Venus in fur? Or Venus in leather…
An old Parisian theater. An actor. A director. That’s it. The actor tries to convince the director that she is perfect for the part in his play.
[and the actor here is married to the actual director of the film]
In part this is going to be a reflection of the [at times] fine line between a “sense of reality” on the stage and off the stage. Between the illusion encompassed in a script and the way in which our “real lives” can sometimes revolve more or less around another set of cue cards altogether. How we sometimes rehearse spontaneity but can then appear to be anything but scripted even when reciting the lines of others.
[there’s a classic scene where Thomas and Vanda are deeply embedded in the characters that they play when suddenly Thomas’s cell phone rings]
And here the entire effort will necessarily revolve around the dialogue that is being exchanged between these two characters interacting in a context that [we all know] has unfolded literally countless times over the centuries. So we look for how skillful the choreography is – between the words spoken, the reactions they elicit, and how, combined, they either enthrall you or they don’t.
Because, again, that is all there is.
Well, that and the ever convoluted role that sexuality plays in our lives. Convoluted? How it gets all tangled up in complex emotional and psychological states, in complex emotional and psychological wants and needs, in complex social and political contexts.
What then is “natural” here and what is instead reflective merely of a “social construct”
Sound familiar? In particular, the fact in which there are those who insist that only the manner in which they think about these things reflects what is really true. That age old “struggle” between the Apollonian and the Dionysian frames of minds. Or, as Thomas puts it, “Here it’s not Dionysus; it’s Aphrodite.” That fine line between pleasure and pain. The world of S&M.
And, as we all recall, this film is from a director accused of raping a young girl.
And some advice from the director: Look for the satire, look for the the irony. I always do myself.
IMDb
[b]Roman Polanski’s first non-English-language feature in 51 years.
The movie is based on the play “Venus in Fur” by David Ives. In the play, both Vanda Jordan and the character Wanda von Dunayev are 24 years old. The lines referencing the characters age were cut from the film. Emmanuelle Seigner was in her late 40s during filming. [/b]
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_in_Fur_(film
trailer: youtu.be/Q1LZ6JoUkJc
VENUS IN FUR [La Vénus à la Fourrure] 2013
Written and directed by Roman Polanski
[b]Thomas [on the phone bemoaning the auditions]: No, she doesn’t exist. I mean, a sexy young woman with classical training and a scrap of brain in her skull who can say “inextricable” without a coach. Listen, in Vanda’s day she’d be married with five kids and tuberculosis, She’d be a woman. These days they sound like ten-year-olds on helium: “It was, like, totally, like, wild. Like totally awesome!” I’ve seen 35 idiot actresses, half dressed like hookers, half like dykes.
…
Thomas: We’re looking for somebody…different.
Vanda: What are you looking for?
Thomas: Someone…how can I put it?
Vanda: Oh, I get it. Save your breath. Someone who’s mot me. I’m too short, I’m too tall, too old, too young. My resume is crap. I get the message. [/b]
Then she really starts to act.
[b]Thomas: Have you read the manuscript?
Vanda: I flipped through it on the train. It’s, like, based on something. The Lou Reed song?
Thomas: No, it’s based on an Austrian novel, ]I]Venus In Fur[/I] by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.
…
Thomas: The book was a big scandal in 1870.
Vanda: I’ll bet it was. It’s S&M porn.
Thomas: No, it’s not S&M porn.
Vanda: It’s not? Or porn-ish?
Thomas: No Venus In Fur was a great love story. It’s a central text of world literature!
Vanda: Yeah? It looks like porn to me. And I know my sadomasochism.
…
Vanda: This Severin von Kushemski? What is he? What is he into? Throw me some adjectives.
Thomas: He’s…uh…he’s a rich idler of the times. Intelligent, we’ll traveled, cultivated.
Vanda: A nerd.
…
Thomas: I put actors through all this.
Vanda: You’re the director. It’s your job to torture actors.
…
Thomas] [in character]: She taught me the most valuable thing in the world.
Vanda [in character]: And what did she teach you?
Thomas: That nothing is more sensual than pain. That nothing is more exciting than degradation.
…
Vanda: So actually, this play is, like, all about child abuse.
