Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired Script - Dialogue Transcript

Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired Script

  

  
(Polanski)
Of Ben-Hur, you mean?

  
(James)
Granted that it's too easy and a cliché

  
to connect your work with your life
in such a direct manner.

  
Let me take the example
of Chinatown.

  
Chinatown is really a movie
about justice not winning.

  
Is that what you had come
to believe?

  
(Polanski)
No, not at all.

  
But if you want your film
to serve any purpose,

  
if you want to show injustice
or corruption of Los Angeles

  
in that period,

  
you have to show
that injustice somehow won

  
and leave them with a feeling
of frustration.

  
I hope you don't mind
if I just reach across here

  
and grab a couple of these... -
of these nuts.

  
I will too.

  
Anyway, that's... - that's fiction.

  
And I think this probably may be
still in the land of fiction,

  
edging towards fact.

  
When the... -
when the newspapers

  
and the magazines
and the books

  
talk about you
and little girls,

  
is there anything in it?

  
Well, I-I like young women... -
let's put it this way... -

  
and I think most of men do, actually.

  
Yeah, but the question... -

  
the question turns
on how young, doesn't it?

  
Well, yes, well, here you come
to a concrete case

  
for which I have been

  
behind bars.

  
And that's what you want
to talk about.

  
But what exactly would you
like me to tell you?

  
[Haunting vocal music]

  
 

  
[voices overlapping]

  
(man)
The Los Angeles
police department today

  
announced the arrest
of Raymond Polanski

  
as a result of a complaint filed

  
by the mother
of a 13-year-old female.

  
(Polanski)
It was a year of anxiety,
a year of drama for me,

  
and I thought it was
simply enough.

  
Enough is enough,
and that was my decision to leave.

  
You ran away, Roman.

  
You ran away.

  
Well, I, as you say, ran away

  
because I think
that I was very unfortunate

  
to have a judge
who misused justice.

  
And he was playing with me
for a period of a year.

  
I think that I was
some kind of mouse

  
with which some abominable cat
begins a sport.

  
[People shouting]

  
(Braunsberg)
People were not in the habit

  
of calling me
at 2:00 in the morning.

  
So I was sleeping.

  
I picked up the phone,

  
and they said,
"Roman's been arrested."

  
And I said, "What for?"

  
And they said, "Rape."

  
I said, "l-l... -

  
I just could not... -
it just made no sense.

  
I mean, this is somebody who
could not be a rapist, you know?

  
I mean, it's somebody I know
really, really well.

  
(Vannatter)
I was working
West L.A. Homicide,

  
and I also handled sex crimes.

  
And I came into work
and had a crime report on my desk

  
of a-a rape
that had been reported,

  
and Roman Polanski
was the named suspect in it.

  
After I received the report,
I started the follow-up.

  
I went to interview the victim
and her mother,

  
did an extensive interview
with them,

  
made sure that... -
that any physical evidence

  
would have been recovered
from her, that she had,

  
and then I-I went and talked
to the district attorney's office.

  
Vannatter came into the office,
and we sat down,

  
and he ran the case by me.

  
He showed me
the incident report,

  
a crime report taken
by a couple of patrol officers,

  
which is a narrative
of the facts and stuff.

  
Time was kind of of the essence,
so we got the search warrant,

  
and it was for two locations.

  
It was for Jack Nicholson's house,
where the crime occurred,

  
and also for Polanski's suite

  
on the second floor
of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

  
(Vannatter)
Me and my partner
along with a narcotics officer

  
proceeded with
the search warrant to the hotel.

  
(Grodin)
We were walking in,

  
and he was walking out
with a group of people,

  
obviously going out
for the evening.

  
And I told Phil.

  
I said, "There he is."

  
And we stopped, 'cause he would have
walked right on by us.

  
So we said, "Mr. Polanski, LAPD.
We have to talk."

  
And he came out, and he says,

  
"Is this gonna be
more than a few minutes?

  
If it is, I'll let my people go."

  
He says, "Yes, it's going to be
more than a few minutes."

  
We proceeded up to his room

  
and completed
the search warrant,

  
which we did find
the camera equipment,

  
the film that we ultimately
had developed, and... -

  
and it did show nude pictures
of the victim.

  
(woman)
Totally nude?

  
Well, she was in a... -
she was in a spa.

  
You could see
the upper portion of her body.

  
You couldn't see her whole body,
because she was in the water,

  
but they were nude pictures.

  
Polanski was nervous.

  
He was upset.

  
And he's one of those people
that just talk.

  
And I suspect he figures,
"Well, if I talk and talk,

  
I can probably talk my way
out of this thing."

  
He was, like, on a hyper high,

  
and he's constantly talking,
constantly fidgeting.

  
And he... - he didn't perceive

  
having intercourse
with a 13-year-old girl

  
as against the law.

  
That... - that was not
in his culture, that... -

  
you know, "So what?" type thing.

  
He didn't... - he didn't realize, I guess,

  
the laws of our country
as compared to other countries.

  
I'm not so sure
that Mr. Polanski was aware

  
of what being arrested
in America meant.

  
[Camera shutters clicking]

  
[Voices overlapping]

  
(Polanski)
I know it's a very nice
piece of news for all of you.

  
It's a lot of sensational stuff.

  
But try to go beyond
and understand my position.

  
It's not the best type
of publicity,

  
not something I desire.

  
I have not much to tell you
except that I am innocent.

  
Thank you.

  
(Brenneman)
When the case arrived here,

  
there was an absolute mob
of publicity,

  
the Associated Press, UPI,
New York Times,

  
Los Angeles Times,
celebrity mags,

  
German reporters,
French reporters,

  
British reporters.

  
I had never seen a media
feeding frenzy before,

  
and this courtroom embodied it.

  
You couldn't meet anybody,

  
whether he was known
or not known at all,

  
who didn't have an opinion
about this case.

  
And it was
one of the biggest cases.

  
I didn't work
for weeks and months

  
on anything else but this case.

  
(Brenneman)
As the case progressed,
I was struck... -

  
you know, how could this same man
be two different things

  
to two different sets of press?

  
The European reporters
looked on Polanski

  
as this tragic, brilliant,
historic figure.

  
Here was this man who had
survived the Holocaust,

  
who had survived
the gassing of his mother

  
and then had come here
and developed his own voice,

  
had maintained his integrity

  
against the power
of the Hollywood machine.

  
And the American press
tended to look at him

  
as this sort of malignant,
twisted dwarf

  
with this dark vision.

  
(Melnick)
Roman was the perfect villain for them.

  
He was a foreigner.

  
He had a thick accent.

  
He made lots of money
in the movie business.

  
He was short.
He was perfect.

  
In California at that time,
had he not been who he was,

  
in other words,
a famous controversial director

  
with the legacy
of his wife's murder behind him,

  
the whole thing would have been
completely different.

  
(man)
Roman Polanski is 32.

  
He has just completed
his fourth feature film,

  
The Vampire Killers,

  
set in the snow-covered
mountains of Transylvania.

  
He both directs and plays
one of the leading parts.

  
(Polanski)
Hold it, boys.

  
Sharon.

  
Sharon.

  
Looking at him,
not at me, okay?

  
Yeah.

  
You know where.

  
(man)
Roman Polanski was born
in France of Polish parents.

  
They left there
when he was three

  
and went to live in Poland.

  
I don't know.
I think I'm a nomad, you know.

  
But l... - I'm really strongly
attached to Polish background.

  
I've grown up in Poland.

  
My mother was killed by Germans
very soon,

  
and my father was taken
to the concentration camp

  
after two years of war,
and then I was by myself.

  
One of the first film... -

  
films I've seen was Snow White,
you know?

  
And I think it influenced me
enormously forever.

  
And... - and I, as you see,

  
it's enormous influence of this
in my work, like Repulsion

  
or, you know, Cul-de-sac.

  
I always wanted
to be a director.

  
I knew I wanted to make movies.

