Venus In Furs

AKA Devil In The Flesh / Le Malizie Di Venere

Director: Massimo Dallamano

This week’s film is a curious slice of Italian erotic sleaze… or is it art? Well, for my money it’s more sleaze than art, but that’s not to say it is totally devoid of anything thought provoking, as it does raise some interesting points and ideas, albeit probably not intentionally.

“Venus In Furs” was released in 1969 and directed by Massimo Dallomano, who had previously worked as cinematographer on “A Fistful Of Dollars” and would later go on to direct giallo favourites: “A Black Veil For Lisa”, “What Have You Done To The Solange?”, “What Have They Done To Your Daughters?”, as well as “The Cursed Medallion” (AKA “The Night Child”). It is also worth noting that cinematography duties for “Venus In Furs” went to Sergio D’Offizi who would later go on to work with Ruggero Deodato on “Cannibal Holocaust” and one of my personal favourites: “House On The Edge Of The Park”. The score for the film is provided by Gian Franco Reverberi, who bizarrely gets a songwriting credit on Gnarls Barkley’s 2006 hit single “Crazy”, due to it heavily sampling a track produced by Reverberi for the 1968 spaghetti western film “Django, Prepare A Coffin”.

There seems to be a few different versions of “Venus In Furs”, including a German release which has a wraparound featuring a psychiatrist discussing the actions of Severin (the male lead character) and ultimately concluding it was the result of him being insane. Apparently there is also a version released under the name “Le Malizie Di Venere” which cuts down the nudity greatly but included new scenes making the plot more of a giallo story. The version I have, released by one of my favourite labels, “Shameless Screen Entertainment”, certainly isn’t either of the two I have just mentioned; this version has had just over a minute cut for release in the UK due to a rape scene which was in breach of the Video Recordings Act, but I’ll get to that later.

The film opens with the credits over footage of a naked couple in bed as some psychedelic lift music plays. You’d better get used to the music because it feels like not a scene goes by without it playing. Either that, or it’s a more up tempo number, which in a post “Austin Powers” world, feels very cliched and dated (but still groovy baby, yeah!). The couple are talking to each other but we can’t hear what they are saying as their dialogue is muted. Let’s hope it’s nothing vital to the plot.

When the film actually starts properly, we are introduced to Severin (played by Regis Vallee) and Wanda (played by Laura Antonelli). They are both staying in neighbouring holiday cabins and upon seeing Wanda, Severin immediately becomes smitten. Severin isn’t the only one, as when Wanda arrives, she seems to be getting a lot of longing looks from the other holiday makers too.

It’s not clear as to how long Severin has been staying at this resort, but he has worked out that there is a gap in the wall between his and the adjoining cabin, so in true Norman Bates fashion, he wastes no time in having a peep at the new arrival. Whilst feasting his eyes on some classic 60’s bush and boobs Severin has a flashback to when he was a young boy. It would appear that voyeurism has always been a vice for Severin as we see young Severin peeping on his housemaid having sex.

After her shower, Wanda wraps herself up in a hideous fur coat and begins to masturbate on a chair. As Severin watches Wanda play with herself we are introduced to something else you’d better get used to hearing in this film: Severin’s inner monologue. We also hear Wanda’s inner monologue from time to time too but the film is largely told from Severin’s point of view.

The next morning at breakfast, Wanda is turning heads yet again, especially Severin who can’t take his eyes off of her. This doesn’t go unnoticed by Wanda, and clearly liking the attention, gives a few flirtatious looks back. Later that evening, Wanda arrives back at the cabin with a male guest and the pair begin having sex, much to Severin’s delight as he looks on through his peephole.

This triggers yet another flashback for Severin, as we see him peeping as a young boy again, this time getting caught by the housemaid who slaps him as punishment. Then immediately feeling bad for the sudden outburst, comforts a teary Severin by hugging him as he nestles his face in between her breasts. “That slap, those tears, they seem to have conditioned my whole life” Severin says to himself as he watches Wanda reach orgasm.

