Going Back to The Scene of an Auteur's Crime

Toward the end of the King interview, Geimer's lawyer, Lawrence Silver, says, "What happened that day, both to Polanski and to some extent the American judicial system, I really think it was a shameful day."

Zenovich: "That was the bing! That didn't make sense. Why would the girl's lawyer say that? That's what I decided to make a movie about."

In a plea bargain, the director served 42 days in state prison undergoing psychiatric observation. He was then to be released with time served. But the judge, Laurence Rittenband, told the lawyers in the case that he was feeling pressure from the public, and that he planned to sentence Polanski to 50 years in prison, but that Polanski could elect to have himself deported instead. The judge was also instructing the lawyers what to say in his courtroom, so that the judge would seem stern and tough, but that behind the scenes, Polanski would be released. Or so we are told. Rittenband, the villain of the documentary, died in 1993.

In the Zenovich film (and on "Larry King Live"), Geimer does not forgive Polanski. Instead, she says she believes he has been punished enough. To King, she says the publicity surrounding the case -- she was never named, but she said everyone in high school knew it was her -- was the worst. "The publicity was so terrible, that -- and so immediate that -- it just overshadowed everything that happened that night," she said.

For the film, Zenovich pursued Polanski through intermediaries. Polanski knew, of course, she was making the film. His godson, Adam Bardach, assisted Zenovich, and it is obvious that Polanski gave his permission to his close friends and his lawyer to speak.

As she was completing the film, Zenovich tried Polanski one last time.

"He called me back and said let's meet. I met him at a bar, a nice French bar near his home. It was great to lay eyes on him after seeing him in my head for so long. We talked about the film."

Was there anything you were dying to ask him?

"Yes and no, because I didn't want to ask him anything until I had a camera. I was still toying with the idea of trying to talk him into doing the interview," Zenovich says. "But he said no. I'm really sorry, but no. He thinks it would look like self-promotion. He said: 'I don't want to be a prima donna. But I'm sorry but I don't think I should be in the film.' "

Steven Soderbergh, who gave Zenovich money to develop the film, told her it was better that Polanski wasn't in the documentary. "It's a mistake. I knew it was, but I wanted to interview him!" Zenovich says.

To ask that one question -- that it was wrong what he did?

"It's a very tricky subject," Zenovich says. " I probably would have wanted him to apologize on the record, on a camera, for the Americans, because that is what the Americans need to hear. It's almost like I'd have to get that out of him. I think he's felt badly about it, but he just doesn't go on about it."

Zenovich did give Polanski a DVD of her film. "He told me it was very good filmmaking and asked me what's next," Zenovich says.

Next, in his case?

"No, what's my next film project," she says.