  
I knew I wanted
to be a part of it.

  
I knew I wanted to create this.

  
An American producer
of Polish origin

  
suggested that I come to London
and make a film there.

  
London was fabulous.

  
You cannot imagine what it meant

  
for someone who lived
in the gray, drab communist reality.

  
(Braunsberg)
It was a very civilized way of living:

  
The rooms always full
of friendly faces.

  
You saw your friends every day,
and there were lots of them.

  
Life without limits.

  
I got a phone call
from a friend of ours,

  
a mutual friend
who was a film producer,

  
and he said, "I've got this
friend who's coming to London,

  
"and he doesn't speak
any English.

  
Can you take care of him?"

  
I said, "Sure, send him round."

  
Roman was totally exceptional.

  
I was really drawn to him,
and so was everybody else.

  
Already an established
film director,

  
no one in London
had heard of him.

  
Few people had seen his films.

  
(Polanski)
Yes, yes, yes.

  
Go, go again.

  
[Speaking native language]

  
That was funny.

  
(Braunsberg)
From coming as a complete unknown,

  
I would say, within six months,
everybody knew him.

  
He was a charismatic fellow.

  
There are very few directors
who have Roman's personality

  
and also his appetite for life,

  
his appetite for life.

  
(woman)
Give us a smile.

  
(Braunsberg)
They met in London
because of a film that he made

  
called The Dance of the Vampires.

  
She was a remarkable person...

  
beautiful, gentle,

  
unsophisticated
in the best sense of the word,

  
really a genuine human being.

  
They were great together,
and of course,

  
it created
this fantastic love affair.

  
And it truly was a love affair.

  
(Polanski)
Look, it all started
so long ago.

  
My real problems started then,
with the murder of Sharon Tate.

  
I was all right
with the press before that.

  
They... - they wouldn't let it go.

  
It's just the story
that will never go.

  
Pardon me?

  
Why'd you want
a gag order?

  
We didn't ask for a gag order.

  
Who did, Mr. Dalton?

  
No one asked for a gag order.

  
Then why did the judge
bring it up at this stage?

  
Well, maybe the judge
can answer that.

  
The topic of publicity
was discussed,

  
and certain measures
were discussed

  
to try to control the publicity,

  
but no one asked
for a gag order as such.

  
(man)
There was an hour-long
discussion in chambers.

  
Did that deal principally
with publicity problems?

  
Yes, a great part of it did.

  
(man)
What do you see as the problems
with publicity right now?

  
Well, the problem with publicity is,
there's been too much of it.

  
And, of course,
for me to go on television

  
and complain about publicity
is a little inconsistent.

  
Excuse me.

  
(Dalton)
I've never spoken publicly
about this case before.

  
But if the story is to be told,
I want it to be told factually.

  
I know the facts.

  
I was there.

  
Can you give us
your reaction

  
to the delay of the start
of the trial?

  
My reaction to it?

  
Well, I-I'm pleased.

  
In what way?

  
Well, there's a good deal
of work-up

  
that goes
into any major case.

  
People have the right
to their own opinions

  
about what happened,

  
but they don't have the right
to their own facts.

  
The fact of Polanski
leaving the country and so forth

  
seems to have eclipsed

  
the really important part
of this case

  
about what actually happened
to the system of justice.

  
I remain astounded
after all these years.

  
This case will never leave me.

  
(Brenneman)
Defense attorney Doug Dalton

  
had a very Lincoln-esque quality
about him.

  
Dignified, not given
to flamboyant gestures.

  
He doesn't raise his voice
in the courtroom.

  
He maintains this calm demeanor.

  
And he was the master
of negotiations.

  
The fact that Doug Dalton
was the attorney

  
indicated to me
that there would be

  
a negotiated plea arrived at
between the prosecution,

  
the defense, and the judge.

  
(Preute)
Douglas Dalton was a first-class lawyer,

  
but he was definitely matched
by Roger Gunson.

  
The district attorney's office
put Gunson on the case,

  
a 37-year-old,
very straight-thinking Mormon.

  
We are concerned with the... -

  
protecting the privacy
of the girl,

  
the complaining witness
in this case.

  
And it's my understanding

  
that there have been foreign reporters
and investigators

  
who have attempted to contact her
and have interviews... -

  
(Brenneman)
Gunson was the model of rectitude.

  
He had that same kind
of handsome schoolboy,

  
sparkling good looks
as Robert Redford.

  
The rumor in the district attorney's office

  
was that they picked Gunson
to handle the case

  
because he was a Mormon

  
and because he was the only
member of the DA's office

  
who hadn't had sex
with an underage girl.

  
I heard some jokes
about why they gave it to me,

  
but I can't imagine
those are accurate.

  
There were a lot of prosecutors

  
who had an interest
in high-publicity cases.

  
Although I had had
one very high publicity case,

  
I was not one
that looked for them.

  
They were the perfect attorneys
to handle a case like this,

  
where the evidence
and the players were sensational,

  
were dramatic, flamboyant.

  
So you want two attorneys
who kept an even keel.

  
They were, in that regard,
very strikingly different

  
from the judge in the case.

  
(Gunson)
When the grand jury
came back with the indictment,

  
Judge Rittenband,
who was very interested

  
in handling celebrity cases

  
obviously saw it
and realized that he wanted it,

  
went to the presiding judge
and said,

  
"Hey, I want this case."

  
He was, of course, the senior judge
in Santa Monica,

  
which was the choice location
for any judge,

  
because that's where you get

  
a lot of these
high-publicity cases.

  
Judge Rittenband had handled
a Cary Grant paternity suit.

  
He had handled, well,
the Priscilla and Elvis divorce,

  
the Marlon Brando custody suit
that went on forever.

  
There were quite a few.

  
I spoke to Judge Rittenband
very frequently,

  
and he liked being
among the stars,

  
but I don't think
he was starstruck.

  
(man)
And come to order.
Court is now in session.

  
(Brenneman)
Rittenband loved the press,

  
always had comments
for the press.

  
He wanted to shape the way
the press covered him.

  
Sitting up there on the bench,
he acted like a director,

  
a tyrannical director
calling the shots,

  
telling people
when to make their entrances,

  
what to say,
where to position themselves.

  
Well, it was an... -
it... - I missed... -

  
we misspoke ourselves,
You Honor.

  
There's obviously other basis
for the motion.

  
Yes, we don't need that anymore.

  
(Brenneman)
There were
a lot of similarities

  
between Judge Rittenband
and Roman Polanski.

  
Not too tall in stature.

  
He liked the ladies,
and he loved to dance.

  
He had his friends
in the movie industry,

  
which he'd see every day
at the Hillcrest Country Club.

  
(Roden)
When I first met him,
I was answering phones,

  
and he used to say,

  
"I'm going to Hillcrest.
I'm going to Hillcrest."

  
And finally, I stop and I says,
"What's going on at Hillcrest?"

  
You know, "Do you... -
is your wife there?"

  
You know, 'cause I didn't know
if he was married or not.

  
And he said,
"Oh, I'm not married."

  
And I said, "Oh, okay."

  
I was 20 years old.

  
He was 34 years older.

  
He was 54 when I met him,
and we became friends.

  
(Bessmer)
Oh, golly, practically
every evening, he'd come here,

  
and he'd sit over in that chair.

  
And he loved champagne.

  
So I'd get champagne
by the case.

  
(Wells)
"Judge Rittenband," I said,

  
"What would you at your age
do with a girlfriend?"

  
He said, "I'd do
the same thing that you did

  
and probably better."

  
And I said,
"Well, tell me about it."

  
He said, "Well, I got one
that cooks,

  
and one that does
the other things."

  
Rittenband was known
as a hammer.

  
That means that he was
a tough judge

  
and a tough sentencer.

  
If you didn't make a deal,

  
and you didn't have the deal
in place when you went in there,

  
you were in trouble.

  
I don't remember any judge
that liked publicity like Rittenband did.

