TRIBECA FILM FEST 2014: VENUS IN FUR
In 2010, The Classic Stage Company in New York City premiered playwright David Ives’ (All in the Timing) newest work, the two hander sexual domineering comedy VENUS IN FUR. It was a huge hit and eventually transferred to the Great White Way in 2011 where actress Nina Arianda won Best Actress at the 2012 Tony Awards. It’s now a hot property at theatres across the world, and thanks to Roman Polanski, it has now become a film. Filmed in French and relocated to France (instead of New York City), Polanski keeps the same character names and the plot identically resembles that of the Tony Nominated Play. As much like the play itself, it has two wonderful actors digging deep into the juicy material. What’s missing however, isn’t the wit of the piece (the film is quite funny), but Polanski has strangely substituted the sexiness of the piece with more broad humor and goofiness, thus leaving part of Venus’s soul on the, well, stage.
Matthieu Almaric play Thomas, a theatre director who has been auditioning actresses throughout the day for his stage adaptation of Venus in Furs, the 1870 novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Frustrated with the lack of quality woman walking through his doors, he complains to his wife at home that no one has been anywhere near what he needs and that he’s heading home. That’s when a mysterious, and exasperating, actress named Vanda arrives unannounced and without a secured appointment. At first, Thomas is determined to tell her no and to be on his way, especially in lieu of how she’s behaving and what she’s wearing. However, she eventually convinces him and as the audition begins she suddenly and confidently channels everything he wants in the actress he is seeking. But not all is as it seems, and as the evening wears on, their relationship, and reality itself, begin to blur.
When first staged in New York, audiences felt the electricity on stage, first between Nina Arianda & Wes Bentley, and then on Broadway felt it even more when Hugh Dancy replaced Bentley and turned the heat up even more. The theatre roared with laughter and grew silent with each and every intimate scene (the zipping of the boot for instance, was intoxicating. You could have heard a pin drop each night). Yet in Polanski’s version, the sexiness all but fades away (and includes a strange, almost Tim Burton beginning and ending sequence). The humor, luckily, stays attached, and Seigner throws herself into Vanda, vamping and clawing her way into the role. She’s quite good, funny and she herself is a sexy woman, but the film never feels sexy. There also isn’t much heat between the two leads. Almaric is good but not great, somewhat failing to give more than what the surface requires him to give. Perhaps I’m being too harsh, as I think if you haven’t seen the play in New York (or in an excellent production somewhere else) you may very well love it. But some of the humor, and MUCH of the sexiness of the show is lost in translation. Polanski even replaces the powerful, rousing ending with a goofy and frantic finale. You may love this Venus in Fur, or should I say La Vénus à la fourrure. But as the days have gone on, the disappointment of this adaption has won over.
VERDICT: If you have seen the Play, SKIP IT. If you haven’t, ON THE FENCE.
Based on the Play by David Ives Screenplay By: David Ives, Roman Polanski Directed By: Roman Polanski Starring: Matthieu Almaric, Emmanuelle Seigner. For Tribeca Tickets and more info: TICKETS
BOTTOM LINE: It’s just not the electric wonder that it should be. It just is not.