Sneak Peek new clips of footage,plus images from director Roman Polanski's comedy "Venus in Fur", an adaptation of David Ives's play of the same name, from R.P. Productions and Monolith Films, starring Emmanuelle Seigner and Louis Garrel:
"...'Thomas' is a writer-director of a new play, adapting the 1870 novel 'Venus in Furs' by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Alone in a Parisian theatre after a day of auditioning actresses for lead character 'Wanda von Dunayev', Thomas laments on the phone of the poor performances to come through.
"As he is preparing to leave the theatre, an actress named 'Vanda' (Seigner) arrives disheveled.
"In a whirlwind of energy and unrestrained aggression, Vanda convinces the director to let her read for the part.
"To Thomas' amazement, Vanda shows great understanding of the character and knows every line by heart.
"As the audition progresses, the intensity is redoubled...
"...'Thomas' is a writer-director of a new play, adapting the 1870 novel 'Venus in Furs' by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Alone in a Parisian theatre after a day of auditioning actresses for lead character 'Wanda von Dunayev', Thomas laments on the phone of the poor performances to come through.
"As he is preparing to leave the theatre, an actress named 'Vanda' (Seigner) arrives disheveled.
"In a whirlwind of energy and unrestrained aggression, Vanda convinces the director to let her read for the part.
"To Thomas' amazement, Vanda shows great understanding of the character and knows every line by heart.
"As the audition progresses, the intensity is redoubled...
- 11/20/2014
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
While it went home empty handed after competing in Cannes, and was released in dozens of territories before Sundance Selects dropped the title onto the market this past April, Venus In Fur did manage to rack up seven Cesar award nominates back home and netted Roman Polanski the Best Director prize. Dark, playful, and featuring a dizzying performance from Emmanuelle Seigner, the title is destined to be one of the year’s most overlooked gems.
The once quite reticent Polanski quickly returned with yet another adaptation of a popular Broadway play. Working from the same stage title, this followed his 2011 star studded Carnage. Say what you will, but Polanski, who often tends to favor claustrophobic chamber pieces, excels with chatty subversiveness, and detractors of the sometimes forced Carnage should revel in this latest effort, a dark labyrinth of comedic mind games that does with words what something like Lady from Shanghai does with mirrors.
The once quite reticent Polanski quickly returned with yet another adaptation of a popular Broadway play. Working from the same stage title, this followed his 2011 star studded Carnage. Say what you will, but Polanski, who often tends to favor claustrophobic chamber pieces, excels with chatty subversiveness, and detractors of the sometimes forced Carnage should revel in this latest effort, a dark labyrinth of comedic mind games that does with words what something like Lady from Shanghai does with mirrors.
- 10/21/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
★★★☆☆For Roman Polanski's latest, the now octogenarian director has adapted David Ives play Venus in Fur, which is itself based on the 1870 novel of the same name by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Taking place entirely in a theatre setting, the chamber piece sees a playwright, Thomas Novachek (Mathieu Amalric), who is directing his own adaptation of Venus in Fur, interrupted at the end of a long day of auditioning the lead role by Vanda Jourdain (Emmanuelle Seigner), an actor late for the reading who insists on being seen, despite Thomas' obvious disapproval of her appropriateness for the role. We then have two actors, Amalric and Seigner, playing the part of an actor and a director, themselves performing roles.
- 7/29/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Each year, devoted cinephiles around the world are treated to an array of filmic adaptations of popular novels, plays, or tales merely inspired by real events. It’s by no means a bad thing – but often an audience can crave an original, unique idea. Well it seems that the French are subverting the notion intriguingly, as following on from Roman Polanski’s Venus in Fur, which studied and explored Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s eponymous novel, comes Philippe Le Guay’s Cycling With Moliére. In this instance the source material is The Misanthrope, yet rather than merely adapt the play, instead the characters in the film sub-consciously reflect the characters within it, all while deconstructing the original text, in what is effectively an adaptation within an adaptation.
The picture tells the story of an actor named Gauthier Valence (Lambert Wilson), who travels to meet his old friend, and colleague, Serge Tanneaur...
The picture tells the story of an actor named Gauthier Valence (Lambert Wilson), who travels to meet his old friend, and colleague, Serge Tanneaur...