  
He'd have his bailiff
maintain a scrapbook

  
that went back many years,

  
and if an article
appeared anywhere

  
about something involving
Laurence J. Rittenband,

  
it wound up in the scrapbook.

  
It was kept somewhere
in the court,

  
I think, in the bailiff's desk,

  
and on occasion would come out
and be displayed.

  
Judge Rittenband
was receiving requests

  
from people all over the world,
from news agencies

  
wanting one of the seats
in his courtroom.

  
He was soliciting reservations
for each one of these chairs.

  
So it was going to be
a real circus.

  
(man)
All right, if you gentlemen
would just stand still,

  
Mr. Polanski will stay here,
and you can get your shot.

  
[Voices overlapping]

  
Because another trial
in the same courtroom

  
is taking much longer
than expected,

  
the rape trial of Roman Polanski

  
has been delayed
until August 9th,

  
exactly eight years to the day
his late wife,

  
actress Sharon Tate,
was brutally murdered.

  
(Brenneman)
At that time,

  
rape victims' names
didn't get reported in the press,

  
much less the names of minors
who were involved in sex cases.

  
But with
the European press there,

  
her name would come out
exposed in the press,

  
her background exposed,

  
the fact that she had
had a prior relationship.

  
She had taken quaaludes before.

  
All of this had gotten out

  
and would have
forever haunted her.

  
Once we knew her name,

  
we knew where her school was,

  
we knew where her house was,

  
the French competition
were after this girl.

  
They were hunting this girl.

  
(Geimer)
It was awful.

  
Everybody knew at school.

  
People came to school
with cameras

  
and things were being said
and printed.

  
The worst part was,
no one believed me.

  
Everybody thought
I was making it up.

  
It was so traumatic, starting that night,
when my mom called the police.

  
Then the police come over,
and they take you to the hospital.

  
Then take you
to the police station.

  
The next morning,
we're getting up at 6:30.

  
We're going to court,

  
where they're gonna
sneak you in,

  
and all these men are gonna
ask you exactly what happened.

  
And they're gonna sit a lady
behind you you can't even see,

  
because then there's
a lady there.

  
All that stuff was so traumatic

  
that I never even had a chance
to really, you know,

  
worry about, you know,
what happened that night with him.

  
It was like, it just... -

  
I had to worry
about surviving the next day.

  
(Dalton)
The facts indicate
that before the... -

  
the alleged act in this case,

  
this girl had engaged
in sexual activity.

  
That's contained in reports
that we now have.

  
We want to know about it.

  
We want to know
who was involved, when.

  
We want to know why these other
people were not prosecuted,

  
and this is a thing
we want to fully develop.

  
(Geimer)
I would have as soon just walked
away from it the next day,

  
but you can't stop it
once it starts.

  
I mean, I just... -

  
I just... - I went in my room,
pretty much,

  
and just turned it off.

  
(man)
In Chinatown, he exposed
the dark side of corruption.

  
In Repulsion,
he explored a warped mind.

  
In Rosemary's Baby,
he examined the occult.

  
Now something altogether new,
altogether chilling.

  
No one does it to you
like Roman Polanski.

  
(Gunson)
I wanted to find more out
about Mr. Polanski,

  
and luck have it,
the Nuart Theater

  
right down the street
on Santa Monica Boulevard

  
had a Polanski film festival

  
right after the indictment
and before trial.

  
(man)
Murder and treason!

  
(woman)
What have you done to its eyes?

  
[Woman crying]

  
Forget it, Jake.
It's Chinatown.

  
(Gunson)
Every Roman Polanski movie
has a theme,

  
corruption meeting innocence
over water.

  
[Laughing]

  
I says, "Oh, well, that's sort of
what we have here,

  
"corruption, Roman Polanski,

  
"meeting innocence,
a 13-year-old girl,

  
over water,
meaning the Jacuzzi."

  
I felt I was gonna be able

  
to pretty well convey to some jurors
that this happened

  
and he had directed a scene
very similar to this

  
in his real life.

  
(woman)
You'd better have
your legs tied down

  
in case of convulsions.

  
(Braunsberg)
Rosemary's Baby
was such a great movie

  
and was so well made

  
that people took it
for the real thing.

  
This is no dream.

  
This is really happening.

  
(Braunsberg)
After that,
Roman had this reputation

  
maybe having been
a little bit in league

  
with the devil himself.

  
It didn't hurt him.

  
People were very intrigued,

  
and it was kind of sexy
in a way.

  
(Farrow)
He had a tremendous power
over people.

  
You had to fall in love with him,
you know?

  
He was completely infectious.

  
There was no resisting him,

  
and every day was so vibrant,

  
because he felt so passionately
about what he was doing,

  
and he was on an adventure.

  
(Harty)
One of the things
that you are renowned for

  
is your recklessness.

  
You say that you're
a reckless person.

  
Do I say that?

  
You say that very frequently

  
to all sorts of people
you talk to,

  
but clearly
you're going to deny

  
every single syllable
of it tonight.

  
Really?

  
I mean, are you
a reckless person?

  
Are you afraid
of anything?

  
I am reckless, but I don't
tell people about it.

  
(man)
Roman found California fantastic.

  
Of Los Angeles, he says...

  
(Polanski)
Everything is easy here.

  
You want to learn karate,
you can learn karate.

  
You want to play chess,
you can play chess.

  
You want to drive racing cars,
you can drive racing cars.

  
You can... - everything is accessible
in this town.

  
[Upbeat music]

  
 

  
[applause]

  
(Koch)
Rosemary's Baby was a huge hit.

  
Roman was on top of the world.

  
Nothing could have been better.

  
He was in love with Sharon.

  
They were having great parties.

  
He was going all over the world.

  
(Melnick)
He was the toast of the industry.

  
He was hanging out
with all of the people

  
that everybody wanted
to hang out with.

  
Everybody wanted
a piece of Roman

  
because the work
was so original.

  
Roman, Sharon.

  
Hi.

  
This is the very beautiful
Sharon Tate,

  
who I'm sure you've seen
in films,

  
and her husband,
very talented Roman Polanski,

  
best known
for his original film,

  
Knife in the Water,
which he wrote and directed.

  
And he's also responsible
for Rosemary's Baby,

  
the picture.

  
And I think maybe
a little later,

  
we'll get a chance
to sit down

  
and talk a little bit
about sex and films.

  
Any time.

  
(Farrow)
It certainly was a happy time
for all of us.

  
Roman was happy.

  
He was with beautiful Sharon.

  
Everyone loved her.

  
He loved her.
I loved her.

  
We all loved her.

  
He was so insecure
about so many things.

  
Knowing about his childhood,

  
he didn't have the blueprint
for life that others had.

  
One hoped for Roman, you know,

  
that this brand-new life
with a woman who loved him

  
and who seemed so right for him,
with a baby,

  
that there would be
this security

  
that he had not had in his life
and in a new homeland.

  
I mean, the future was his,
we thought.

  
And then everything
just collapsed.

  
(Braunsberg)
Well, we were preparing a film

  
that I was going to produce
called The Day of the Dolphin.

  
We were writing the script
in London.

  
Roman was a perfectionist.

  
He was always just,

  
"We'll finish it
in a couple of days

  
and then do the rest in L.A."

  
It was a Saturday,
and the phone rang,

  
and I picked it up,

  
and it was our agent
Bill Tennant

  
who was on the phone,

  
and I immediately realized
that something was terribly wrong.

  
I mean, he... - he was a very stable
kind of guy.

  
He was absolutely distraught.

  
And I-I said, "What is it?"

  
And he said, you know,
something like,

  
"They're all dead.
They're all dead."

  
And I realized something awful
had happened,

  
and I gave the phone to Roman, and...

  
I've never seen anything like it.

  
You know, I saw somebody
just disintegrate

  
in front of my eyes.

  
(man)
This was at the home
of movie director Roman Polanski.

