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What hasn’t happened to Roman Polanski? The extraordinarily gifted director (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown) escaped the Nazis, married the ravishing young actress Sharon Tate — who at eight months pregnant was murdered by the Manson family in 1969 — and then almost a decade later was charged with having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old, after which he went into European exile (and won a libel suit against Vanity Fair). The statutory-rape trial and the escalating media circus that followed are examined in the excellent new documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (airing on HBO 6/9; in theaters 7/11).
Filmmaker Marina Zenvich neatly stitches together amazing archival footage (oh, those 1970s L.A. fashions!) and interviews with nearly all the participants except Polanski — including the victim, Samantha Geimer (who publicly forgave Polanski in 1997), defense attorney Douglas Dalton (speaking about the case for the first time), and prosecutor Roger Gunson. A fascinating portrait of a man emerges, as does the question of how justice is served when celebrity meets scandal.
Top photo courtesy of Los Angeles Times Collection, UCLA Library Department of Special Collections.
 HBO’s website for information on future airings of Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
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