The LAT runs a typically unquestioning laudatory piece about the director of Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired; the star-struck documentarian, who ignored many facts in her largely smoke-blowing film, can speak with some authority.

I watched the movie again recently and was struck by how detached Zenovich stays from the victim, and how it undermines her in subtle ways.

The tone is set early on, when a friend of Polanski’s tells of being woken up and informed that the director had been arrested. It’s played for laughs, with interspersed shots of Mia Farrow on the phone from Rosemary’s Baby.

That film is about a scared and abused woman, but the scene isn’t about the girl Polanski assaulted; it’s about poor Roman. It’s an odd juxtaposition when you think about it.

Then, the friend is allowed to say something to the effect of, “Rape? Roman would never rape anyone!” Here, Zenovich is playing with the fungible definition of rape; I doubt Roman Polanski would “rape” anyone in the sense of the word the friend was using, meaning he didn’t follow a woman down the street and grab her in an alley.

If Zenovich wasn’t tipping the scales in Polanski’s favor, she could have asked the guy, “Well, what about statutory rape? Could you imagine him doing that?”

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Previously in Hitsville:

More tears for Roman Polanksi
Roman Polanski: The Ick Factor
The Polanski whitewash continues
P.S. on ‘The Polanski whitewash’
Whitewashing Polanski, continued