  
It was his wife, Sharon Tate,
who was one of the victims.

  
She, too, had repeated
stab wounds.

  
One of the victims had a hood
placed over his head,

  
and the word "pig" was written
in blood on the door.

  
(Braunsberg)
We flew to L.A. The next day.

  
He was devastated,
devastated to a point

  
that I've never seen
any other human being

  
in that kind of condition.

  
And I remember
picking up Sunday newspapers.

  
I was already reasonably aware
of how the press functions,

  
and their business
is selling newspapers.

  
The story was basically how
Roman had flown to Los Angeles,

  
murdered them all,
and then come back.

  
I mean, this was actually
in the newspapers, in the headlines.

  
The nature of the murders,

  
you know, Satanism,
Rosemary's Baby.

  
This is the guy who made
Rosemary's Baby.

  
He knew so much about it.

  
He couldn't have known
so much about it

  
without actually
being involved in it,

  
and so he must have been
part of the cult,

  
and there was a cult,
and they were murdered,

  
and who gets murdered
in this kind of way?

  
And it was a typical example

  
of the victims being responsible
for their own deaths.

  
It was shocking.

  
It was truly unbelievable.

  
The last day I talked to her

  
was a few hours
before the tragedy happened.

  
You are suddenly curious
about my relationship with Sharon

  
within last few months.

  
I can tell you
the last few months,

  
as much as last few years
I spent with her...

  
Were only time
of true happiness in my life.

  
And facts which will be
coming out day after day

  
will make a shame... -

  
a lot of newsmen,
who for selfish reason,

  
write... - unbearable for me... -
horrible things about my wife.

  
(Braunsberg)
After Sharon was murdered,

  
really, everybody
was totally freaked out.

  
It was a very weird time,

  
the highest paranoia.

  
The transition of this sort of
hippy kind of existence in L.A.

  
To this brutal awakening
of an understanding

  
that these kind of absolutely
horrible events can happen.

  
No one locked their doors.

  
No one thought about
that there was any kind of threat.

  
That ended at the end of the '60s

  
and simultaneously
changed everything overnight in L.A.

  
(Gutowski)
It was the end of a fairy tale, really,

  
in Roman's life,
in everybody's life.

  
He would have been
a father of a son

  
who would have now been,
what, 30 years old?

  
Maybe he would have had
other children

  
probably would have continued
living in California.

  
Who knows?

  
How does one survive?

  
When you know his childhood,

  
he's a very, very strong
human being.

  
(Sylbert)
I think that the idea
of the magnet of tragedy

  
started after the Tate murders.

  
He was living out in Malibu,

  
and the neighbors were all,
like, horrified,

  
because somehow, if he was
in the house next door,

  
there was gonna be
another mass murder.

  
I mean, people are just
too weird, I tell you.

  
It's crazy.

  
(Polanski)
Hold it, there, kitty cat.

  
Hold it.

  
Hello, Claude.

  
Where'd you get the midget?

  
You're a very nosy fella,
kitty cat, huh?

  
You know what happens
to nosy fellows?

  
Huh? No?

  
Want to guess?

  
Huh? No?

  
Okay, they lose their noses.

  
Next time you lose
the whole thing.

  
Cut it off
and feed it to my goldfish.

  
(Koch)
Roman was different
when I met him on Chinatown.

  
He's still a guy
that loved life.

  
There was just
this real dark shadow

  
that he had to deal with
every day,

  
that, you know, there were
people who were constantly,

  
"So what was it like,
you know, when you... -

  
"when Sharon... - when your... -

  
you know, when your wife
was killed?"

  
Do you hate certain members
of the press

  
for the way the... -

  
you were treated
after your wife's murder?

  
Well, yes.

  
To be honest, I do.

  
But I wouldn't call it
a hatred now.

  
You see, it's somehow evolved
to just indifference.

  
And I simply don't read it
and try to avoid.

  
Yeah.

  
But, in general,
I despise the press tremendously

  
for its inaccuracy,
for its irresponsibility,

  
and for its often
even deliberate cruelty.

  
And all this,
it's for lucrative purposes.

  
(James)
If one of your complaints

  
is the way the press
misrepresents you,

  
and it is
one of your complaints,

  
then surely it'd be
a good tactic

  
to give them
the minimum possible target.

  
Yes, but then you have to... -

  
you have to change
your lifestyle completely

  
and go into hiding.

  
It seems like, say,
six months after the murders,

  
you're in the Alps

  
and consorting
with these girls

  
from the finishing school
and so on.

  
I mean, it's... -

  
I could see how you would
sort of try to... -

  
to lose yourself
like that,

  
but is... -
is it wise to say so?

  
Yes, it is wise to say so.

  
Why not?

  
Why wouldn't it be wise
to say so?

  
That's the way it was.

  
And that's the way it is,
you know?

  
I mean, just... -

  
different people
have different way

  
of seeing life
and relationships.

  
It's not necessarily the same
with you than me.

  
And people, they react
in different ways to grief.

  
Some go to a monastery.

  
Others start visiting whorehouses.

  
(Sylbert)
He decided he was gonna survive.

  
And the way he was gonna survive

  
is through his talent
and having fun.

  
Whether it was dinner for four

  
and he was holding court
with some idea he had

  
or whether it was a group
of 30 or 40 or 50,

  
he liked to be
the center of it all.

  
He was a wonderful host,
almost like a dance master.

  
He kept it all sort of stirred.

  
It gave him enormous pleasure.

  
And after Sharon,

  
I think he didn't want
to be alone too much.

  
It's not so good to be alone.

  
Everybody knows,
the best way to get close to your dream

  
is to get to know a star,
a real star.

  
Polanski, after Chinatown,
was not only a real star;

  
he was the Roman Polanski,
a big name.

  
She wouldn't mind
being discovered

  
by a man like Roman Polanski.

  
After all, she had seen
in the French Vogue

  
pictures of Nastassia Kinski,

  
who was 15 when she started
her affair with Roman Polanski,

  
or Roman started it with her.

  
And everybody had the opinion,

  
if Polanski wouldn't have done

  
this photo layout
with Nastassia,

  
she would have never become
such a well-known young star.

  
(Geimer)
He was a friend of a guy
my sister was dating,

  
and he wanted girls to model.

  
I was modeling and acting
and wanted to... -

  
you know, wanted to be
in the business.

  
So that was a great opportunity,
you know.

  
We signed right up.

  
"Sure, have my pictures taken
by Roman Polanski.

  
Sounds great."

  
(Preute)
Susie Gailey, the mother
of the alleged victim,

  
introduced herself
as an actress to Polanski.

  
And she had done
some work in films.

  
Well, I was innocent, see?

  
And that's the truth.

  
What else can I say?

  
I remember vaguely
meeting the mother at some party,

  
you know, like, "Hi."

  
And then I was away
and then heard about all of this.

  
But just in what I was told
and what I read,

  
I kept going back
to the same question:

  
Why did the mother bring
her 13-year-old daughter

  
into this group?

  
Especially if she had
spent time with them

  
and all the things that she said
subsequently were true,

  
wouldn't you keep
your 13-year-old daughter

  
away from that?

  
You know, this was a guy
that had a pretty wild reputation.

  
He was known as a womanizer.

  
He's a partygoer.

  
He certainly had a lot of women
over the years,

  
and he loved young women.

  
Why would her mother allow her
to be alone with Polanski?

  
I don't like... - you know,
you always get the,

  
"Where was your mom?"

  
And it's like, you know,
give my mom a break.

  
You know, it's not her fault.

  
And so l... -

  
you know, I don't like hearing
anybody's opinion on it.

  
Every time someone brings it up

  
and they're doing their little,
you know, banter on TV,

  
it's like, "You weren't there.

  
"You don't know.

  
"What are you talking about?

  
"You're saying how I felt,

  
"what happened,
how you feel about Polanski.

  
"You have no idea,

  
"and you're on the news
making all these statements,

  
"and thousands of people
are listening to you,

  
and just shut up."

