Venus in Furs

We learn quite early on in Roman Polanski’s latest movie that its not based on the Lou Reed song that was released on The Velvet Undergrounds debut album in 1967 but on the story written by Leopald von Sacher-Masoch, the great-great uncle of Marianne Faithful and the man who gave his name to the enjoyment of receiving pain. Polanski’s film Venus in Furs (2013) is based on a two-person play by David Ives, who helped Polanski adapt it for the screen, and which was originally set in modern New York City and premiered on Broadway in 2011.

 

The beautiful Wanda von Dunayev.

Set in a run down Parisian theatre, Thomas Novacheck (Mathieu Amalric who has an uncanny resemblance to the Polish auteur) has written an adaptation of Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novelette and is alone in the theatre after a long day unsuccessfully auditioning actresses for the leading role of Wanda von Dunayev. Just as the debut director is about to leave the building for home in waltzes a dishevelled actress, Vanda Jourdain (Emmanuelle Seigner, the present wife of Roman Polanski) who begs the rather despondent director to let her read for the part. At first he refuses, suspecting that the woman is no better than the flock of hopefuls he has already seen, but she eventually persuades him.  Much to his surprise she has a complete understanding of the part she is about to play and when Thomas reads the part of Severin von Kusiemski he becomes completely obsessed, drawn into the world of masochism, furs, bondage and submission.

 

Wanda or is it Vanda asserts her every whim on Severin or is it Thomas? 

This movie is a play within a play, where we witness both life as a play, and a play-acting out life. The two actors are totally convincing in the ‘dual’ roles they perform. Except at the opening credits and at the end credits, the film is completely based within the confines of the theatre. The skill of the writing was very much appreciated by this blogger; its humour and the clever manipulating of the characters were superb. Polanski in top form, in what’s unusual for him – a grand comedy. Not to be missed.

Venus in Furs.

In the House.

 

Husband and wife Jeanne and Germain.

There are two things that are fairly certain. Firstly that Francois Ozon always makes interesting and challenging movies. Films like Under the Sand (2000) 8 Women (2002), Swimming Pool (2003), 5x2 (2004), Time To Leave (2005) and Potiche (2010). Secondly Kristin Scott Thomas has rarely made a bad French language film, interchanging between the posh English stereotypical roles in which she seems to be cast while working in Britain or America. In fact her career goes from strength to strength even as the 'older women', she turned 50 in 2010, with France offering her roles that are constantly giving her the opportunity to stretch her impeccable skills as an actress. Films like I've Loved You So Long (2008) Leaving (2009), Sarah’s Key (2011), In Your Hands (2010) and the recent The Woman in the Fifth (2012).

 

Claude develops his obsession with Esther.....

....via tuition from Germain.

What do you get when you mix these two formidable movie talents together? A witty, and somewhat underlyingly sinister thriller that brings to mind the invasion of one’s private space seen in Pasolini's Theorem (1968) and perhaps even Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (1997). In the House (2012) is a film where your never quite sure if what you see is fact or fiction! Based on a Spanish play The Boy in the Last Row by Juan Mayorga, it opens with French literature teacher and failed writer, Germain (veteran actor Fabrice Luchini last seen as Catherine Deneuve’s husband in Ozon’s Potiche) giving his High School students an essay to write about their activities at the weekend. While marking the normal boring dross he comes across a piece of work that catches his eye composed by the 16 year old, quietly clever but puzzling, Claude Garcia (played by new comer Ernst Umhauer) it tells about his weekend in the house of a fellow student where under the guise of assisting him with ‘math’s’ he attempts to integrate with Rapha’s family mainly we suspect because he has developed an infatuation with his friends beautiful but bored mother Esther (actress, singer and the latest Mrs. Polanski, Emmanuelle Seigner). Germain encourages Claude to continue with his visits to the house and encourages him to go to even further lengths in the hope that it will improve his writing and produce a grand piece of text. The childless Germain is married to Jeanne (Scott Thomas) who runs an art gallery called Minotaur’s Labyrinth on behalf of two identical twins, which includes some strangely bizarre and sexually explicit objects including blow up dolls adorned with masks of political tyrants and dictators!

 

Will Jeanne fall for the charms of the budding young writer? 

A film about story telling where ‘life and literature become indistinguishable’.[1] A French middle class satire that deals with voyeurism and sexual desires of both sexes giving the viewer an incite into repressed bourgeois family life. Again we have a French film that outclasses many English language movies from both sides of the Atlantic with its adult story and some first rate acting from all concerned, but I most give a special mention to Ernst Umhauer whose role as the budding young writer is intoxicating. Not to be missed.

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[1] Philip French The Observer