We’re now less than a week away from the Cannes Film Festival rolling out the red carpet, and among the heavy hitters making their way to the Croisette will be none other than Roman Polanski. He’s returning with another modest, character-driven, largely one location movie and something that appears to be even smaller than “Carnage.”
“Venus In Fur” finds the filmmaker working with his wife Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric, in an adaptation of the Broadway play by David Ives. Co-written by Ives and Polanski, the story takes place in the theater world and centers on the writer/director of a new play who is immersed in the process of finding an actress for a role in his upcoming work. A new talent comes in at the last minute and is seemingly the opposite of everything he’s looking for. At first glance, it’s hard to believe that premise is worthy of the official competition, but perhaps there’s much more than meets the eye.
No distributor for this one yet, but we’ll see how reaction from Cannes shakes out.
Emmanuelle is gorgeous but Nina Arianda was blazing in the Broadway play.
I just read this book and I have to say the casting seems off. Part of the issue would be the age of the actors. Emmanuelle Seigner is 46 and Mathieu Amalric is 47. It would be more effective with 20-somethings. In part because the emotions expressed in the movie are much more in line with young love gone awry rather than middle age love. But we'll see….
Get rid of oogly Mathieu Amalric….And why does Polanski do film versions of
plays repped x his agency ? well, DUHHH. He owes bigtime…
High expectations for this one. No one directs intimate/confrontational 1-on-1 scenes quite like Polanski… and this film is entirely that!
I love these stills but wish they had not changed the play and kept Arianda in the role.