  
Another hearing
on the admissibility

  
of the Beverly Wilshire
Hotel records

  
has been set for next Friday.

  
From Santa Monica,
Furnell Chatman,

  
News Center 4.

  
(Silver)
I was instrumental
in arranging the plea bargain,

  
because as I looked
at this family and Samantha,

  
I thought, at the time,
some people knew her name,

  
and some of the kids at school
knew who she was.

  
I thought it was important to try
to maintain her anonymity,

  
anonymity which
would have disappeared

  
had the case gone to trial.

  
And so I tried to persuade
the district attorney,

  
who had a new
plea bargaining policy,

  
a tough plea bargaining policy.

  
I said, "I'm not gonna do it.

  
I have no interest in doing it."

  
And so what he decided was... -
he says,

  
"Well, I'm gonna do it myself."

  
[Siren wailing]

  
The LAPD brought
the evidence envelope

  
to this courthouse building

  
and brought it in,
actually, to this room.

  
There were about five, six,
or seven men standing around,

  
looking, peering down
at this evidence envelope,

  
and someone takes it
and turns and opens it,

  
and out falls these
little girl's panties.

  
And so there was
this enormous court battle

  
over property
that belonged to her

  
as to what was to be done
with them.

  
And Judge Rittenband decided
to cut it in half

  
and give half to the prosecution
and half to the defense.

  
The defense expert went over
and put on his latex gloves

  
and came back

  
and then started operating
on these copper panties.

  
If you can imagine the humor

  
of about seven men
sitting around a table.

  
Trying to identify any stains
and to make sure that the cut

  
or the piece includes
part of that stain.

  
And they were fighting and,

  
"No, no, it has to be
just a little to this way.

  
"No, it should be over here.

  
We shouldn't
cut that way at all."

  
So finally they... -
they made the cut.

  
What we understood was that Dalton
was going to take his half

  
and submit it to a lab.

  
I also understood that the lab
was about to give its report

  
in two weeks.

  
And two weeks
and three days later,

  
Dalton called me
on the phone,

  
clearly now, I think, having
the results on the lab report,

  
saying, "You know,
what do you think would happen

  
if we pursued a plea bargain
with the prosecution?"

  
At which point... -
at that point,

  
I realized that now Polanski
had an interest,

  
that the stain in the panties

  
was gonna be
brutal evidence for them.

  
(Dalton)
The prosecution
had loaded Polanski up

  
with multiple charges.

  
The only one he was willing to admit
and to plead guilty to

  
was that he had
had consensual sex with the minor.

  
(Gunson)
Mr. Dalton asked,
"Could it be a misdemeanor?"

  
And I says, "No."

  
"That he not go
to state prison?"

  
And I says,
"No, that's got to be open."

  
And so he agreed to all those,

  
and we agreed that it'd be
unlawful sexual intercourse,

  
the lowest count
that related to the gravamen.

  
The agreement was

  
that Polanski would plead guilty
to the one count,

  
that he would be sentenced
based upon a probation report

  
and the argument of counsel.

  
At that time, the sentence
for unlawful sexual intercourse

  
was what they characterized
as an indeterminate sentence.

  
So you're sent to state prison

  
from anywhere from six months
to 50 years.

  
I checked, and there hadn't been
anyone sent to prison

  
for a conviction of this offense

  
in the year preceding
Roman Polanski's case.

  
I thought it was
a very good disposition

  
for the reason
that it vindicated the family

  
and the girl,

  
and it exposed Mr. Polanski
to significant time in custody

  
based upon a probation report.

  
(man)
By entering his guilty plea,

  
Polanski avoided going to trial,

  
a trial that was
to have begun tomorrow,

  
the eighth anniversary
of his wife's death

  
at the hands
of the Charles Manson family.

  
Standing with his lawyer
Douglas Dalton,

  
Polanski was asked
by Deputy District Attorney Roger Gunson

  
to what count he pleaded guilty.

  
Polanski: "I had intercourse
with a female person,

  
not my wife,
who was under 18 years of age."

  
Gunson: "How old
did you think the girl was?"

  
Polanski:
"I understood she was 13."

  
The plea bargaining
was the result of a request

  
by attorney Lawrence Silver,
representing the girl's family.

  
Silver asked Judge Laurence
Rittenband to accept the plea

  
and protect the girl
from the glare of publicity.

  
Silver: "A stigma would attach
to her for a lifetime,

  
and justice is not made
of such stuff."

  
Judge Rittenband,
in accepting the guilty plea,

  
ordered Polanski to be examined
by two psychiatrists.

  
Sentencing will come after that,

  
when the judge could declare
the director

  
a mentally disordered
sex offender.

  
That could result in commitment
to a state mental hospital.

  
Other possible sentences
include one year in county jail,

  
up to 50 years
in a state prison,

  
deportation, or probation.

  
(Dalton)
We took our chances,
obviously, here,

  
because we had no idea
or no way of knowing

  
what the probation department
would conclude.

  
(Markman)
Judge Rittenband appointed me
to evaluate Mr. Polanski

  
for purposes of determining
whether he was at that time

  
a mentally disordered
sex offender,

  
which was a legal term
having to do with an individual who,

  
by reason of a mental disorder,

  
was predisposed to the commission
of sexual offenses

  
that rendered him a danger
to the health and safety of others.

  
He was a very congenial
but somewhat reserved guy

  
who was very straightforward
in the interview.

  
As experiences go,

  
Roman Polanski has had more

  
than what would impact
on a dozen people

  
in terms of his life as a child,
confusion.

  
And ultimately, he gets
what he feels is a stable relationship,

  
and that's taken away from him
at the snap of a finger.

  
He had difficulty

  
in developing relationships
with women after that.

  
I think he felt
very, very hesitant,

  
maybe out of fear.

  
My opinion paralleled
the recommendation

  
of the probation department.

  
I didn't talk about whether
he should go... -

  
should or should not go to jail.

  
I really focused solely
on the psychiatric issues,

  
and it was my opinion
that Mr. Polanski did not qualify

  
as a mentally disordered
sex offender

  
and should not be handled
as such.

  
(Wells)
My feeling was,
the guy belonged in state prison.

  
Rittenband had asked me
about it.

  
I said, "Judge," I said,

  
"You know, you're gonna
give this guy probation."

  
He said, "No, I want
to send him to jail."

  
I said, "You'll never do it,

  
"because the first thing
that's gonna happen

  
when you sentence him:
He's gonna appeal it."

  
"I'm gonna give him a year
in a county jail."

  
That would be the sentence
that appealed immediately.

  
"I'm gonna give him weekends
in the county jail."

  
Immediate appeal.

  
No matter what the sentence was,

  
if it included a day in jail,
Dalton, and correctly so,

  
would have appealed it.

  
And it's gonna go all the way
up to the state supreme court.

  
He has the money.

  
And he'll take it
to the U. S. Supreme Court

  
if he thinks he can.

  
He says,
"Well, what am I gonna do?"

  
(Brenneman)
The judge called me in to chambers.

  
He looked at me and said,
"Dick, tell me.

  
What the hell do I do
with Polanski?"

  
And I went, "Whoa, Your Honor,
that's your decision.

  
"That's not mine.

  
"I'm a reporter.

  
I can't advise you
on something like that."

  
I hadn't been covering courts
that long,

  
but I knew a decision by a judge

  
was supposed to be
a decision by a judge

  
and was not to take in any advice
from any other person

  
other than what was there
in the law books,

  
what had been entered
into evidence in the case.

  
(Wells)
He says,
"Well, what am I gonna do

  
or what should I do?"

  
And I said,
"You know, what you should do

  
is send him up
for a 90-day observation."

  
A 12.03.03 is a diagnostic study

  
where a defendant
on a felony case

  
is sent to Chino
for a 90-day observation.

  
It's like a in-depth
probation report.

  
And he says,
"Well, what will that do?"