- 7/4/2014
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Venus in Fur
Written for the screen and directed by Roman Polanski
France, 2013
What is art if not an artist’s fiction translated into reality? A fiction wrought from fear, self-loathing and prejudice that escapes the confines of a sonnet and burrows its way into the collective consciousness. Now it is reality. Now it has power. Now it’s an idea, and ideas are poisonous. Rather than dispelling the poisonous reality, Polanski’s Venus in Fur toys with the delicate fiction lying beneath. It’s a study in role-playing, where the players and creators are equally baffled by the game. More importantly, this is the intensely personal work of an artist who understands that only by blurring the lines between fiction and reality can he approach what Herzog calls, “the ecstatic truth.”
To call Venus in Fur a ‘play-within-a-play’ is a misnomer. Indeed, it involves the inner workings of a stage play,...
Written for the screen and directed by Roman Polanski
France, 2013
What is art if not an artist’s fiction translated into reality? A fiction wrought from fear, self-loathing and prejudice that escapes the confines of a sonnet and burrows its way into the collective consciousness. Now it is reality. Now it has power. Now it’s an idea, and ideas are poisonous. Rather than dispelling the poisonous reality, Polanski’s Venus in Fur toys with the delicate fiction lying beneath. It’s a study in role-playing, where the players and creators are equally baffled by the game. More importantly, this is the intensely personal work of an artist who understands that only by blurring the lines between fiction and reality can he approach what Herzog calls, “the ecstatic truth.”
To call Venus in Fur a ‘play-within-a-play’ is a misnomer. Indeed, it involves the inner workings of a stage play,...
- 6/23/2014
- by J.R. Kinnard
- SoundOnSight
Mighty Aphrodite: Polanski Returns With Spirited Adaptation
The once quite reticent Roman Polanski quickly returns with yet another adaptation of a popular Broadway play, Venus In Fur, which follows his 2011 star studded Carnage. Say what you will, but Polanski, who often tends to favor claustrophobic chamber pieces, excels with chatty subversiveness, and detractors of the sometimes forced Carnage should revel in this latest effort, a dark labyrinth of comedic mind games that does with words what something like Lady from Shanghai does with mirrors.
A dreary, desolate evening sees a desperate theater director, Thomas (Mathieu Amalric) pacing the stage as he bitches angrily on the phone about the miserable auditions he witnessed all day long for the lead in his new play, Venus In Furs, an adaptation of an infamous novel credited with birthing the term masochism. Clearly, the play is a labor of love for the man, and...
The once quite reticent Roman Polanski quickly returns with yet another adaptation of a popular Broadway play, Venus In Fur, which follows his 2011 star studded Carnage. Say what you will, but Polanski, who often tends to favor claustrophobic chamber pieces, excels with chatty subversiveness, and detractors of the sometimes forced Carnage should revel in this latest effort, a dark labyrinth of comedic mind games that does with words what something like Lady from Shanghai does with mirrors.
A dreary, desolate evening sees a desperate theater director, Thomas (Mathieu Amalric) pacing the stage as he bitches angrily on the phone about the miserable auditions he witnessed all day long for the lead in his new play, Venus In Furs, an adaptation of an infamous novel credited with birthing the term masochism. Clearly, the play is a labor of love for the man, and...
- 6/22/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Everyone's ideal foreplay is a little different; sometimes a lot different. For 19th century Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, it involved whips and a pair of dirty, dirty boots, at least if his sole major work, the 1870 novella “Venus in Furs,” is any indication. Sacher-Masoch inadvertently gave the world the term masochism (thanks, Leo!), but there's apparently something the matter with male sexual surrender. The concept is hardly settled in playwright David Ives’ new imagining of Sacher-Masoch's novella, and Roman Polanski contributes to his fun-for-a-while French-language adaptation a sense of romp and farce and unease to the procession of...
- 6/20/2014
- by Inkoo Kang
- The Wrap
Roman Polanski‘s Venus in Fur is a film haunted by an epigraph. It’s a quotation from the apocryphal Book of Judith, used first by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch in his similarly titled 1870 novel and later by David Ives in his play, from which this film is directly adapted. It goes something like this: “The Lord hath smitten him and delivered him into the hands of a woman.” The biblical context is the slaying of the Babylonian general Holofernes, whose unfortunate drunken stupor made him easy prey for the knife of the Jewish hero. Polanski’s film is somewhat more wordy, but not necessarily more complex. The quote is the epigram on the play-within-a-film, an adaptation of Venus in Furs for the stage by playwright Thomas (Mathieu Amalric). Late in the evening after a failed day of casting for the female lead, a mysterious and brash woman enters the theater. Thomas...
