La Vénus à la fourrure (Venus in Fur) (2013)

Director: Roman Polanski
Writers:  David Ives, Roman Polanski
Cast:      Emmanuelle Seigner, Matthieu Amalric
Language: French

An actress, who came late for an audition, tries to convince a director how she's perfect for a role in his upcoming production. The entire film features only these two characters and is totally dialog driven, which is largely them reading the lines of the play. It is based on the play of same name by American playwright David Eves, which itself was inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Mascoh's novel 'Venus in Furs'. The word Masochism is of course derived from the name of the Austrian author and that is a trivia you get from this film.

Emmanuelle Seigner is real-life partner of Roman Polanski and the way Matthieu Amalric plays his role is like he is mimicking Roman Polanski. So the boundary between what is fiction and what is real is really blurred, like it is in the film itself between the two characters, which is again blurred in the play within the play. So that should itself be enough to say that the film is bit of a mindfuck and am not sure entirely what it is going for in terms of an actual plot. The surface level impression is that the actress is a feminist activist and is irked by the sexism in the play and the whole thing is a charade to punish the director for it.  

I think we can give Polanski the benefit of doubt and assume that the film is not really about the plot but how audience's moods are affected by the film. The director in it represents the audience, and like us, he is also exasperated by the actress who is holding him up by her late arrival and demand for an audition. Even though the poster of the film convey a sensuality, there is not much of that on offer. But as soon as the audition starts, we are intrigued by it and the director also goes through the same change of emotions and culminates with the absurd ending. I might be being pretentious here but that is what I think he was going for.

Overall, it ends up being a good watch even though I was exasperated by it initially. It is difficult to follow such dialog heavy films when you are relying entirely on subtitles and to make matters worse, there was a slight lag in the print that I saw. The budget must have been meager since the entire film was set in one place and involved only two actors. It is Polanski's first non-English-language film in 51 years. His previous feature film, 'Carnage', also had this play like feel to it and is the best one among his recent outings.

Rating: 3/5

                                                                         

The Tenant (Le locataire) (1976)

Director: Roman Polanski
Writers:  Gerard Brach, Roman Polanski, Roland Topor
Cast:      Roman Polanski, Isabell Adjani, Melvyn Douglas

In Paris, the shy bureaucrat Trelkovsky rents an old apartment without bathroom where the previous tenant, the Egyptologist Simone Choule, committed suicide.

It is the last among what is called as Apartment Trilogy based on their theme. Thought it was the weakest of the three but still a great film.

Rating: 4/5

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Director: Roman Polanski
Writers:  Roman Polanski, Ira Levin (Novel)
Cast:      Mia Farrow, Ruth Gordon, John Cassavetes
A young couple move into a new apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins controlling her life.

I am not a fan of horror films and was not that really interested in watching this film. But it is not really a horror film based on the genre's recent years definition with plenty of gore and in your face screams and all that. This is more of a psychological thriller and horror films used to be like that in the good old days. Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon plays their part excellently and it is a wonderful watch. This was Polanski's first American film. The original tagline for the film was: 'Pray for Rosemary's Baby'. Need to watch 'The Tenant' now to complete Polanski's so called 'Apartment Trilogy'.

A remake of the film was considered in 2008 with Michael 'Fucking' Bay as producer. It fell through and thank goodness.

Rating: 4.5/5

Repulsion (1965)

Director: Roman Polanski
Writers:  Roman Polanski, Gerard Brach, David Stone
Cast:      Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser
Left alone when her sister goes on vacation, a young beauty finds herself besieged on all sides by the demons of her past.

This is the first English language film from Polanski and is a tremendous achievement considering the time it was made. Reminded me of Shining and Repulsion can be considered as a precursor to the psychological thriller genre with minimal visuals.

Rating: 4.5/5

Carnage (2011)

Director: Roman Polanski
Writers:  Yasmina Reza, Roman Polanski
Cast:      Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, Jodie Foster, John C.Reilly
Two pairs of parents hold a cordial  meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the evening into chaos.

Its a good little film with great performances from the cast. Christoph Waltz is boss as usual.

Rating: 4/5

Death and the Maiden (1994)

Director: Roman Polanski
Writers:  Ariel Dorfman (Play), Rafael Yglesias
Cast:      Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Stuart Wilson
A political activist is convinced that her guest is a man who once tortured her for the government. Ben Kingsley is great as the guest and Stuart Wilson is good as the confused husband. I was not that inpressed by Sigourney Weaver. The initial part of the plot is very contrived and the ending was disappointing for me. I between the film is good and watchable.

Rating: 3/5