Genre: Film
Grade: NR
Notable People: Emmanuelle Seigner, Matthieu Almaric, Directed by Roman Polanski
Title: Venus in Fur
Review – oh boy…this is a challenging one. My son sent me this film on Blue Ray for Christmas-which may be some kind of message that I can’t quite decipher. We watched it last night, and I have tried to assess its value since, but am stumped. Polanski is just short of insane, but maybe a genius. The actors- there are only two of them…..are peerless. The film is based on an 1870 Austrian novel of the same name by Leopold von Sacher Mosoch. It apparently was the book that led to the origin of the term sado-masochism (see the author’s name). The film is really slow and spellbinding at the same time. Not much happens except a pretty tenuous, sensuous and extremely edgy dialog between a director and would be actress in an empty haunting theater. After it was over, I was really not sure exactly what happened, but the time went quickly and I thought I must be watching a work of some degree of high art since I was pretty confused…but riveted. The actors are great, the plot is obtuse, the staging is minimal…intense Polanski at his best. Mon dieu…je ne sais quoi (French sub tiles- by the way). This is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea- but if you see yourself as somewhat a student of film…then will you please rate it for me