience deep inside the heroin industry of the 1970s. The ... See full summary »

Director: Marc Levin
Stars: Leroy 'Nicky' Barnes, Don Ferrarone, Thelma Grant
Documentary | Crime
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X  

With a first-person look at the notorious Crips and Bloods, this film examines the conditions that have lead to decades of devastating gang violence among young African Americans growing up in South Los Angeles.

Director: Stacy Peralta
Stars: Jim Brown, Tony Muhammad, Forest Whitaker
Documentary | Crime
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.5/10 X  

Set in 1991 on the inner-city streets of Oakland, California, cocaine dealer Charles Cosby has his life changed forever when he writes a fan letter to the "Cocaine Godmother" Griselda ... See full summary »

Director: Billy Corben
Stars: Nelson Andreu, Jorge Ayala, Griselda Blanco
Edit

Cast

Credited cast:
...
Himself (archive footage)
Istvan Bajzat ...
Himself
Steve Barshop ...
Himself
Marilyn Beck ...
Herself
Madeline Bessmer ...
Herself
Pierre-André Boutang ...
Himself
Andrew Braunsberg ...
Himself
Richard Brenneman ...
Himself
...
Himself (archive footage)
...
Himself (archive footage)
...
Guy Woodhouse (archive footage)
...
Himself (archive footage)
Furnell Chatman ...
Himself (archive footage)
...
Herself (archive footage)
Michael M. Crain ...
Himself
Edit

Storyline

In 1977, Roman Polanski was arrested in Los Angeles on charges he gave drugs and had sex with a 13-year-old girl he was photographing for Vogue. Eleven months later, having pled guilty to one count, he fled to Europe before sentencing. This film examines that year-long period, using archival footage of the media frenzy and of Polanski's life before the charges, clips from his films, and contemporary interviews with many of the principles - attorneys, the victim, and Polanski's friends and associates. Polanski remains enigmatic, but portraits emerge of the machinations of justice and of a judge more interested in his image than his word or the law. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

The truth couldn't fit in the headlines.

Genres:

Documentary | Crime

Certificate:

Unrated | See all certifications »
Edit

Details

Official Sites:

Country:

|

Language:

| |

Release Date:

11 December 2008 (Greece)  »

Also Known As:

Polanski. Scigany i pozadany  »

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$4,613 (USA) (11 July 2008)

Gross:

$59,192 (USA) (26 September 2008)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Quotes

Samantha Geimer: The worst part was... no one believed me.
See more »

Connections

Featured in Larry King Live: Episode dated 6 January 2010 (2010) See more »

Soundtracks

"Lullaby"
Written by Krzysztof Komeda (as Christopher Komeda)
Sung by Mia Farrow
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

 
The handling of the trial seems to be Zenovich's primary focus, rather than Polanski.
15 July 2010 | by (Singapore) – See all my reviews

Poland has produced great filmmakers such as Andrzej Wajda (Ashes and Diamonds, 1958; Man of Marble, 1977) and Krzysztof Kieslowski (A Short Film About Love, 1988; Three Colors: Red, 1994) whose works address directly issues of war, politics, economic turmoil, and moral unrest that have affected their country since WWII. Their films take a serious, hard-nosed slant, and are mostly well-known only in film scholarship and festival circuits.

The other great Polish film director is Roman Polanski, who completes what I dubbed as the "holy trinity of Polish cinema". He is known as the Polish Hitchcock, with films from his early career dwelling in the genre of horror, thriller, and mystery. He further established himself in America with unforgettable films such as Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974). He also became the first Polish filmmaker to win the Oscar for Best Director for The Pianist (2002).

The most controversial filmmaker to emerge from Eastern Europe of the last fifty years, not for his films (though some are) but for his widely-documented life story, Polanski is able to divide public opinion of him with just the mere mention of his name. This becomes the pursued theme of Marina Zenovich's documentary feature Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, an above average film that is more informative than entertaining.

I will summarize his life story in one paragraph: A young Polanski escaped the horrors of WWII but the Nazis executed his parents during their brutal reign. He grew up to enjoy fine life, womanizing, and film-making. He was at the height of his career when his pregnant wife was murdered. His life crumbled even further when he was accused of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor (who much later publicly forgave him). He pleaded guilty but the trial was not ethically handled by Judge Rittenband. Polanski then fled the US and never came back.

Through my observation, Polanski is not really made the subject of Wanted and Desired. Rather, it is the handling of the trial that seems to be Zenovich's primary focus. In the film, Polanski takes on the character that we are pressured to empathize with. Zenovich portrays him as a tortured person under too much media glare at that time, and his "escape" to France as a fugitive is seen as a liberating one.

Zenovich uses archival footage, and weaves them with interviews with key persons involved in the trial. Much of her film reveals the flawed, publicity-loving personality of Judge Rittenband, the unfair treatment of Polanski by the press, and the circumstances involving Polanski's alleged sexual assault. In an unbalanced way, Wanted and Desired plays too much on the "Wanted" card, whereas the "Desired" part only comes out as such in the final fifteen minutes of the film.

My stand on the Polanski sexual scandal is that no matter the reputation of the accused, he or she should be sentenced accordingly. However, the suspect handling of the trial has raised concerns over the quality and ethicality of the US judiciary system. Polanski was right to flee the US under the circumstances. Now that he is arrested again in Switzerland for that case that goes back to more than three decades, the question to ask is: Is it really still worth pursuing? SCORE: 6.5/10 (www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com) All rights reserved!


5 of 6 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Hollywood is crazy, so is this movie and Polanski's a creep ycontrol-8
Job well done judge! Where were you during the OJ Case? therealwillyd
Sharon Tate revellr
The real problem matt_sabre
Does Samantha have a father? vexata
Integration of Footage from Polanski's Films nycinephiles

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?