  
And I said,
"It's not a final sentence.

  
"He can't appeal it.

  
He has to go."

  
(Dalton)
We were very pleased when we got
the probation report.

  
It recommended that Polanski
serve no time in custody

  
and receive a straight
probationary sentence.

  
However, we received a call
from Judge Rittenband

  
asking us to come to chambers,

  
that he wanted
to discuss the matter with us.

  
The probation officer,
Roger Gunson, and I

  
all went into his chambers
for a meeting.

  
At that time, the judge said
he was not going to follow

  
the recommendation
of the probation department.

  
He had decided
that as punishment for Polanski,

  
he was going to send him
to the state prison at Chino

  
for a diagnostic study.

  
Gunson and the probation officer
both protested.

  
I told him that the law
was that the diagnostic study

  
was not to be used as punishment
or as someone's sentence.

  
The courts are not
supposed to use that.

  
And his response was,

  
"I don't want to send
Mr. Polanski to county jail,

  
"because I don't
want to be responsible

  
if he were to be injured
or killed."

  
(Dalton)
I said, "Judge, we had not
expected this.

  
"Polanski's engaged right now
in directing a large movie

  
"that involves many people,
millions of dollars.

  
This is gonna cause
a tremendous hardship."

  
And he suggested
that I request a stay,

  
a stay meaning to defer,
put off this diagnostic study,

  
in order for Polanski

  
to be able to complete his work
on the film.

  
What he wanted to do was have us
go out into open court

  
and pretend as though... -

  
I don't know if he'd
use the word pretend... -

  
but not to divulge that we knew
what was going to happen.

  
He said,
"I want you to go out, Gunson,

  
"and you argue that Polanski
should be placed in custody,

  
"and, Dalton, you go out,

  
"and you argue that he should be
put on probation.

  
"Then I will make my remarks,

  
"and I will sentence him to Chino
for the diagnostic study,

  
"and the press need not know
anything more about this.

  
"If you do not
tell the press about this,

  
"and if Polanski receives
a good report

  
"from the probation department,

  
"which we all
are quite sure he will,

  
that will conclude
his punishment."

  
I wasn't going
to argue about it.

  
Polanski's fate
hung in the balance.

  
If I started protesting
about the diagnostic study,

  
Rittenband could well have said,

  
"Well, I'll just send him to prison.

  
How would you like that?"

  
That was the fabrication
that he... -

  
the scenario
that he wanted to present

  
and he did present.

  
(Dalton)
This thing had reached the point

  
where it was actually
becoming surreal.

  
Gunson and I walked
into the courtroom,

  
which was packed
with newsmen and spectators.

  
We took our places
at the counsel table, sat down,

  
and waited for the entrance
of Judge Rittenband.

  
I argued first.

  
It was a very strange feeling
to be arguing

  
when I knew exactly
what the result was going to be.

  
It was like having a mock trial.

  
In law school, we did this.

  
We had staged trials
and so forth,

  
but even then, we didn't know
what the result was going to be.

  
But we dutifully went out.

  
I argued for probation.

  
I tried to make it sound
as authentic as I could.

  
Gunson got up
and made his argument,

  
and then Rittenband proceeded
to give his closing remarks,

  
which had been
obviously prepared in advance.

  
He argued much better
than either one of us,

  
and as I sat there and listened,
I thought,

  
"I think I see
what's happening here.

  
"He knows that this is
a probation case.

  
"The probation department
has recommended probation.

  
"Chino will very likely
recommend the same thing.

  
"And he wants to condition
the press and the public

  
"to the fact that when he
puts Polanski on probation,

  
"that they see the basis
that he used

  
in arriving at that conclusion."

  
(woman)
After 20 minutes in court

  
before Superior Judge
Laurence Rittenband,

  
film director Roman Polanski
and his lawyer Douglas Dalton

  
emerged from the courtroom

  
amidst a crush of reporters
and cameramen.

  
Dalton had asked the court
to place Polanski on probation,

  
arguing that, though the crime
of unlawful intercourse

  
is a serious one,
it is not a unique crime.

  
The prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney
Roger Gunson,

  
asked that Polanski
be placed in custody,

  
though it was noted that
the 13-year-old girl in the case

  
and her family
had asked the court

  
not to incarcerate
the film director.

  
On the basis of two
psychiatric evaluations,

  
the judge ruled that Polanski

  
was not a mentally disordered
sex offender,

  
but he did order Polanski
to undergo 90 days

  
further psychiatric testing
at Chino state prison,

  
postponing a final sentence
until the testing is completed.

  
Judge Rittenband granted Polanski
a three-month stay

  
to conclude his present work.

  
At the end of that time,

  
the film director will go
to Chino state prison

  
for 90 days diagnostic testing.

  
Robin Groth, NBC news,
Santa Monica.

  
Sentencing put off
Until he finishes film

  
Why are you leaving
the country, sir?

  
Sorry?

  
Why are you leaving
the country?

  
Where?

  
You're gonna leave the country
on a business trip,

  
is that correct?

  
Can you tell us
about that trip?

  
I'm going to Paris.

  
Will you come back?

  
Will I come back?

  
I certainly will.

  
What do you think about... -

  
Don't worry.

  
Dino just called up and said,
"Wonderful news.

  
"My god, Lorenzo, we got Roman.

  
We got Roman."

  
It was a potboiler:

  
Pearl divers getting caught
in a giant clam and all that stuff.

  
And Roman had reasonable
contempt for the script;

  
not a picture that Roman
would have done.

  
And I imagine that... -
again, I didn't discuss it,

  
but basically, nobody else,
I presume,

  
would hire him at that time.

  
And De Laurentiis,

  
seeing a chance
to get a great director

  
who otherwise he couldn't
possibly have approached

  
for this project,
stepped in immediately.

  
It was a coup, a triumph,

  
you know, taking advantage
of this guy's troubles to some extent.

  
Better luck for Roman
would have been a judge

  
that never allowed him
to go to Europe at all.

  
(Mollinger)
Roman called me; he said,

  
"Listen, I mean, I'm here in Munich.
Can we meet?"

  
I said, "Of course."

  
And we decided
to go in the evening

  
to see the Oktoberfest.

  
Roman actually
didn't want to go,

  
but we said,
"You have to see that,

  
"because this is unbelievable.

  
"You have never seen 10,people in a tent, drunken.

  
I mean, you must see that."

  
And he said, "Okay."

  
He said, "I go with you."

  
So finally,
we went to a special box.

  
I was with my girlfriend

  
and two other girlfriends,
you know.

  
(Braunsberg)
Most unfortunately,
he was photographed

  
caught in a pose where sitting
in between two girls.

  
It was quite innocent.

  
But, you know, photographs... -
they say a photograph doesn't lie.

  
Nothing lies more
than a photograph.

  
(Semple, Jr.)
Roman always did have bad luck.

  
And this is
the kind of thing that a... -

  
a cautious person
would not have dreamed of doing.

  
I mean, they would have
had themselves photographed

  
in the cathedral
or doing something like that.

  
That one photograph
changed everything.

  
I took it in to Rittenband

  
because I figured it was
something he ought to see.

  
And what I told him was, I said,

  
"You know, Judge,
you've made so many mistakes,

  
"I think, in this case.

  
"Look, he's giving you the finger.
He's flipping you off."

  
And I said, "Haven't you
had enough of this?"

  
He says, "What? What?

  
He's not getting away
with that."

  
The judge became furious
when this appeared in the paper.

  
He was interviewed
by a Hollywood gossip columnist,

  
Marilyn Beck.

  
Rittenband told me
that he had been duped.

  
I really believe
he had been duped.

  
(Dalton)
In the interview,
he said that very possibly

  
he wanted Polanski
back in the country,

  
and Polanski could be
on his way to prison now.

  
(Gunson)
That photograph
embarrassed the judge.

  
Mr. Polanski is supposed to be
very focused and intent

  
when he's working,

  
and this photograph demonstrated

  
that at that moment in time,
he was not.