Thomas: Are…are you crazy? What does child abuse have to do with it? This goddamn mania these days! Everything’s a stupid social issue!
…
Thomas: This impoverished world we live in. Why do we always reduce things? What’s next on your list? Sexism? Racism? The class struggle?
…
Vanda [in character]: You are quite unique Herr Kushemski. If I were you, I’d be careful. Your ideal woman may be crueler than you care for.
Thomas [in character]: I will risk that.
Vanda: I know what you are. A super sensualist. An ascetic voluptuary.
Thoamas: And you, Frau Vanda von Dunayev, who or what are you?
Vanda: I’m a pagan. Meaning I’m young, beuatiful, rich, and plan to make the most of that. I’ll deny myself nothing.
Thomas: I respect your principles.
Vanda: Excuse me, I don’t need your respect. I’ll love a man who pleases me and please a man who makes me happy, but only as long as he makes me happy. Then I’ll find another.
…
Vanda [in character]: In our society a woman’s only power is through a man. I’d like to see what Woman will be when she become’s Man’s equal. When she becomes herself.
[she goes out of character]
Vanda: Little Vanda’s way ahead of her times!
…
Vanda [in character]: What do you want deep down?
Thomas [in character]: To be your possesssion. Vanish into your sublime essence. Dress and undress you. Hand you your stockings, put shoes on your feet. Have no will of my own.
Vanda: You call that love?
Thomas: The only kind. In love as in politics, one partner must rule. One must be the hammer, the other the anvil. I willingly accept being the anvil.
…
Vanda [after hanging up the phone]: Incredible!
Thomas: Your other half?
Vanda: People still say that?
Thomas: What’s “other half” now?
Vanda: I don’t know. “Asshole”?
…
Vanda: You wondered why I lied to my “other half”?
Thomas: It’s none of my business.
Vanda: What does Vanda say? “I’ll deny myself nothing”. I got other fish to fuck so to speak.
Thomas: So you’re the hammer; and he’s the anvil.
Vanda: What should I say, “whatever, baby”? This isn’t love; it’s sex. You want sex, you take the rest. That’s what the play’s about.
Thomas: Is it?
Vanda: Are you kidding?
Thomas: I don’t know. Am I?
…
Vanda: Is it you?
Thomas: What?
Vanda: He’s you. Kushemsk-Novachek. Novachek-Kushemski.
Thomas: No, he’s not me.
Vanda: You said there’s a lot of you in it. Or maybe you’re Vanda.
Thomas: No, the play has nothing to do with me…I can invent characters.
Vanda: Sure, Herr Doktor Novachek, and you happened to find them in an old S&M novel.
…
Vanda: You’re still wainting for your own “great moment”?
Thomas: I’m not waiting for anything. I find the characters’ relationship absolutely fascinating. Very complex, very rich. I love the characters’ emotional depth. No one experiences this kind of thing nowadays. We no longer see this kind of rage.
Vanda: Meet some of my friends.
…
Vanda [speculating about Thoimas’s fianace]: Her family’s rich. Am I right?
[Thomas is about to respond]
Vanda: Of course, I’m right. But, hey, you’re an artist. She loves that about you; your sensitivity. Maybe you’re the first sensitive guy she’s ever met. She loves opera, ballet, that shit. At night a foreign movie, you discuss novels before a nice quiet copulation. Nothing like a nice quiet copulation to help you relax. But a voice rumbles in the back of your mind, calling for something else. I don’t know what it is but it rumbles…Boom!..Boom!..Boom!..But, hey, you are happy. You’re very fond of her. You’ll have a nice quiet life watching foreign movies, discussing novels. And then you’ll have kids, and then you’ll die.
…
Vanda [in character]: Severin. Don’t you see? You’ll never be safe in the hands of a woman. Any woman.
[suddenly she jumps out of character]
Vanda: That line is so sexist! I could scream!
Thomas: What’s sexist about it?
Vanda: “You’ll never be safe in the hands of a woman”.
Thomas: It’s in the book!
Vanda: So the book is sexist!
Thomas: No, it’s not! On the contrary, it’s…
Vanda [bringing the book over to him, the cover depicting a naked woman’s ass, she is holding a whip]: And this? That ain’t Titian, babe. It’s S&M porn! The whole thing is just one big cliché!!
