'Polanski was not treated fairly'

A BBC film sheds startling new light on the underage sex case against the director, writes David Gritten In any list of globally famous public figures for whom it's hard to summon sympathy, Roman Polanski would rank high. The brilliantly talented film director, who brought Chinatown, The Pianist and Rosemary's Baby to the big screen, is infamous for having had unlawful sex with an under-age girl in Los Angeles in the Seventies - then fleeing America to escape imprisonment and making a permanent home in France to avoid extradition. All that is true. But a startling new documentary casts these events in a totally different light. Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired probes the legal machinations behind the Polanski case 30 years ago and concludes that the publicity-seeking judge, Laurence Rittenband, was more determined to make... [read full story]