Venus in Fur (2013)
Directed by Roman Polanski
An enigmatic actress may have a hidden agenda when she auditions for a part in a misogynistic writer's play.
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3 films that influenced Venus in Fur
What critics say influenced Venus in Fur
The disused set for an ostensibly failed production of an adaptation of John Ford’s “Stagecoach” sits on the stage of the rundown theater where director Thomas (Mathieu Amalric) wraps up his day of auditions for the character of Wanda von Dunayev.
There was cause for optimism, mostly because Polanski knows how to work with actors and has adapted quality plays into movies, from "Macbeth" to "Death and the Maiden" to "Carnage."
The picture is modest in both its goals and its scope: Like Polanski's last movie, Carnage, also a filmed play, Venus in Fur takes place in just one room, this time a theater.
While the social commentary at the heart of “Venus in Furs” is rich and the repartee is enjoyable, I must confess that his version of Yasmina Reza’s “Carnage” had a little bit more oomph.
Some critics ( not me ) complained that Roman Polanski’s last film “Carnage,” an adaptation of the play “God of Carnage,” was too stagey.
Like Carnage, his latest, Venus in Fur, is also inspired by a play and restricted to a single stage but, as we have come to expect of the director, the result is hardly similar to his previous work.
But where Polanski, now 80, recreated the Brooklyn apartment for the single-set “Carnage,” he transfers the two-handed “Venus” from a New York rehearsal hall to an empty Paris theater, maintaining its theatrical milieu while expanding on writer David Ives’ play.
There was cause for optimism, mostly because Polanski knows how to work with actors and has adapted quality plays into movies, from "Macbeth" to "Death and the Maiden" to "Carnage."
One can find various allusions in Venus in Fur to Polanski's other films - e.g., Knife in the Water (1962), The Tenant (1976), Macbeth (1971), and others.