I was looking forward to see La Vénus à la fourrure (2013) yet another production from the old Polanski, at a respectable age of 81 he's one of my favorite directors. Once again we can see Polanski's wife, actress Emmanuelle Seigner, performing in her third movie for Polanski. She appeared before in Frantic (1988) and Bitter Moon (1992).
In La Vénus à la fourrure she plays the part of Vanda who tries to convince play director Thomas (Mathieu Amalric) that she's the right girl for playing the leading part of the Greek goddess Venus. She appears late for the audition, this is also the introduction of the movie, one long shot of an early rainy morning in an abandoned street somewhere in Paris that ends at the doors of the theater. It's a beautiful taken shot and the last we'll see of Paris because the whole story evolves within the theater itself.
The shot ends, the doors of the theater opens, and Vanda (Emmanuelle Seigner) enters, all wet due of the rain. she finds herself to be alone with the play director Thomas (Mathieu Amalric) who's having problems finding the right women for the part of playing Venus, the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure Aphrodite/ At first Thomas is not in the mood to give Vanda the opportunity to show him that's she's the right person for the job. But with, what appears to be the beginning of submission, all of her sex appeal she persuades Thomas to give her a try. Thomas decides to play the character that will have conversations with the Greek goddess Venus payed by Vanda to see if she's is up for the part.
What follows is a mixture of brilliance and utterly failures at the same time. The camera-work, as for editing work and the cinematography in general are flawless, it's also clear that the leading hand of the director Polanski hash't lost it's talent a bit. The screenplay is well written and in some ways close to a masterpiece. The painfully missing link tough, that tears down the quality of the movie all together, is the directors judgement when selecting the characters for this picture. La Vénus à la fourrure is all about dominance and submission and on top of that you might aspect that whomever would play the role of Venus the Greek goddess of love and beauty would be able to fulfill these ingredients. Now, I don't want to be prejudice here, Emmanuelle Seigner is a good actress and she's capable to be sexy but not as sexy one might expect from a Greek goddess who has no issues to appears in the form of a young, sexy looking, female that will turn each male fantasy upside down. It's a Greek goddess for crying out loud. Any reasonable play director would choose at least an actress age young to a maximum age of thirty. Emmanuelle Seigner as Vanda is forty-eight, and that shows. Again, i've nothing against aged actresses or actors, but you don't choose an actor age fifty plus to play the role of Oliver in Charles Dicken's famous novel either. In Bitter Moon (1992) Emmanuelle Seigner also play's the role as a sexy female to seduce the, even young, actor Hugh Grant. And besides good acting this does acquire, in a physical sense, a young appealing sexy body, even when looking "sexy" is in the eye of the beholder.
Beside this, there is almost nothing wrong with the screenplay, but it does tend to become pretentious, especially when hearing Vanda her dialog where she's aware of her beauty:
Vanda: Any other director I know would have already jumped on me. Thomas: I'm not "any other director". Vanda: Bullshit. If he thought he could, he would have already done. Thomas: Not true. Vanda: Not even if I allowed him?
Even tough, once again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I find it hard to connect with Vanda's confidence about her being sexy and her looks at age forty-eight.
It's a pity, because I love movies with long dialogs and being set in a single room or space. I can recommend Tape (2001) with Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Uma Thurman or even from Polanski himself, Cul-de-sac (1966)
But as said before, this movie has both aspects of being wonderful but the screenplay is to often pretentious and Vanda doesn't convince me to be young and sexy in physical context to be the Greek goddess of love, beauty,and pleasure. She would had when she would have been twenty years younger.
4/10
In La Vénus à la fourrure she plays the part of Vanda who tries to convince play director Thomas (Mathieu Amalric) that she's the right girl for playing the leading part of the Greek goddess Venus. She appears late for the audition, this is also the introduction of the movie, one long shot of an early rainy morning in an abandoned street somewhere in Paris that ends at the doors of the theater. It's a beautiful taken shot and the last we'll see of Paris because the whole story evolves within the theater itself.
The shot ends, the doors of the theater opens, and Vanda (Emmanuelle Seigner) enters, all wet due of the rain. she finds herself to be alone with the play director Thomas (Mathieu Amalric) who's having problems finding the right women for the part of playing Venus, the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure Aphrodite/ At first Thomas is not in the mood to give Vanda the opportunity to show him that's she's the right person for the job. But with, what appears to be the beginning of submission, all of her sex appeal she persuades Thomas to give her a try. Thomas decides to play the character that will have conversations with the Greek goddess Venus payed by Vanda to see if she's is up for the part.
What follows is a mixture of brilliance and utterly failures at the same time. The camera-work, as for editing work and the cinematography in general are flawless, it's also clear that the leading hand of the director Polanski hash't lost it's talent a bit. The screenplay is well written and in some ways close to a masterpiece. The painfully missing link tough, that tears down the quality of the movie all together, is the directors judgement when selecting the characters for this picture. La Vénus à la fourrure is all about dominance and submission and on top of that you might aspect that whomever would play the role of Venus the Greek goddess of love and beauty would be able to fulfill these ingredients. Now, I don't want to be prejudice here, Emmanuelle Seigner is a good actress and she's capable to be sexy but not as sexy one might expect from a Greek goddess who has no issues to appears in the form of a young, sexy looking, female that will turn each male fantasy upside down. It's a Greek goddess for crying out loud. Any reasonable play director would choose at least an actress age young to a maximum age of thirty. Emmanuelle Seigner as Vanda is forty-eight, and that shows. Again, i've nothing against aged actresses or actors, but you don't choose an actor age fifty plus to play the role of Oliver in Charles Dicken's famous novel either. In Bitter Moon (1992) Emmanuelle Seigner also play's the role as a sexy female to seduce the, even young, actor Hugh Grant. And besides good acting this does acquire, in a physical sense, a young appealing sexy body, even when looking "sexy" is in the eye of the beholder.
Beside this, there is almost nothing wrong with the screenplay, but it does tend to become pretentious, especially when hearing Vanda her dialog where she's aware of her beauty:
Vanda: Any other director I know would have already jumped on me. Thomas: I'm not "any other director". Vanda: Bullshit. If he thought he could, he would have already done. Thomas: Not true. Vanda: Not even if I allowed him?
Even tough, once again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I find it hard to connect with Vanda's confidence about her being sexy and her looks at age forty-eight.
It's a pity, because I love movies with long dialogs and being set in a single room or space. I can recommend Tape (2001) with Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Uma Thurman or even from Polanski himself, Cul-de-sac (1966)
But as said before, this movie has both aspects of being wonderful but the screenplay is to often pretentious and Vanda doesn't convince me to be young and sexy in physical context to be the Greek goddess of love, beauty,and pleasure. She would had when she would have been twenty years younger.
4/10