La Vénus à la cuissardes

In his off-Broadway 2010 play, Venus in Fur, David Ives crafts a 2 person universe. A playwright is  struggling to cast his version of Sacher-Masoch's Venus In Furs. Out of the rain, comes an actress late for the audition. Over the course of the play she transforms from a meek, drenched waif into the ideal dominant mistress.

Roman Polanski horribly mis-cast his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner in his 2013 film adaptation. For me, what makes the play interesting is the gradual transformation of Vanda into Wanda. She begins as youthful and  just leaving her naive innocence behind her. Over the course of the evening she becomes demanding and imperious, the playwright's ideal. As far back as 1992's brilliant Bitter Moon,  Emmanuelle has been projecting an aura of the most delicious decadence. I don't know if she was ever innocent. She carries with her an air of having seen and done EVERYTHING.


http://bruceff.com/test/venusinfurs2013edit.mkv

Sorry no youtube.

There are tons of clips and promos for the stage versions of Venus in Fur on the interwebs. A google image search for Venus in Fur (not Furs) brings up a surprising numbers of stills of the exact moment of her booting up (re-boot?-see post below).

Here are some clips from the Tony award winning Broadway production-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGSBLAwbAp8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbshA3vFMxI

Nina Arianda won a Tony for the role she created. Watch those clips (there's more boot in the first one, but the second gives you a better idea of the role). I don't know how anyone could think that  Emmanuelle Seigner was the right choice for the movie version (unless you were married to her).