princess_lilmisspiggy
It's wonderful to see a film that knows exactly what it wants to be with no pretensions towards greatness. VENUS IN FUR is pure adult entertainment that takes total pleasure in the magnificence of acting. Emmanuelle Seigner is so delicious, loopy, sexy, funny, mean that it hurts (pun intended). Although created for the New York stage, director Roman Polanski totally inserts himself into the action via actor Mathieu Amalric who once again delivers a wonderful screen performance to match Seigner's. The play attempts to take on more than it can chew at the end as the explanations fly but actually the film is much better than that. The point is clear. No explanation needed. It is all overt enough. There is no real depth to VENUS IN FUR, it's about the magic of acting and the world we create around ourselves.
Que no me toque un alto delante
A theater director makes a casting. An actress arrives very late. The play is based on "Venus in Furs", a book of Leopold Sacher-Masoch which gave origin to the word masochism. The script is a pearl. A film where the script is 90 of it all. Sharp and clever dialogue. The acting work is amazing. The actress is a 10. Tremendous. It achieves a range of expressiveness, conveying very different things at different times in the movie. IT even gives the impression that they are different actresses. A film of these might be called "single-room". A single room, two actors, and pure dialogue. For those who do not like very talkies, give up before you start. Polanski at his 80 years achieved a great movie. It could be a movie based on a play based on a book or a play based on a movie based on a play or .... Plays with the "text" and reality all the time and creates an incredible dynamism throughout the film, with very few resources (the script, basically). It deserves special comment the stunning metamorphosis of the character Vanda, achieved with minimal makeup and costume changes. We are seeing how the characters are moving through different times, both internally and in relation to each other. The incessant back and forth between the "real" dialogue and dialogue of the script of the play, blurs the line between fact and fiction; resource that makes us think a little beyond what is explicitly said in the dialogue. And if all this is combined with the fact that we are on the subject of sadism and masochism ... ..delicious.
violawillowcabin
Roman Polanski's "Venus in Fur" (should be plural, I think) is a wonderful movie which riveted this viewer from start to finish. It is the movie "La Vénus à la Fourrure" with English subtitles. It contains the essence of the novel by Sacher-Masoch within the play by David Ives as adapted for the screen by David Ives and Roman Polanski. The script is great. The acting is fabulous. This movie, containing much irony, much satire, yet retains within it a loyalty to the original novel, "Venus in Furs" by Leopold Sacher-Masoch, which in itself is a riveting but deadly serious portrayal of gender relations in a dominance- submission context. Emmanuelle Seigner plays Vanda Jourdain, an aspiring but so far unsuccessful actress. Mathieu Amalric plays Thomas Novachek, an intellectual playwright who has written a play adapting the Sacher-Masoch novel, and now is attempting to direct his play. He has spent the day unsuccessfully auditioning actresses for the part of Vanda Von Dunayev. When Novachek is completely ready to call it a day, Vanda Jourdain enters the theater and somehow convinces Novachek to let her audition for the role. She also convinces him to play the part of Severin (the submissive). In fact, the audition becomes a rehearsal of the play. One of the interests in watching the movie is wondering how much of the character of Severin is part of the character of the playwright Novachek himself. And I think even more significant is wondering how much of the character of Vanda Von Dunayev (the dominant) is part of the character of the real life Vanda Jourdain. It's ambiguous. And therein lies its fascination. (This is the first review that I have done for IMDb.com. I don't know whether I've said too much or not.)
letig1994
The movie is set in an empty theater during a night storm. Vanda wants to audition for the female role in the play "La Vénus à la fourrure". Thomas, author and director, reluctant at first, end up being dragged by the ambiguous personality of the woman. She seems out of place: dressed inappropriately and easy-minded but she is just perfect for the role. Vanda and Thomas start rehearsing and they interrupt each other to discuss the characters and the storyline. Vanda repeatedly accuses Thomas to have chosen a sexist subject. The setting estranges both the two characters and the public, also with the help of the screenplay's rhythm, which alternates reality and the actual play.It's a movie that opens up a great number of themes regarding the relationship between man and woman.
AD