  
(man)
Why was he in Germany

  
when he should have been
working hard on a movie?

  
Could you clear up
that apparent misunderstanding?

  
(Sidewater)
The judge ordered Roman
to come back to the States,

  
and he called Dino in
to testify.

  
Dino explained through me
as the translator

  
that we were going on
with the production,

  
the preparation
of the production,

  
and that this was just part
of the whole thing of making movies.

  
(man)
Mr. De Laurentiis,
could you explain to us

  
why you sent Mr. Polanski
to Germany?

  
(Sidewater)
Roman was still working
when he was in Munich,

  
because the distributor
convinced Roman to come there

  
and spend a night
or go out for a few drinks

  
and, at the same time,
talk about Hurricane.

  
I don't believe he should.

  
(Sidewater)
I don't think the judge
knew that or understood that,

  
and most of all,
he didn't believe it.

  
Okay, now step aside,
please.

  
Let him through.

  
(Dalton)
De Laurentiis testified.

  
Roman testified.

  
There was no evidence at all
to the contrary.

  
I rested my case, and the ruling
had to be, of course,

  
that he was there
on business purposes,

  
and that was
the finding of the judge.

  
I told him, "You know,
you just have to bear up

  
"and go through this.

  
"And remember,
at the conclusion of this,

  
"this case will be over.

  
"You'll have no further time
in custody,

  
and it will all be behind you."

  
(man)
That's Dalton?

  
(man 2)
Yeah, that was Dalton,
his lawyer.

  
(man)
Mr. Dalton, has Mr. Polanski
talked to you

  
about his reaction
to coming here

  
for this almost
three-month period?

  
Yes, he has.

  
Excuse me, I have some business
to conduct in here.

  
Has he indicated to you
as to what his feelings are?

  
Hi.
Hi.

  
(man)
Mr. Polanski, do you have
any kind of statement at all?

  
Mr. Polanski, do you have
any statement at all?

  
[Voices overlapping]

  
Mr. Polanski, do you have
any statement at all

  
regarding this
90-day psychiatric stint

  
that you've come here for?

  
No.

  
No statement whatsoever?

  
What are your immediate
thoughts right now?

  
[Indistinct]

  
Any thoughts
that you have at all?

  
(man)
Where's the lawyer?

  
(man)
Will he be given any
special consideration here?

  
Nothing other than anybody else
that would come in.

  
When we talk about
special housing

  
or special consideration,

  
what we're talking about is,
everybody that comes in,

  
we screen them for possible
protective custody housing,

  
but we're concerned
for his safety.

  
(Koch)
There were sketches.
There were locations.

  
You know,
people had been up to Chino

  
and talked to Roman.

  
I mean, he was prepping
the movie from Chino.

  
(Sidewater)
Dino and I went to visit Roman.

  
Dino, of course, was concerned

  
as to what was going to happen
with his film.

  
I was kind of shocked
when we saw Roman.

  
We were sitting outside at a table
outside of the prison.

  
He was nervous,

  
always looking over his shoulder
to see who was in back of him.

  
He said that he was concerned

  
about what the other prisoners
would do to him

  
if they could get near him,

  
because he was accused
of being a child molester.

  
(Braunsberg)
It was very grim.

  
And it was
a very frightening place.

  
You know, this is a hard-core... -
you know, murderers,

  
and Roman was not safe there.

  
People get killed there.

  
(Dalton)
Polanski, of course,
was delighted.

  
He... - he felt,
and as properly he should,

  
that he had lived up
to his obligations in the case.

  
He admitted his guilt.

  
He served the sentence
that had been imposed,

  
and now it was over,

  
and he could go on
with his life.

  
(Gunson)
I was quite surprised.

  
Everyone in the criminal justice
system is aware

  
that 90-day diagnostic studies
take less than 90 days.

  
There's not very many people,
I would guess,

  
who have had the experience
of it only being 42.

  
That's not a punishment.

  
A punishment... -

  
you know, he was charged
with very serious crimes.

  
You're talking
about crimes that... -

  
that would incur
state prison time,

  
maybe 10, 15, 20 years
in state prison.

  
13-year-old girl,

  
where he had
sexual intercourse with her,

  
sodomized her, gave her drugs,
gave her alcohol.

  
(Vannatter)
He got off with nothing.

  
(man)
Mr. Gunson, it's usually
the practice

  
of the district attorney's
office to... -

  
to prosecute the defendant
to the fullest degree.

  
You deviated apparently
in this case. Why?

  
(woman)
Why did you agree
to copping out on the plea

  
if he should have had
a full trialwith the charges?

  
What do you mean
"copping out"?

  
(Gunson)
Between the time
that the judge agreed

  
that the 90-day diagnostic study
be his sentence,

  
there had been
lots of new media reports

  
very critical of the judge.

  
And now that it appears

  
that Mr. Polanski
will be walking away from a rape

  
after just serving 42 days

  
is going to be embarrassing
to the judge,

  
and he needs to overcome it.

  
(Koch)
My father was at Hillcrest
Country Club,

  
washing his hands
in the locker room.

  
And standing next to him
was Judge Rittenband.

  
And one of the gentlemen at Hillcrest
came up to Rittenband

  
and said,
"Are you really gonna

  
let that little Polish
blah-blah-blah off?"

  
And Rittenband said,
"Well, he thinks so, but no way.

  
"We're gonna put that
little blank-blank away

  
for the rest of his life."

  
(Dalton)
When we met in his chambers,
at this time,

  
Judge Rittenband said

  
that he wasn't going to honor
the promise that he had made

  
about releasing Polanski

  
upon completion
of the diagnostic study.

  
He gave as his reason
that he was getting too much criticism.

  
The judge says that 42 days
is not enough time in custody,

  
that he expected him
to be in there 90 days,

  
and so somehow he has to make up
these 48 days

  
of the intended sentence of 90.

  
Now, Gunson at this point said,

  
"If it's 48 more days you want,

  
why don't you just give him
48 days in the county jail?

  
"And then
you will have accomplished

  
him serving the full 90 days in jail."

  
And Rittenband said, no,
he was not willing to do that,

  
because the perception
of a prison sentence

  
must be maintained
for the press.

  
He told me that
if I would come back to court

  
after the press was gone
and the public was gone,

  
that he would then
recall Polanski

  
and he would be released
from prison.

  
[Steady drum beat]

  
(Gunson)
It became obvious to me
that he wanted him deported,

  
because he did not
want him around here,

  
embarrassing the judge any more
than he already had.

  
[Steady drum beat]

  
He wanted Roman to agree

  
that he would voluntarily
waive any rights he may have

  
regarding deportation.

  
Rittenband had no jurisdiction
over such matters,

  
and it is illegal
to impose an illegal condition

  
upon somebody serving time
in custody,

  
and so we now
are in the category

  
of actual illegal conduct.

  
This was getting
rather contentious,

  
as you might understand,

  
and I said,
"If we're gonna do that, judge,

  
"I want to have a hearing
regarding the sentencing

  
"as we're entitled to do,

  
"and I want to have
witnesses here,

  
and I want to have a hearing."

  
And he said, "Well,
I'm gonna sentence him anyway,

  
"and if you still insist
on having your hearing,

  
"then I may
withdraw these things

  
"that I told you that I would do

  
"if you went along
with this thing

  
that I'm going to do tomorrow."

  
The proceeding was concluded
by Judge Rittenband,

  
as he had done before,

  
directed me
to argue for probation.

  
He wanted Gunson to again argue
for time in custody,

  
and then he would
impose the sentence

  
that he had discussed with us.

  
I certainly was not arguing
for state prison in chambers.

  
Nor did I intend to argue

  
that he should send him
to state prison

  
to participate in this sham
that the judge was involved in.

  
We got up.

  
We walked out of the room.

  
I remember saying immediately
to Gunson,

  
"I'm not going to do this again.

