If you're someone like me who knows Roman Polanski's caustic brilliance (from "Rosemary's Baby" to "Chinatown" to "The Pianist") but just knew some of the dangling rumors about his sexual assault on a 13 year-old girl, and wondered more about the case, "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" will clear up a whole lot of stuff.

Most of that will have to do with the ridiculous court case, in which the judge tried to hold a mock trial and conducted affairs specifically for the media. The film really is a statement for our times, the judge's attempts at manipulating everything around the case to make himself look glamorous.

This does not let Polanski off the hook in any way, but does a lot to explain how a guy whose family was personally devastated by the Holocaust, whose beloved wife and friends were slaughtered by a psychopathic gang, and who created dark art from the deepest parts of the human experience could somehow persevere and bless humanity with "The Pianist." The French love him, they have him, and find out why he's never coming back here.

"Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" will be showing from July 25 to July 31 at SIFF Cinema.