Venus in Fur

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

This is my second French film adaptation of an English language play about people putting on a play in as many days. Thankfully this one is far more successful. Roman Polanski made a wonderful film adapting the play God of Carnage to the screen and this one is really interesting too.

A simple one location two hander. Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric are our only two cast members and they hold the screen well with each other. The dialogue and pace crackle along.

One thing you lose in the translation is the ambiguity of when they slip in and out of text from the play being rehearsed. The subtitles change to italic to let us know when it's text but I imagine without that signifier things would become even more oblique as the boundary between reality and the text become less clear.

Not sure I fully understood the ending, but it's kinda spooky. Anyway, fun little score from Alexandre Desplat too. An interesting power play piece to be sure.