Power is the sexiest.
There is no doubt that Polanski must have read Foucault before shooting the film, so it is a matter of course that he has made the movie's unparalleled sex appeal. The "sexy" mentioned here obviously does not refer to the sexiness in the love action movie.
The generous Polanski has always been willing to share his wife's body on the big screen, but "Venus in Fur" is obviously not the most exposed one. Except for the last wild Bacchus dance, the film is extremely restrained in terms of exposure. But this does not hinder the suffocating sexiness of the film, because everything that shows sexiness, such as every dress change and signature of the hero and heroine, does not need to be an entity, just show power.
Because power is the sexiest.
Foucault said: "There is the most basic opposition between power and love... Power carries the excitement and pleasure of sex." On the other hand, the sexual relationship is also a kind of power relationship, and the pleasure of sex also comes from power. The pleasure. The so-called "power is the best aphrodisiac", in other words-"power is the best sex."
Wind and fire, love and hate entanglement, no matter what adjective you use to describe the relationship between men and women / sexual relationship: war, bloodshed, sacrifice, dedication, burial... are all depicting power relations. In all the relationships in the world, everything is as good as it is. Therefore, even if a cheap cotton wool scarf is used in place of noble fur in the movie, it can be very glamorous and make the audience instantly erect.
To understand Foucault simply and roughly, any relationship can be interpreted as a power relationship; just as in some movies, any sin will be attributed to childhood shadows (Freud). Among all the relationships in the world, the tension between sex/male-female relations is the easiest to express and interpret power. Among all sexual/male-male relationships, the power of sadomasochistic relationships is the most tense and sharp. As shown in the film, sadomasochism is extreme and dramatic, like walking on a blade, dangerous and exciting, and it is possible to reverse the plot at any time.
Who has the power?
In the confined space of the theater, the relationship between the characters is reduced to the minimum: a man and a woman, corresponding to the "master" and "slave" in the power relationship. There are external influences in the movie, and it is limited to a few phone calls from his fiancee. When the phone rang, Wagner's opera "The Ride of the Valkyrie" gradually became stronger, symbolizing the fiancee's powerful control of the male protagonist, and implying that the male protagonist is in a de facto subordinate position in this relationship.
The direction of the whole movie is a complete transformation of power: from the beginning, the heroine's subordination and dominance of the poor amateur actress in front of the director has gradually become the master of the director's desire. For the audience, the process is as difficult as traveling from the Dead Sea to Mount Everest. Fortunately, the sophisticated script and minimalist stage background ensure that the trajectory of the story does not deviate, and it firmly grabs the audience's attention.
Every twist in the script has been carefully designed, including every change in the protagonist’s outfit, every change in lighting, the phone rang, hangs up, and was thrown away. Until the end, the protagonist willingly puts on a dog collar and is tied to a cactus symbolizing a penis. , Climax before the dance of Bacchus. When the audience thinks that the story is exhausted, the director can always climax again unexpectedly, wave after wave, dizzying and blushing.
From beginning to end, power is floating in the tug-of-war between the male and female protagonists-this is so similar to every relationship in life, but in the movie, they are highly generalized. For example, in the film, when the heroine guides the heroine's stage position, the heroine is required to stand in the middle of the theater with a beam of light from above her head. The male protagonist said: "You (the female protagonist auditioning role) have gained power, so you have to stand in the most powerful position." In such a simple scene, there is a dual dominance-subordination (power) relationship. This is how the film goes all the way, and Polanski also shows the creative secret of the film in this way.
However, as with every sadomasochistic relationship, it is the M side who holds the power, not the S side, who is superficial and gives orders. M obeys all instructions of S, but at a higher level, S obeys M's sexual pleasure. In the power relationship between S and M, it is hard to say who is in the true absolute dominance. Because once S cannot please M, the power of S is completely lost. From this perspective, it is easy to understand why in real life, M is always looking for S, and M is always paying S.
Who is the heroine?
Therefore, from the beginning to the end, the male protagonist of the movie appears to have fallen into the conquest of the female protagonist step by step, but in fact he has always been in power-that is, succumbed to the pleasure of himself. Perhaps his pleasure, as Freud said, originated from a certain childhood conquest, but I believe that it comes from the nature of the male protagonist. The experience of corporal punishment by his aunt who was dressed in fur in his childhood only made his desires more concrete.
It is not so much that the actor surrenders to the heroine, it is better to say that he surrenders to his own desires. But who is the heroine?
The power of the heroine is based on the desire to conquer the hero—if you want to conquer, you must first understand—this is the homework that every S must do. The heroine’s identity is quite mysterious-her name is the same as the auditioning role "Wanda"; she owns a full script, and as soon as she appears, she bluntly said that the script is about sadomasochism; she claims to be a private investigator, but then immediately Denied by the male protagonist; she knows well the script and desires of the male protagonist; she knows how to light up without a teacher; she just walked onto the stage and held a cactus for erotic actions, saying it was a "big penis"...
She seems to have a very comprehensive information, insight into every secret desire of the male protagonist; she even instructs the male protagonist, who is the director, to read aloud when writing the diary in the performance; she is so magical, but the director never names Her true identity. She is not a private detective, an amateur actor, a part-time prostitute, or Wanda in Masoch's works, or Wanda in the protagonist's works. She is all-knowing and omnipotent. She is very sexy. Who is she?
In the history of Western literature, which classic role is similar to it? The answer is ready to come out: the devil in "Faust", the Mephistopheles who collect human souls. Polanski planted a small signature in the film and mentioned "Faust", which implies this. In this film, dressed in Masoch's "Venus in Fur", with the help of Foucault's theory of desire-power, it tells a Faustian story.
nice!
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