VENUS IN FUR – The Review

VENUS IN FUR is from American playwright David Ives’ Tony Award-winning play, a two-character S&M tale set in New York. Now comes the film version, which is set in Paris and is in French. C’est quoi ce bordel? It’s the latest movie directed by 80-year old perv Roman Polanksi who has cast his pretty 46-year old French wife Emmanuelle Seigner in the lead. VENUS IN FUR is a kinky backstage tango that never quite sizzles, but it’s still an entertaining and often funny riff on the issues of sex and power. I just wish it had been filmed in English.

VENUS IN FUR opens with stage writer-director Thomas (Mathieu Amalric) alone in a Paris theater after a long day of auditioning actresses for his new play, an adaptation of an 18th century erotic tale that explores the explosive relationship between a domineering mistress and her submissive male subject/slave. Thomas is frustrated that no actress he’s seen has what it takes to play the female lead. Thomas is about to leave the theater when actress Vanda (Emmanuelle Seigner) bursts in, a whirlwind of erratic, erotic energy. At first she seems all wrong. She is pushy, foul-mouthed, desperate and ill-prepared – or so it seems. When Thomas reluctantly agrees to let her try out for the part, he is stunned and captivated by her transformation. Not only is Vanda a perfect fit (even sharing the character’s name), but she apparently has researched the role exhaustively, learned her lines by heart and even bought her own props. The likeness proves to be much more than skin-deep. As the extended “audition” unfolds, Thomas moves from attraction to obsession to being sexually dominated by Vanda.

VENUS IN FUR is the type of story that might have been shocking once upon a time. Having a sexy woman tie a man to a pole (or in this case, an enormous prickly phallus) and play his captivity for all its worth is an exhausted cliché, and VENUS IN FUR doesn’t dig deep. But Polanski is still a great director and does a good job of making this stagebound premise as cinematic as possible. Polanski is no stranger to films with small casts in confined settings. KNIFE IN THE WATER, DEATH AND THE MAIDEN, REPULSION, and CARNAGE all took place in single locations, but he’s always made that limitation work to his advantage, focusing on the action in his character’s minds. His camera is fluid and his composition masterful. The dialog is often quite funny with writer Ives adapting his play and making a few inside jokes about life in the theater, though I do think I would have gotten more out of it if they had filmed the play’s original English dialogue. If VENUS IN FUR had been any longer, it would have worn out its welcome but at 90 minutes, it breezes by. Amalric, a dead ringer for Polanski in his youth, is excellent as the arrogant Thomas, but the film belongs to Emmanuelle Seigner. The actress was put through some of these same motions by her husband in 1982’s BITTER MOON, but then she was a woman in her twenties. Seigner shines in this challenging role, moving convincingly from blathering airhead to perilous femme fatale – and she looks great in leather! VENUS IN FUR may be too highbrow to appeal outside the arthouse circuit but is nonetheless essential viewing for fans of Roman Polanski.

3 1/2 of 5 Stars

VENUS IN FUR opens in St. Louis Friday, July 18th exclusively at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater.