It took a woman filmmaker (Marina Zenovich) to contextualize the behind-the-scenes horse-trading and injustices involved in Polanski’s famous 1977-1978 trial for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor that led to Roman Polanski’s
escape/exile from America after serving a brief prison sentence.
Zenovich blends a plethora of clips from Polanski’s films with precise interview footage from attorneys on both sides of the case to outline judicial abuses by the presiding judge, Laurence J. Rittenband, whose career was shuttered due to his maleficent treatment of the case.
Disturbing and informative, this film shows two highly egotistical men (Polanski and Rittenband), with a similar proclivity for young women, in a media frenzied dual that neither could escape from.
Here is an essential filmic document toward understanding a complicated case made all the more opaque by a reckless media, and an even more irresponsible American judge.
Monsters everywhere you look.
Not Rated. 99 mins.
