Venus in Furs
• Entertainments
A good while ago we watched Victor Nieuwenhuijs’ Venus in Furs together. Produced deliberately in black and white with long, lingering scenes, arty edits and a vague, meandering semblance of a plotline, our reactions to it were mixed, with occasional laughter at the absurdity of some of the scenes (ex. Why is this boring scene lasting so long? Move on!).
Also, the story was spoiled for me by the way in which Severin seemed to be the one who was pulling the strings from behind the scenes, topping from the bottom, some of the time.
But certain isolated scenes depicted a fetishistic and idealistic world which was aesthetically pleasing to me. I’m sure a collection of said scenes, which included Wanda’s moments of exquisite and inspired cruelty and depictions of the slave’s world of cleaning floors accompanied by the sound of clicking heels, would have been more enjoyable without such complications as an attempt to portray something more complex, such as a story with more than one layer.
Not something I think I would want to watch again, but it was certainly interesting to see so many of mine and Richard’s fantasies on the screen.