- 6/19/2014
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
★★★☆☆Following on from 2011's raucous American middle-class comedy Carnage - and as we await his long-gestating Dreyfus affair project - Polish director Roman Polanski returns to UK cinema screens with Venus in Fur (2013), a two-handed adaptation of the play by David Ives. The Ives production itself tells the story of an attempt to mould Austrian writer and journalist Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's book Venus in Furs - which gave masochism its name and Lou Reed a classic song - for the stage. Mathieu Amalric plays Thomas, a busy theatre director and writer who has spent an entire day unsuccessfully auditioning actresses to play Vanda, the role of the girl turned dominatrix of von Sacher-Masoch's novel.
- 5/30/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
In his eightieth year, director Roman Polanski shows little sign of succumbing to dull good taste with this witty, erotic and Palme d'Or nominated reworking of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's naughty 19th century tale of tall boots and long whips. Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric are on bold form as a feisty actress and self-important director condensing the sex war into a 90-minute audition. After the bitter treats of Carnage, Polanski again demonstrates his film-making alchemy for turning chamber-piece stage plays into silver screen delights.
- 5/29/2014
- Sky Movies
This minimalist, intimate offering from renowned filmmaker Roman Polanski signals something of a continuing retreat, as he follows on from Carnage with a similarly smaller-scaled, confined production. The octogenarian director is perhaps starting to show signs of simplification in regards to his work – but they’re certainly no less intricate.
Again like Carnage, he has adapted a stage play to the big screen, this time being David Ives’ Venus in Furs, which itself was inspired by the much celebrated, eponymous novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. As you can see from the surname, it was this piece of literature which gave a name to masochism. Much like the source material, which had been based around the author’s very own wife, Polanski too has ingrained an autobiographical tendency of sorts, providing the lead – and only – female role to his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, blurring the lines between realism and cinema accordingly.
She plays Vanda,...
Again like Carnage, he has adapted a stage play to the big screen, this time being David Ives’ Venus in Furs, which itself was inspired by the much celebrated, eponymous novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. As you can see from the surname, it was this piece of literature which gave a name to masochism. Much like the source material, which had been based around the author’s very own wife, Polanski too has ingrained an autobiographical tendency of sorts, providing the lead – and only – female role to his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, blurring the lines between realism and cinema accordingly.
She plays Vanda,...
- 5/27/2014
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Sneak Peek footage and new images from director Roman Polanski's comedy "Venus in Fur", an adaptation of David Ives's play of the same name, from R.P. Productions and Monolith Films, starring Emmanuelle Seigner and Louis Garrel:
"...'Thomas' is a writer-director of a new play, adapting the 1870 novel 'Venus in Furs' by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Alone in a Parisian theatre after a day of auditioning actresses for lead character 'Wanda von Dunayev', Thomas laments on the phone of the poor performances to come through.
"As he is preparing to leave the theatre, an actress named 'Vanda' (Seigner) arrives disheveled.
"In a whirlwind of energy and unrestrained aggression, Vanda convinces the director to let her read for the part.
"To Thomas' amazement, Vanda shows great understanding of the character and knows every line by heart.
"As the audition progresses, the intensity is redoubled and the...
"...'Thomas' is a writer-director of a new play, adapting the 1870 novel 'Venus in Furs' by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Alone in a Parisian theatre after a day of auditioning actresses for lead character 'Wanda von Dunayev', Thomas laments on the phone of the poor performances to come through.
"As he is preparing to leave the theatre, an actress named 'Vanda' (Seigner) arrives disheveled.
"In a whirlwind of energy and unrestrained aggression, Vanda convinces the director to let her read for the part.
"To Thomas' amazement, Vanda shows great understanding of the character and knows every line by heart.
"As the audition progresses, the intensity is redoubled and the...
- 11/20/2013
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
Roman Polanski's Venus in Fur hit me like a breath of fresh air on the morning of my eleventh and final day of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Opening with a sequence I'd more associate with a Tim Burton and Danny Elfman collaboration, we're greeted by a wicked rain storm and an upbeat, gothic score from Alexandre Desplat as the camera splits a tree-lined street. The perspective veers right to reveal a rundown Paris theatre. The camera comes to rest in front of the theatre doors, which eventually swing open to reveal Thomas (Mathieu Amalric), a stage writer working to put together his directorial debut, but after seeing 30 actresses he still can't seem to find the right one to play the lead role, Vanda. He turns and we learn it wasn't just a camera we were tracking into the theater, but a sopping wet actress (Emmanuelle Seigner), late for her audition.
