Rent Venus in Fur (2013)

Spoilers follow ... - Venus in Fur review by NP

This is an immersive exercise in minimalism. There are only two actors throughout, and the only location is an abandoned theatre. The building is battered by an ongoing storm outside, which adds a layer of safe seclusion from the interference from the outside world.

Many interesting themes are present – perceptions, a man’s view of a what a woman is (and vice versa); the current fixation with trivialising everything and reducing it to a handful of ‘current’ reasons/demands to take offence, erotic manipulation and empowerment, and latterly, obsession …

Emmanuelle Seigner plays Vanda Jourdain, and Mathieu Amalric plays Thomas Novacheck. He is the director/adaptor of a play, and she is the ‘stupid c***’ who needs a job and persuades him she would be perfect for the lead role. At first, he understandably thinks she is a lunatic – eccentric certainly, confident but very scatty. And yet she insists he hear her read for the role. Instantly, her performance and personality win through and she becomes the dominant character. As she excels, Thomas diminishes. Even Roman Polanski’s direction visually elevates Vanda to tower over the director (Seigner is Polanski’s wife).

The only interruption into this burgeoning relationship is from the unseen Marie-Cecile, Thomas’s fiancée, who phones him asking when he will be coming home. This pin-prick in an otherwise weirdly evocative world-building seems to prevent, or at least delay, the main pair’s total immersion in each other. As to who Vanda actually is – well, she seems to be a lot more than just a struggling actress, but her true nature remains oblique.

The movie is based on the play "Venus in Fur" by David Ives, and moves the location from New York to Paris. The themes of domination are taken to frightening and, it seems, unresolved extremes. Whilst difficult to pinpoint the ultimate intent, ‘Venus in Fur’ is fascinating, the immersive nature of its narrative transcending the subtitles from its French origins.

Polanski curiosity - Venus in Fur review by Alphaville

This two-hander set in an empty theatre has actress Emmanuelle Siegner auditioning for a part in director Mathieu Amalric’s adaptation of the Sader-Masoch (SM) book of the title. It’s a necessarily dialogue-heavy piece about the power-play between the two. Director Roman Polanski does more than most would be able to with his camera to keep it interesting in such a restricted space, but it remains little more than a curiosity piece.

Role Play - Venus in Fur review by Steve

A divertissement translated from David Ives' Broadway hit, which itself was inspired by the seminal short novel Venus in Furs (1870) by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch; who put masochism into the dictionary. So there is some tasteful eroticism, though this is more a film of ideas, a reflection on what the text means now...

Plus it's also about the creative tensions involved in writing, casting and staging a play. It's a two-hander with Mathieu Amalric as the writer-director who starts out auditioning Emmanuelle Seigner to play the maîtresse, but slowly and by degrees finds himself becoming more compliant, and then submissive... 

Perhaps this is because he is interested in the novella as those are his own dreams? Or this is all a fantasy going on inside his head...etc! Both actors are exceptional. In real life, Seigner is the wife of its director, Roman Polanski... and Mathieu Amalric is short and surely made to look like him. So maybe this is personal...

Which will be an issue for some given its themes and the nature of Polanski's criminal conviction. But obviously not for French critics as they awarded him the César for Best Direction. Objectively, it's a stage play set in a theatre which isn't cinematic, but is interpreted in detail and with intelligence by everyone involved.