Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

He's wanted in the United States and desired in France. This documentary, produced by and shown on HBO last month, makes a theatrical loop on its way to ancillary. Like another recent docu, Gonzo, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired expresses a special reverence for the 60s and 70s through clips of its cultural landmarks.
If you're familiar with the events surrounding Polanski's flight from the U.S. after being charged with "unlawful sexual intercourse" this film fleshes out the details of the backroom deals that were brokered. If you're unfamiliar with same, the film packs quite a wallop of information. Polanski engaged in consensual sex with a 13-year old (after he halved a Quaalude with the girl), otherwise the charge would've been statutory rape. To the film's credit Wanted and Desired presents facts from the defense and prosecution point-of-view, so the viewer can decide which side of the fence they might want to straddle.
Interview subject include Polanski's victim Samantha Geimer nee Gailey (who long ago forgave Polanski), along with various lawyers, reporters and screenwriters. The film never forgets that Polanski was himself a victim of Nazi occupation in his childhood Poland, nor his wife Sharon Tate's murder at the hands of the Manson gang.
The actual incident that makes Polanski flee occurs when the judge presiding over the case (the only person involved in this drama that has since died) confides to a friend at a country club that he plans to send Polanski to prison. This is overheard by a friend of Polanski's and he passes the word along. Polanski gets the hell out of Dodge at that point.
Aside from the evocation of the shift in Hollywood attitude before and after Manson, the film concentrates on the legal aspects of this case. A more interesting documentary could have been made about various directors who, for whatever reason, have fled: Chaplin departing America, Fritz Lang fleeing Nazi Germany, and such. Or perhaps a docu on adults, men and women, and the way society views their desire to have sex with teenagers. But Polanski and Samantha are the subjects and Wanted and Desired sticks to its guns.