- 5/28/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Cannes, France — Roman Polanski says the birth control pill has had a "masculinizing" effect on women and that the leveling of the sexes is "idiotic"
The director made the comments Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival, where he came to premiere "Venus in Fur," a film adapted from the David Ives play which stars Polanski's wife and toys with the subject of gender.
Polanski said the pill has "changed the place of women in our times" while talking to reporters. He further lamented that "offering flowers to a lady" has become "indecent."
The 79-year-old Polanski was famously convicted of having sex with a minor in a 1977 case. He was initially indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy, but pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse.
Polanski, whose past films include "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby," fled the United States after a...
The director made the comments Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival, where he came to premiere "Venus in Fur," a film adapted from the David Ives play which stars Polanski's wife and toys with the subject of gender.
Polanski said the pill has "changed the place of women in our times" while talking to reporters. He further lamented that "offering flowers to a lady" has become "indecent."
The 79-year-old Polanski was famously convicted of having sex with a minor in a 1977 case. He was initially indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy, but pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse.
Polanski, whose past films include "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby," fled the United States after a...
- 5/25/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Director claims the pill has 'chased away the romance in our lives' as he brings new film Venus in Fur to Cannes
You might not suppose Roman Polanski and the 87-year-old Jerry Lewis had a great deal in common, but today the director followed Lewis' suggestion that broad comedy is inappropriate for women actors by complaining that aiming for female equality is "a great pity".
Speaking at the Cannes film festival of his latest film Venus in Fur, the 79-year-old Polanski said that "trying to level the genders is purely idiotic." "Offering flowers to a lady has become indecent … The pill has greatly changed the place of women in our times, masculinising her. It chases away the romance in our lives."
Polanski's film is an adaptation of the successful play by David Ives about a theatre director (played by Mathieu Amalric) who is looking for an actress to play the...
You might not suppose Roman Polanski and the 87-year-old Jerry Lewis had a great deal in common, but today the director followed Lewis' suggestion that broad comedy is inappropriate for women actors by complaining that aiming for female equality is "a great pity".
Speaking at the Cannes film festival of his latest film Venus in Fur, the 79-year-old Polanski said that "trying to level the genders is purely idiotic." "Offering flowers to a lady has become indecent … The pill has greatly changed the place of women in our times, masculinising her. It chases away the romance in our lives."
Polanski's film is an adaptation of the successful play by David Ives about a theatre director (played by Mathieu Amalric) who is looking for an actress to play the...
- 5/25/2013
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
![Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, and Christoph Waltz in Carnage (2011)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTc4MjAyMDUwNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTQwMDMwNw@@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, and Christoph Waltz in Carnage (2011)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTc4MjAyMDUwNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTQwMDMwNw@@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
Roman Polanski's Venus In Fur was the last film to screen in competition, and although there weren't very high hopes for the controversial director's latest – like Carnage, it is a single-set drama based on a play, this time with even fewer characters – it played very well in the Grand Lumiere Theatre. It may not do as well as Carnage, being based on a play that is based on Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch's scandalous S&M novel of 1870, but this should be a hit with French arthouse audiences in the UK, while continuing to feed the myth of Polanski with its provocative comedy.Mathieu Amalric stars as Thomas, a Parisian theatre owner who is staging a production of Venus In Fur and complains that he cannot find an actress to play Vanda, the heroine. It is a dark and stormy night, and out of nowhere a woman (Emmanuelle Seigner) appears,...
- 5/25/2013
- EmpireOnline
In competition at the 66th Cannes Film Festival, French director Arnaud des Pallières' Michael Kohlhaas is a 16th century revenge drama featuring a strong European cast including the likes of Bruno Ganz (Downfall) and Denis Lavant - star of Leos Carax's refreshingly bonkers 2012 Palme d'Or contender Holy Motors. However, it's Danish man of the moment Mads Mikkelsen who will no doubt be the main attraction here. Last seen at Cannes with Thomas Vintenberg's Jagten (The Hunt, 2012) and currently starring in the NBC TV drama Hannibal as everyone's favourite cannibal, Doctor Lecter, Mikkelsen has repeatedly proved himself both a versatile actor and a powerful screen presence.
