Venus in Fur

Roman Polanski's film version of David Ives' two-character 2010 stage play is a humorous-yet-serious rumination on sexual gamesmanship and role-playing. Mathieu Amalric plays Thomas, a writer-director who has adapted the titular 1870 novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose name gave rise to the term “masochism.” After a frustrating day of auditioning actresses for the role of Vanda—a woman whose meeting with a sexual aesthete character named Severin leads to kinky give-and-take—Thomas is accosted before he can leave by an actress also named Vanda (Emmanuelle Seigner), who begs to try out for the part. Thomas reluctantly agrees to read as Severin with her, and before long the relationship between Thomas and the present-day Vanda comes to mirror that between Severin and his Vanda, with power shifting toward the woman—in life, as in the play. Venus in Fur is not particularly deep, serving up banter and abrupt reversals that are more cheeky than profound before reaching an artsy denouement. But despite limitations, this is still wickedly amusing thanks to the panache that Polanski, Amalric, and Seigner bring to the film. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include interviews with director Roman Polanski and costars Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric (12 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for an engaging film.] (F. Swietek)