The following morning, Severin decides to make his move on Wanda by simply saying to her “I would like to go to bed with you”. Wanda, taken aback by this replies “It’s something I’m often asked, but never so bluntly”. Not deterred by her response, Severin continues to try and get a straight answer from Wanda, resulting in Wanda settling for a lunch date.

We then cut to the pair walking through the park and we get our first glimpse into Wanda’s mind. “I’ve always wanted to meet a romantic man, just for a change.” Wanda, I can assure you, a man that goes up to a woman he doesn’t know and states, not asks, and this is important, “I would like to go to bed with you” is not a romantic man. Having said that, we find out at this point that Wanda has never been faithful to a man for more than a month. Severin’s train of thought would suggest this is something he is not only aware of, but is totally happy with. “If deep pleasure is born most of all from suffering, then I think this is the woman of whom I have always dreamed” he says to himself. “In love, there are only masters and slaves, those who dominate, and those who are dominated.” And with that, the pair kiss whilst the rest of the holiday makers look on, followed by a quick shag back at the cabin.

After they have finished, Wanda shows Severin a book photos of herself she keeps lying around. One photo (where Wanda looks uncannily like Barbara Crampton) in particularly grabs Severin’s attention. Quick as a flash, Wanda has not only put the same outfit on shown in the photo, she has also managed to do her make up exactly the same too.

Now, I’m not going to make a cheap joke about women taking ages to get dressed, but the reality is that Severin would probably have been waiting quite a while for Wanda to replicate the same look as in the photo and it seems odd she would have taken that outfit on holiday with her, just on the off chance that it were something which she needed. Does she have all of the outfits shown in the book just in case? “Sorry Severin, I don’t seem to have packed that one, can you pick another?”

Now in her get up, Wanda begins swinging her whip around the room and accidentally catches Severin’s face. Wanda rushes over to comfort Severin and the pair begin kissing before Severin places the whip back in Wanda’s hand and orders her to whip him again. As he begins getting whipped, Severin tells us that while his flesh burns, the pain gives him infinite pleasure.

We then cut to a scene in a nightclub where we are treated to some good old fashioned awkward dancing! These types of scenes are often highlights for me, as there’s just something really amusing about a room full of people dancing at completely different speeds. I’m guessing this is due to the music being added during post production, in which case, when filming are the actors dancing in silence? I hope so, because the thought of that is even more funny.

After the pair have finished getting their groove on, we learn that Wanda knew that Severin had been watching her through the gap in the wall of the cabin and that she enjoyed being watched. Severin confesses that seeing her with another man was like hell but it made him realise just how much he wanted her. The conversation is rounded off by Severin telling Wanda that he wants her to make him suffer.

The next day, Severin and Wanda talk extensively about how their relationship is going to work. Severin wants Wanda to cuckold him, essentially to have other sexual partners, but with Severin present to enjoy it. Severin claims that it will keep the sexual side of the relationship from getting boring. Most couples probably look into doing that sort of thing once the sex in a relationship has fizzled out a bit rather than jumping straight into it after less than a week together. Despite Wanda’s previous comment about never being faithful, this seems to be a concept she is struggling with, maybe because for once and I’m not sure why, there is genuine feelings of love on her part.

After a slightly unnecessary scene of Severin water skiing, we see the couple sunbathing next to a river where Severin brings up the topic of marriage. After spouting some bullshit about his theories of just how healthy their relationship will be, he performs oral sex on her. We then cut to the couple out horse riding. After getting off their respective horses, Severin is approached by the owner of the farm who wants to show them something very “exciting.” The creepy farmer seems to be giving Wanda the eye which prompts Severin to tell her that it makes him very happy when others desire her, and that he doesn’t get jealous, as long as he is “part of the game.”

Weirdly, what the farmer has taken the pair to see is a colt licking the face of a mare, then the colt being removed after getting the mare “aroused” (apparently) so a stallion is brought in to breed with the mare. The trio seem to be enjoying this way too much and it’s uncomfortable watching a mare being restrained and essentially raped by a stallion. This isn’t something I would find “exciting”. We get it movie, the colt is Severin, the mare is Wanda and the stallion is whichever poor schmuck they can get roped into their games. I don’t need to see a horse’s dick to tell me that.