Michael Kohlhaas
The aforementioned Mikkelsen plays the title role of horse-dealer Kohlhaas who, when wronged by a local lord, raises an army and seeks his revenge, spreading violence and fire across the land. The film is part-scripted and directed by Frenchman des Pallières,...
Michael Kohlhaas
The aforementioned Mikkelsen plays the title role of horse-dealer Kohlhaas who, when wronged by a local lord, raises an army and seeks his revenge, spreading violence and fire across the land. The film is part-scripted and directed by Frenchman des Pallières,...
- 5/14/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
From Roman Polanski to James Franco, by way of the Coen brothers and a sneaky encore from Steven Soderbergh, there's plenty to look forward to at this year's festival
More than the first cuckoo, the announcement of the Cannes competition list is the first sign of spring; always an exciting moment and even more so as in recent years Cannes has consolidated its primacy among the film festivals of the world. There look to be no major or startling omissions: Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac is reportedly not ready, although I was disappointed not to see Steve McQueen's Twelve Years a Slave. There are, in fact, no British entries in competition, but Stephen Frears's Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight – an HBO project about Ali's opposition to Vietnam – has a Special Screening slot. (A small footnote here: young British film-maker Ana Caro, from the National Film and Television School, has...
More than the first cuckoo, the announcement of the Cannes competition list is the first sign of spring; always an exciting moment and even more so as in recent years Cannes has consolidated its primacy among the film festivals of the world. There look to be no major or startling omissions: Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac is reportedly not ready, although I was disappointed not to see Steve McQueen's Twelve Years a Slave. There are, in fact, no British entries in competition, but Stephen Frears's Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight – an HBO project about Ali's opposition to Vietnam – has a Special Screening slot. (A small footnote here: young British film-maker Ana Caro, from the National Film and Television School, has...
- 4/18/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The star of pop and film talks about being cast as a sex kitten of the 60s, drugs, homelessness, and why she will never sell Mick Jagger's love letters
Hello, Marianne. How are you?
Hello. I'm well, thank you. I've been appearing in Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins in Linz, Austria, so I've been very happy. I'm singing and acting, with great costumes and stage sets. The two transvestites in little leather shorts are very important. It's a very violent, sexy piece.
Do Austrians know you as Marianne Faithfull or by your title, Baroness von Sacher-Masoch (1 )
Nobody knows me as Baroness von Sacher-Masoch. Fuck off! [Laughter] I'm Marianne Faithfull.
We're approaching half a century since your first single, 1964's As Tears Go By.
I know, I can't believe it. On the other hand, I can't do anything else and never wanted to. I once asked my father what he wanted me to be.
Hello, Marianne. How are you?
Hello. I'm well, thank you. I've been appearing in Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins in Linz, Austria, so I've been very happy. I'm singing and acting, with great costumes and stage sets. The two transvestites in little leather shorts are very important. It's a very violent, sexy piece.
Do Austrians know you as Marianne Faithfull or by your title, Baroness von Sacher-Masoch (1 )
Nobody knows me as Baroness von Sacher-Masoch. Fuck off! [Laughter] I'm Marianne Faithfull.
We're approaching half a century since your first single, 1964's As Tears Go By.
I know, I can't believe it. On the other hand, I can't do anything else and never wanted to. I once asked my father what he wanted me to be.
- 1/11/2013
- by Dave Simpson
- The Guardian - Film News
Here’s a story that’s likely to make you squeamish. Director Roman Polanski, who famously had to flee the United States after being caught violating a pubescent girl in the most thorough way a person can be violated, is all set to direct an “erotic black comedy” about a director who engages in sadomasochistic role play with the actresses who audition for him. Cute, right? The film in question is called Venus in Fur, and it’s an adaptation of the award-winning play of the same name, which was about a writer/director who was trying to put on an adaptation of the 1870 novella of the same name. The play was by David Ives, the original novella by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (which is where the term “masochism” comes from), and the film will come from an adapted screenplay by Polanski and Ives, acting as co-writers. Venus in Fur will be French-language, and...
