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Venus In Furs
[Blue Underground]
1969; color
Directed by Jess Franco
Starring: James Darren, Barbara McNair, Maria Rohm & Klaus Kinski
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Beautifully shot and surrealistically edited (although that, apparently, was not part of Franco's original gameplan), Venus In Furs is populated by oddball characters, even more oddball situations, and metaphysical hoo-ha that will no doubt leave you going, 'Huh?' It's a tale of love, death and obsession, starring James Darren. (Against whom I must admit I had certain prejudices, considering his past work in Gidget movies and three years of TJ Hooker; then again, he did play James Darrock on The Flintstones.) As Jimmy, a jazz trumpeter blowing his way through Istanbul and Rio, he gets sucked into a world where dreams, illusion and reality seem to co-exist and collide at all times. Then he gets spit back out on to a beach. Oh yeah, it's confusing as hell—but also completely engaging and entertaining. The original screenplay was crafted by Franco and longtime screenwriting collaborator Harry Towers, based on a story legendary jazz trumpeter Chet Baker had related to Franco about how, when you get really into playing a solo, time and reality shift and lose meaning and you step into another world; then, as soon as your solo's over, you snap back into this world as if nothing had ever happened. After some rewrites, what emerged was a revenge (from beyond the grave, natch) flick with a nice dose of Franconian erotica and S&M undertones and overtones as part of the revenge vehicle. Eventually AIP threw their two cents into the ring and insisted the movie be titled Venus In Furs for American release (in Europe it was released as Paroxismus), and have a nearly naked girl walking down a staircase dragging a fur so they'd have a good image for their posters. Franco made this concession and, actually, the scene doesn't seem all that out of place. Klaus Kinski does a low-key turn as a wealthy Turk and (in flashback) a wealthy Sultan. As usual, one stare from KK can take the place of a few lines of dialogue, and he pretty much stares his way through the whole picture. It's not that I'm trying to avoid disclosing plot details in this review, it's just that there is so much ambiguity that trying to summarize it on anything more than a basic level would be unfair. I'll bet that if you showed this to a room of ten people you'd have at least three different interpretations of the flick. For Franco fans who haven't seen it yet, this is one of his best. For those of you who can go one way or the other as far as Franco's work is concerned, even if Venus In Furs doesn't make you a fan, it's quality is undeniable. If there had been an art house circuit when this was released in 1969, it surely would have enjoyed a long and successful run, and would have probably been his most widely seen film. All of the classic, dare I say Fellini-esque, elements of a high end European art film are present. And you gotta love that theme song!
—the Kommandant
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