Review: Venus in Fur (2013)


Playwright/director Mathieu Almaric is ready to pack it in, after failing to find the right star for his adaptation of Venus in Furs, an 19th century tale of domination and submission. However, at the very last minute, vulgar and trashy Emmanuelle Seigner walks in demanding to read for the part. Almaric takes one look at her and decides she’s not only unsuitable for the part (the role requires someone initially rather ‘proper’), and probably not a very capable actress anyway. Seigner, however is insistent, and has even brought her own costume to read for the part. Almaric quickly learns to not judge a book by its cover, because Seigner indeed appears to be perfect for the part after all. Meanwhile, it also becomes obvious that Almaric is also rather similar to the other major character in the play, a man who likes to be dominated by a woman. And so it begins.

 

I’ll admit that this film adaptation of a play inspired by a novel from 1869 is seriously not my thing. However, even with that in mind, this is a crushing bore of a disappointment from the usually more interesting Roman Polanski, who shares screenplay credit with playwright David Ives. To go from “Repulsion”, “Chinatown”, and “The Pianist” to this 2013 tedium involving two people talking and reciting a play for 90 minutes? I mean, if the subject of their conversations was remotely interesting I suppose it’d have some merit, but that’s not the case. I just don’t see the appeal here, not to mention that the director’s wife and star Emmanuelle Seigner, in addition to being phony, appears at 47 a good decade (at least) too old for her role. Polanski removed any reference to the age of the character, but even if you didn’t know the character Seigner plays is meant to be in her 20s, it’s blatantly obvious that she’s not meant to be pushing fucking 50 for cryin’ out loud. How phony is Seigner? In playing this outwardly ‘trashy’ woman, she actually chews gum. Ugh. What a boring, easy and outdated caricature she is.

 

So since I wasn’t getting the ‘sexy’ vibe from Seigner (nor believing her in the part at all) and 99.9999% of the film is just her and virtual Polanski surrogate Mathieu Almaric (English actor Simon McBurney was born to play Polanski, but Almaric isn’t a bad likeness) talking and acting out a play (and occasionally getting into sexual politics discussion like that’s something new or weighty), this was pretty much an even more unendurable, kinky version of “Educating Rita” for me, if anything. There’s a sting in the tail in the very last scene of the film, and it’s utterly ridiculous.

 

Honestly, if this whole thing wasn’t meant to be a joke, it’s dumb. If it’s a joke, then it’s a dumb fucking joke that isn’t remotely funny. Terrible film that seems twice as long, from a filmmaker who should know better. Arty farty theatre-types might disagree with me, though.

 

Rating: D

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