- 9/21/2012
- by Nathan Adams
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
![Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, and Christoph Waltz in Carnage (2011)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTc4MjAyMDUwNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTQwMDMwNw@@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, and Christoph Waltz in Carnage (2011)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTc4MjAyMDUwNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTQwMDMwNw@@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
Roman Polanski is once again raiding Broadway’s stages for film fodder. The director – who most recently turned God Of Carnage into the film Carnage – is now targeting David Ives’ Venus In Fur.He’s already lined up Emmanuelle Seigner (Aka Mrs Polanski) and Louis Garrel to star in the French-language version of the play, an erotic black comedy.The plot revolves around a playwright-director who's trying to stage a work based on Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 book Venus In Furs. After a frustrating session trying to find the right actress with little success, he’s stunned when the seemingly perfect candidate bursts through the door. But she’s a strong personality, and soon the balance of power between them begins to shift…“I’ve been looking for a chance to make a film in French with Emmanuelle for a long time,” Polanski said in a statement picked up by the Hollywood Reporter.
- 9/20/2012
- EmpireOnline
The ashtray turned projectile is what officially made it Hugh Dancy's worst audition. While meeting with a film producer who claimed that Americans make better action movie stars, Dancy recalls the producer saying, "You know, I really should be testing for physical attributes, like coordination. I should just do something like this!" before hurling the ashtray at the Brit. For the record, Dancy caught it.Still, even an audition that results in the actor being covered in ash is no match for the audition process Dancy enacts eight times a week on Broadway in "Venus in Fur." In David Ives' Tony Award-nominated two-hander, which moved to Broadway last fall after a 2010 premiere Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company, Dancy plays playwright-director Thomas, who is desperate to find the female lead for his stage adaptation of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's erotic 19th-century novella "Venus in Furs." In walks Vanda (Nina Arianda), an unknown.
- 5/16/2012
- by help@backstage.com (Daniel Lehman)
- backstage.com
Big news has just dropped out of The Profane Exhibit camp! Not only has the team enlisted the services of Grammy Award winning artist Chris Vrenna to score one of the segments, they've added noted directors Jose Mojica Marins (aka Coffin Joe) and Ignacio "Nacho" Vigalondo.
With an already incredible lineup of actors, directors and musicians, The Profane Exhibit just seems to continue growing stronger with each new piece of talent added to the project. Check out the official Facebook page for The Profane Exhibit and follow them on The Profane Exhibit Twitter feed (@ProfaneExhibit).
From the Press Release
Harbinger International is pleased to announce that we have entered into agreements with Grammy Award winner Chris Vrenna to score the segment Viral , and that we have added two new directors to our already impressive lineup. Jose Mojica Marins (aka Coffin Joe), the legendary Brazilian king of blasphemy and terror, is...
With an already incredible lineup of actors, directors and musicians, The Profane Exhibit just seems to continue growing stronger with each new piece of talent added to the project. Check out the official Facebook page for The Profane Exhibit and follow them on The Profane Exhibit Twitter feed (@ProfaneExhibit).
From the Press Release
Harbinger International is pleased to announce that we have entered into agreements with Grammy Award winner Chris Vrenna to score the segment Viral , and that we have added two new directors to our already impressive lineup. Jose Mojica Marins (aka Coffin Joe), the legendary Brazilian king of blasphemy and terror, is...
- 4/13/2012
- by Doctor Gash
- DreadCentral.com
![Lou Reed at an event for Phil Spector (2013)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNTA0MDgyNDExNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTE1ODQyOQ@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR5,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Lou Reed at an event for Phil Spector (2013)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNTA0MDgyNDExNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTE1ODQyOQ@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR5,0,140,207_.jpg)
Lou Reed and Metallica may at first seem to be a pairing at odds with what old fans of either New York's God of rock and roll, or The Black Album chart toppers would think prudent -- until you watch these two colossal entities in the same room together, through the lens of director Darren Aronofsky.
If there was something incongruous about the idea, Aronofsky's menacing camera puts that to rest, and Reed's villainous monotone suddenly seems at home indicting lustful fancy over Metallica's huge riffs.
"The first time I heard 'The View' I was stunned," Aronofsky said. "I had never heard anything like it. Half was all Lou. The other half all Metallica. It was a marriage that on the surface made no sense, but the fusion changed the way I thought about both artists and morphed into something completely fresh and new. I couldn't stop listening to it.
If there was something incongruous about the idea, Aronofsky's menacing camera puts that to rest, and Reed's villainous monotone suddenly seems at home indicting lustful fancy over Metallica's huge riffs.
"The first time I heard 'The View' I was stunned," Aronofsky said. "I had never heard anything like it. Half was all Lou. The other half all Metallica. It was a marriage that on the surface made no sense, but the fusion changed the way I thought about both artists and morphed into something completely fresh and new. I couldn't stop listening to it.