Thomas: In what way?
Vanda: He gets spanked and suddenly he’s into S&M?!
Thomas: It happened to Sacher-Masoch!
Vanda: Did it happen to you?
Thomas: No!
…
Thomas: For me it’s a play about two people united forever. They’re handcuffed at the heart.
Vanda: By perversion.
Thomas: No, by passion.
Vandas: His passion! It’s a sex and class war. Vanda is a sweet innocent who meets a total pervert.
Thomas: You don’t understand a thing!
Vanda: She says “You’ve corrupted me.”
Thomas: Maybe she always has this thirst for domination. Maybe Kushemski brought it out.
Vanda: Maybe she’s just a woman. The play’s like an old antifemale tract. He makes her play along, and then blames her!
Thomas; It’s not that at all!
Vanda: It is exactly that! Take the ending. She gets the Greek to whip him. She dumps Kushemski, dick in hand, and it’s her fault when he wanted it?! I think old Kushie’s hot for the Greek.
Thomas [utterly exasperated]: How can you be so stupid? How can you play her so well and be so fucking stupid about her? And all the rest! Fucking idiot actress! Dumb bitch! Fucking idiot!
…
Vanda [in character]: Break off with me, Severin, before it is too late.
Thomas [in chaaracter]: Do you love me?
Vanda: I don’t know.
Thomas: Then find out. Do something to persuade yourself.
Vanda: How?
Thomas: By doing what all lovers do. Make me suffer.
Vanda: I find that repulsive, and I dispise playacting.[/b]
Thus you are always asking: when is it playacting and when is it not?
[b]Vanda [out of character]: What do you want, Thomas? I’m not your fucking aunt! I am I! What do you want?
Thomas [out of character]: I don’t know.
Vanda: This isn’t about the play now.
Thomas; I just want more.
Vanda: I’m not her! I’m some stupid cunt who needs a job! I’m not your aunt. I am I…How’s that?
Thomas: That’s good.
Vanda [turning to walk away]: I can’t do this part. It’s too hard for me.
…
Thomas [in/out of character?]: Don’t go. Please stay.
Vanda [in/out of character?]: Beg me.
Thomas [down on his knee]: I beg you.
Vanda: You’re evil.
Thomas: Don’t you see you have me in your power?
Vanda: Liar. You’re not in my power; I’m in yours. You say your my slave but you dominate me. That’s true.
Thomas: What?
Vanda: He says she has the power but he has it, not her. The more he submits, the more he controls. Weird…
Thomas: It’s complicated.
…
Vanda: Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah.
Thomas: What? “Blah, blah, blah?”
Vanda: What? Suddenly she’s the wicked witch? “The air is on fire, my nerves are tuning forks.” Why not lightening and drumriolls too? Listen, Tom, I really like you, but this is way too corny.
Thomas: Corny? Corny how? This is the play! It’s my play! A great play! No one will make me think otherwise! You know nothing. I won’t let anyone demolish my work, whether you’re in it or not! Fuck you!
Vanda [almost matter of factly]: Okay, okay it’s your call![/b]
Cue the cell phone!
Thomas gets a call from his fiancee.
[b]Thomas [on phone]: Marie…
Vanda [shouting]: Screw you, Marie-Cecile!
Thomas [on the phone]: I’m just finishing up…
Vanda [following him]: He’s fucking me, Marie-Cecile! Fucking me up the ass!
Thomas [on phone]: No idea. Soon.
Vanda: Banging me like a Labrador!
…
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 it.
Thomas: Not true.
Vanda: What if I let you?
…
Vanda [in character]: Come here. Put your arms around me. You see? For an hour I can let you imagine that you’re free again. You simpleton. You’ll realize you’re what I want you to be. An animal. An object. A void for me to fill. [/b]
Then they change roles. He is Vanda, she is Severin.
Thomas [as Vanda]: Humilitate me! Degrade me!
Vanda [tying him to a stage prop]: That’s good, Tom. Really very good. Brilliant. Know what the problem is? Whatever you do, whatever you say, this play is degrading. An insult to women! Pornography!
Thoamas: What are you talking about?!
Vanda: Look at you. A damsel in distress. A helpless, submissive cunt. “Beat me, hurt me! I’m a woman!”