Roman Polanski, who celebrated his 80th birthday last month, has an accomplished, wide-reaching body of work to his name — but, coming off Carnage, he’s sticking to the same territory for Venus in Fur. This second stage-to-screen adaptation — his take on David Ives‘ Tony-winning play of the same title — premiered at the Cannes Film Festival a few months ago; today, the first trailer has arrived.
Taking over the roles made famous by Hugh Dancy and Nina Arianda (the latter winning a Tony for best actress), Polanski brought on his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, and her own Diving Bell and the Butterfly co-star, Mathieu Amalric, the duo thrown into an erotic game of cat and mouse centered on a young actress determined to book the lead role in a new play. We were mixed on the effort, saying in our full review that there’s a static nature to the proceedings, but that Polanski nevertheless “remains an accomplished director with an understanding of the importance of theatrics.” Check out the French trailer (unfortunately sans subtitles) and the first poster below.
Venus in Fur opens in France this November, with a likely 2014 release coming from Sundance Selects.
What do you make of this first trailer? Does Polanski’s name still grab your attention?