- 12/2/2011
- by Brandon Kim
- ifc.com
At the end of "Venus in Fur" (no worries, this is not a spoiler) at the Saturday (Nov. 5 matinee) the assistant director invited the audience to stay for a talk.
People immediately started asking what the play was about.
Usually after watching a play, especially one as brilliantly acted and directed as this, the audience knows. But this is intended to be ambiguous; its aim is to spark conversation.
This psychosexual play raises so many questions. Nina Arianda plays Vanda, an actress, desperate for an acting job. She arrives at an audition, as the playwright is packing up for the day.
Playwright Thomas (Hugh Dancy, "The Big C") is on his cell to his fiancee, complaining about the dearth of polished, literate, articulate actresses. He has adapted a play of a novella by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. And yes, this is the author whose name spawned part of the term sadomasochism,...
People immediately started asking what the play was about.
Usually after watching a play, especially one as brilliantly acted and directed as this, the audience knows. But this is intended to be ambiguous; its aim is to spark conversation.
This psychosexual play raises so many questions. Nina Arianda plays Vanda, an actress, desperate for an acting job. She arrives at an audition, as the playwright is packing up for the day.
Playwright Thomas (Hugh Dancy, "The Big C") is on his cell to his fiancee, complaining about the dearth of polished, literate, articulate actresses. He has adapted a play of a novella by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. And yes, this is the author whose name spawned part of the term sadomasochism,...
- 11/8/2011
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
L’Apollonide (Souvenirs de la maison Close)
Directed by Bertrand Bonello
France, 2011
For those who have seen films depicting a turn of the century brothel, Bonello’s film will seem familiar, at least in that he explores subjects and narrative threads that seem integral to the setting. Sexual violence, disease, companionship and oppression all feature in L’Apollonide. The film stands out in different ways, through its pacing, style and structure.
There is no central character in this film, with the architecture of the house becoming the central image. This is a place we rarely leave and it is importantly divided into a public and private space. The public space is the imagined world of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, an atmosphere of rich textures, veils, colours and oppulence. It is the play-ground of the idealized female, the woman who will be whatever your mind can conceive. The private spaces are far more bare,...
Directed by Bertrand Bonello
France, 2011
For those who have seen films depicting a turn of the century brothel, Bonello’s film will seem familiar, at least in that he explores subjects and narrative threads that seem integral to the setting. Sexual violence, disease, companionship and oppression all feature in L’Apollonide. The film stands out in different ways, through its pacing, style and structure.
There is no central character in this film, with the architecture of the house becoming the central image. This is a place we rarely leave and it is importantly divided into a public and private space. The public space is the imagined world of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, an atmosphere of rich textures, veils, colours and oppulence. It is the play-ground of the idealized female, the woman who will be whatever your mind can conceive. The private spaces are far more bare,...
- 10/24/2011
- by Justine
- SoundOnSight
It's been a depressing few weeks for sex related news. CBS reporter Lara Logan was beaten and violently sexually assaulted while reporting on the crisis in Egypt and various bloggers and reporters made asses of themselves by focusing on her looks or the (supposed) religion of her attackers. Representative Scott Brown released a memoir in which he describes childhood sexual abuse that he had not previously told anyone, not even those closest to him, about. The House of Representatives voted last Friday to strip federal funding for Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit that provides contraceptives, cancer screening, Sti treatment and basic reproductive health care to disadvantaged people - mostly women. I don't generally shy away from reporting on the heavy stuff, but this column is supposed to be entertaining, not depressing. And anyway, I'm more comfortable in the role of masochist than sadist. So instead of rubbing your noses in one...
- 2/22/2011
- by Dustin Rowles
It's turning out to be a pretty good year for unexpected international co-productions -- check out the Mmp ep on the superb Israeli/Australian stop-motion animated film $9.99 if you don't believe me. Now Germany and Taiwan have joined forces, not for the exquisitely designed yet affordable home entertainment system you might expect, but for German director Monika Treut's mystery/fantasy/romantic hybrid, Ghosted. Over the years, Treut has built a reputation for work that dared to venture into the more esoteric realms of human sexuality. Her Seduction: The Cruel Woman was based on Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs, while Gendernauts was a documentary that focused on people who challenged conventional notions of sexual identity. But with Ghosted, she backs away from the cutting edge for a more conventional love story -- albeit one from a lesbian perspective -- about a German artist...
- 7/29/2009
- by Dan Persons
- Huffington Post
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