Polanski Doc Tonight on HBO

It’s finally here. Into the doldrums of pre-summer comes a white hot Oscar prospect. Polanski: Wanted and Desired (which really did have an ever-so-brief qualifying run in theaters) airs on HBO starting this evening. The Los Angeles Times just gave it a rave:

Far from a tedious legal deconstruction, “Wanted and Desired” captures Hollywood and California in the midst of the first of many celebrity-driven international media swarms. Still reeling from the 1969 Manson murders, at once envious and judgmental of the swinging Hollywood scene, many saw in Polanski a nexus of unsettling forces.

By all accounts, the film does seem to explain in no uncertain terms why Polanski fled, according to both the Times and the Washington Post, which has a slide show of historic photos of the time:

“This isn’t an apology project for Roman Polanski,” says Zenovich, a Los Angeles filmmaker who sat for an interview on a windy hotel roof the day after her film was shown in Cannes. “But even people who think they recall the details of the case may be surprised. I know I was surprised.”

Polanski’s guilt and all topics relating to him reached a fever pitch on this site (when it was Oscarwatch.com) back when The Pianist was up for Oscars.¬† Polanski is such a talented man, such a visionary filmmaker who has led such a troubled life. The Vanity Fair piece on Polanski is kind of the standard tale of what went on, though no one had yet delved into the trial and the circus around it. There is no place I’d rather be than watching this doc tonight.