Cannes

painting: The Titian painting Venus with a Mirror, from which Severin gets the idea of Venus in furs. 

'Venus with a Penis' by Vanessa McMahon.

Based on the 1870 Austrian novella ‘Venus im Pelz’ by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Roman Polanski’s latest film, "La Vénus à la fourrure" (‘Venus in Fur’, 2013) recently screened in competition at the 66th Cannes Film Festival.

Set in a Paris theater playwright and director ‘Thomas’ (Mathieu Amalric) is fed-up of holding second-rate auditions with all the wrong sorts of actresses, none of who fit the lead role for his play, ‘Venus in Fur’; his heroine is a female dominatrix who embodies the perfect balance between voluptuous sex bomb and male-domineering goddess. The perfect actress for the part must echo his Venus, a balance between a submissive yet self-possessed anima that transcends the earthly realm touching something profoundly sacred. Just as Thomas is about to give up on finding his Venus, ‘Vanda’ (Emmanuelle Seigner) walks into the theater.

Vanda delivers him the greatest audition and performance he has ever seen, bringing life to his dream character of Venus. In fact, she is so perfect for the role that she delves into the psychology of his character and her power over him. The audition jumps from fantasy to reality and becomes a scene for the ancient battle of the sexes between male and female and their struggle to dominate and control the other. If a woman is not a man’s slave then she is his self-effacing goddess and he serves her to his own emasculating demise. When can the sexes be at an equal place with each other? Is this even possible? Can it be that if one can accept the male and female sides of ones own nature (a man to possess his female side and a woman to possess her male side) that one can reach a place of wholeness and peace with the opposite sex?

Understanding Thomas better than he understands himself, Vanda’s audition becomes a topsy-turvy role-play where she becomes the writer/director and Thomas the ‘Venus in Fur’. In an unforgettable scene, we see Thomas wearing lipstick, furs and heels, tied to a tall fake (phallus) cactus on stage. Vanda circles him laughing like an evil Medusa, a creator-destroyer demigoddess. With Thomas tied to a pole on the stage as if nailed to a cross, metaphorically castrated and dead, he is the sacrificed now and at mercy to Venus’ will. After this first worldly death, Thomas can now become a completed man and his life from here will be a rebirth into a new wholeness. He is now a Venus with a penis.

-Written by Vanessa McMahon

CREDITS

Roman POLANSKI - Director David IVES - Screenplay Pawel EDELMAN - Cinematography Jean RABASSE - Set Designer Alexandre DESPLAT - Music Hervé DE LUZE - Film Editor Margot MEYNIER - Film Editor ACTORS

Mathieu AMALRIC - 'Thomas'. Emmanuelle SEIGNER - 'Vanda'