Feeling like a reaction to people who thought his previous movie Carnage was "too theatrical", director Roman Polanski fires back with with Venus In Fur, which consists solely of two actors within the confines of an otherwise empty theatre.
Debut theatre director Thomas (one-time Bond villain Amalric) is looking for the perfect female lead in his new play, his adaptation of literary classic Venus In Fur. About to give up hope, in walks Vanda (Polanski’s real-life wife Seigner), who manages to simultaneously rub the director up the wrong way, while also giving him exactly what he’s looking for in a leading lady.
Pretty much the 50 Shades Of Grey of its time - in a time when any version of 50 Shades Of Grey would’ve been abhorrently scandalous - Polanski has re-worked the source materials perceptions on the positions of power in sexuality and gender into a modern climate, at once shading in new potential meanings while lashing against a culture desperate to find deeper definitions within all works of art.
For about 80% of the time, Polanski manages to keep all the plates spinning, having us constantly guessing who is actually in charge of the situation here. He’s helped enormously by a witty and demeaning Amalric, and a scorching yet nuanced turn by Seigner; the two are constantly battling for the upper hand, and never giving their true intentions away if they can help it.
At times it too often feels that this is the director working out some of his own issues up on the big screen, too obviously a therapy session that we’re all just paying to watch, while a late in the game plot turn flips feels too heavy-handed and unbelievable to properly ring true, which leads to a massive let-down come the denouement.
Despite that, this is still above-average Polanski, which is better than 90% of directors at the top of their game. It’d be nice to see him break out of the theatricalities next time, though.