  
"No matter what he does,

  
I'm not gonna participate
in this thing."

  
And Gunson said,
"I'm not going to do it either."

  
As we walked down the aisle,

  
past the chairs of an empty courtroom
at that time,

  
Doug Dalton turned to me
and said,

  
"Do you think
that I can trust the judge?"

  
And I said something
that I wish I hadn't said,

  
and maybe it did
or didn't make a difference,

  
but I shouldn't have said it.

  
And what I said to him was,
"I don't know why not.

  
You trusted him once."

  
[Plodding beat music]

  
 

  
I didn't know what
I was going to do the following day.

  
I did know that I was
no longer gonna participate

  
in a proceeding
that was being designed

  
solely to advance the purposes
of Judge Rittenband.

  
I told Mr. Dalton
that I would be available to...

  
disclose this information
to anyone at any place at any time.

  
(Dalton)
I contacted Roman, and I said
for them to come to my office.

  
We discussed what was gonna happen
the following morning.

  
I told him
that it was my opinion

  
that the sentence
would be illegal,

  
that we could probably obtain
relief on appeal,

  
but that would involve
a long procedure,

  
and Polanski
would be incarcerated

  
during that period of time.

  
I said that the judge had said

  
that if Roman agreed
to waive any deportation hearing

  
and be deported,

  
that he would then be released

  
if he also had by then
served 48 days.

  
Roman said to me,
"Can we trust him?"

  
And I said,
"No, we can't trust him.

  
"We have no idea what he may do.

  
"We've all agreed that
he can no longer be trusted,

  
and what he represents to us
is worthless."

  
With that, Roman got up,
looked at me,

  
and I believe he said,
"I'll see you guys later,"

  
and he left the room.

  
(Sidewater)
There were two or three
other people there,

  
and I gave Roman an envelope

  
which I thought was script notes
or something else.

  
The general feeling I had is,
"Why is everybody so nervous?"

  
There was an electricity
in the air.

  
(Dalton)
What does it have to do

  
with what was my conversation
with Mr. Polanski?

  
My conversation with him

  
is protected by
the attorney-client privilege.

  
I can't divulge to you
the substance

  
or the content
of my conversation with him,

  
only to say what I said
in court,

  
that he did call me this morning
at my home,

  
and he told me
he would not be here.

  
I asked him to call me again,

  
because I wanted to discuss this
with him further

  
and attempt to persuade him
to return.

  
He said he would call me again.

  
Doug, the court asked you

  
whether you thought
you might be able

  
to talk him
into coming back.

  
What was yourresponse?

  
I said that I thought
I had a reasonable chance

  
of being successful.

  
(woman)
How will you try to... -

  
how will you try to do it?

  
(man)
Can you tell us what makes you
think he's out of the country?

  
No, I can't tell you that.

  
What happens if he does not
come back, Mr. Dalton?

  
Then the court
goes ahead... -

  
I'm not going to speculate.

  
(man)
Roman Polanski is in seclusion.

  
His friends say inside
this fashionable building

  
in downtown Paris,
where he keeps an apartment.

  
(man)
He skipped the country
early yesterday,

  
only hours before
he was to be sentenced

  
for illegally having sex... -

  
(man 2)
He had given her champagne
and a quaalude.

  
(man 3)
He has told a friend here
his refrigerator is full,

  
and he does not intend to leave.

  
(woman)
Many feel the aura of tragedy
and sensationalism

  
that surrounds Polanski obscures
his brilliance as a director.

  
(woman 2)
Judge in the Roman Polanski
morals case

  
said today he intended
to send Polanski... -

  
(man)
He says a year
of torture is enough.

  
(man 2)
Has begun proceedings
to force Polanski

  
back to the United States.

  
However, authorities are
not optimistic about succeeding.

  
(Trott)
I'm advised
that the treaty with France

  
might not allow for his return
to this country at our request

  
to be sentenced on this charge.

  
(man)
Why is that?

  
As far as I can tell,

  
the treaty only specifies,
number one, rape.

  
As you know, Mr. Polanski
was not convicted of rape.

  
He was convicted
of unlawful sexual intercourse,

  
and that's a different
crime than rape.

  
Secondly, the treaty specifies
that it's discretionary

  
on the part of France
to return French citizens.

  
In other words,
they have an option.

  
They can or they can't,

  
depending on how they feel
about a particular case

  
or maybe even possibly
a particular person.

  
Whether the DA succeeds
in extraditing Polanski or not,

  
Judge Laurence Rittenband plans
to impose Polanski's sentence

  
on February 14th,

  
with or without
the filmmaker's presence.

  
The length of time, of course,
would depend upon whether or not

  
there would be a deportation

  
or if not deported
involuntarily,

  
he would agree
with the director of immigration

  
to consent in writing
to leaving the country,

  
in which case, any balance
of his stay in state prison

  
would be cut short,

  
but it was to be no less than
the full period of 90 days.

  
(Dalton)
The judge held
a press conference.

  
Shockwaves went through
the judicial community.

  
Ajudge holding
a press conference

  
regarding a pending case:
Totally unheard of.

  
He said that he intended now
to sentence Polanski in absentia.

  
So I prepared the challenge
for cause to disqualify a judge.

  
If you do this,
you're required to prove

  
that there are
actual prejudices, you know,

  
existing by the judge,
and you can no... -

  
you can't have a fair trial
or a fair hearing before him.

  
I showed the declaration
to Roger Gunson.

  
He read it very carefully.

  
He agreed.

  
"That's true.

  
"That's what happened.

  
I will back you up
if that need be."

  
The judge was furious.

  
He knew the statements
in the declaration were all true.

  
He knew that I knew it,

  
he knew that Gunson knew it,

  
and he knew that
Larry Silver knew parts of it.

  
And so there was nothing
he could do but step aside.

  
He was through, and he knew it.

  
(Geimer)
I was young, but the way I felt was,

  
the judge was enjoying
the publicity,

  
and he didn't care about
what happened to me,

  
and he didn't care about
what happened to Polanski.

  
He was, like, orchestrating
some little show,

  
you know,
that I didn't want to be in.

  
I clearly hold no grief
for Mr. Polanski,

  
and obviously what he did
to Samantha, my client,

  
was wrong, outrageous,
but nevertheless,

  
he was supposed to be
treated fairly in court,

  
and he clearly was not.

  
I'm not surprised that he left
under those circumstances.

  
(woman)
Really?

  
Yeah.

  
[Loud sizzling]

  
[Laughs]

  
Well, Clive, it was
a wonderful idea to do this... -

  
do this interview over... -
over this lunch.

  
But the lunch is getting
into a dinner now,

  
and in case if you have in mind
finishing this interview,

  
I wanted to ask you whether you
intend to end on this note,

  
or do you think there's
something more to my life

  
than my relations
with young women?

  
(Braunsberg)
He rebuilt his life in France

  
with great honor.

  
He's a member
of the Academy Français.

  
And in France, he's desired,
and in America, he's wanted.

  
[Speaking French]

  
[Applause]

  
And the Oscar...

  
goes to Roman Polanski
for The Pianist.

  
The Academy congratulates
Roman Polanski

  
and accepts this award
on his behalf.

  
[Haunting electric guitar music]

  
 

  
(woman)
 La la la la la 

  
 La la la la la la 

  
 La la 

  
 La la la la la 

  
 La la la la la la 

  
 La la 

  
 La-la la la la-la 

  
 La-la la la la-la 

  
 La-la la la la 

  
 La la la la 

  
 La la 

  
 Hold me tight 

  
 As I try 

  
 To stand up 

  
 I just drifted 

  
 Then landed on 

  
 The soft ground 

  
 I was a stranger 

  
 From who knows where 

  
 When I hear your voice 

  
 I don't know the words 

  
 Why the hell should I care? 

  
 La la la la la 

  
 La la la la la la 

  
 La la 

  
 La la la la la 

  
 La la la la la la 

  
 La la