Paris, rain, a theater, an audition… the stage is set.
Director Thomas Novachek is looking for the heroine of the play he’s adapting, “The Furry Venus” – he’s looking for his Vanda. She arrives, outrageous, vulgar, fragile… manipulative? But Vanda is too outrageous for Thomas; she’s not the one for him, or so he thinks for the moment…
“Venus in Fur” is inspired by the work of Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch, the originator of the term “masochism”. In this 96-minute eight-clos, we are bewitched by these two and only characters, and gradually drawn into the plot. Alternately dominated and submissive, Vanda and Thomas cross paths, seek each other out, discover each other without knowing each other, shimmering with mystery. The audition, the neuralgic act of the film, gradually becomes denser and denser, until the viewer wonders what he’s really seeing. Roman Polanski plays with history and blows on both reality and surrealism, multiplying mirror effects throughout the film. In “The Furry Venus”, everything is play and questioning. Reality becomes increasingly blurred, opening up a constantly shifting field. Truth is never certified.
The actors sublimate this staging, Mathieu Amalric both masculine and feminine is masterful, prodigious as usual. Accompanied by Emmanuelle Seigner, who, for my part, has never been so powerful and hypnotic in a film.
“La Vénus à la fourrure” redefines the codes of seduction and pleasure. This film revises love and domination to make them one and the same. It’s a subtle, daring and skilful film, carried by two stunning actors.
“The Furry Venus” released November 7, 2013. Directed by Roman Polanski, with Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric
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