In the next scene, we see the couple putting Severin’s theories into practice as they approach a man fishing (sporting a magnificent hairdo). Wanda is reluctant at first and asks Severin if he really wants her to do it, to which Severin replies “you promised.” Wanda seduces the fisherman and then they make love as Severin watches from the sidelines. After the fisherman has left, Severin goes in for seconds, just as it begins to rain. At this point, Wanda realises that maybe this type of relationship is going to work for her and agrees to Severin’s marriage proposal. “Be cruel and I will be unhappy” Severin says gleefully. Sounds like the perfect foundations for a healthy marriage to me.

Severin marks the occasion of their marriage by giving Wanda two gifts, which are another fur coat and a letter. The letter is a fake suicide note, written by Severin, detailing that he is unwell (well, we know that) and has decided to take his own life. Severin tells Wanda that the letter will act as an alibi as he doesn’t want there to be any limits to her cruelty towards him, even if it involves murder. Run away as fast as you can Wanda! This guy is a freak!

Rather than running though, we see the couple starting their honeymoon in a large secluded house, where they employ a pair of housemaids who will also stay in the house for the duration of their break. This gives Severin an idea! He thinks that seeing as he is Wanda’s servant, he should also be sleeping in the servants wing of the house. The pair then agree that Severin’s role will be to chauffeur Wanda around where ever she wishes to go. To really get him into the part, the pair go shopping and buy a chauffeur outfit for Severin to wear. As they leave the shop, the sight of a woman passionately kissing her male help seems to be turning a few heads, a fact that both of them seem very happy about. Back at the house, Severin takes off his wedding ring but instructs Wanda to keep hers on and that should she want anything from her husband, then she should sound the gong next to her bed.

In the next scene, after Wanda has sounded the gong, we see the couple making love in Wanda’s bed, which appears to be located in the living room, surrounded by a thin piece of veil. One of the housemaids hears the married couple and in a strange role reversal, begins to watch Severin and Wanda having sex, something which clearly arouses the housemaid.

Later that night, Severin is back in his room writing in his diary. “Each day Wanda seems more beautiful to me, but what is a woman’s beauty compared with her cruelty?” he muses. Slowly the bedroom door creeps open where the housemaid from the previous scene is standing naked, touching herself suggestively to Severin. “Better you go to sleep” Severin says unimpressed by the maids advances. Rejected, the maid closes the door whilst Severin continues writing nonsense in his diary about how sometimes women can be whores and vulgar… says you mate?

The next day, Wanda calls for Severin to take her into town where she goes into a man’s apartment as Severin waits impatiently outside. It would seem that despite all of his talk, Severin is beginning to feel like Wanda is taking this role play too far and that not making him aware of what she is getting up to is going beyond their “agreement”.

Back at the house, Wanda and Severin have the beginnings of quite a telling argument. Wanda informs Severin that she is starting to feel like their situation is getting more and more ridiculous and that Severin is actually just like every other man she has met and doesn’t really want her being able to do her own thing. Severin argues that their agreement was to involve him in whatever she is doing, therefore allowing him to enjoy her vices and not becoming jealous. Just as it seems Wanda is actually sticking up for herself, she admits that the man she saw earlier was in fact an artist who she has commissioned to paint a naughty picture of her for Severin. All of a sudden the situation has been resolved and Severin says that the painting should be finished at their house so he can watch.

Fast forward an hour or two and the painting has been finished. As Severin and Wanda marvel at the artwork, Severin whispers something into Wanda’s ear, prompting her and the painter to begin having sex while Severin watches and talks to himself about how he has never suffered so much before. After Wanda and the painter have stopped, Severin approaches the bed, prompting the painter to leave. Severin reaches over to gently touch Wanda, when she turns around crying and shouts at him not to touch her.

Wanda begins to question how Severin feels seeing her with another man. He tells her he suffers but it makes him happy and that she is too beautiful to only be with one man. Fairly safe to say, she was doing a pretty good job of not being with one man before you came along Severin. Now in a violent rage, Wanda tells Severin to leave and she then begins to beat him, beyond the “normal” level of sadomasochism he would find pleasurable, whilst shouting about how much she hates him. At this point, I couldn’t help but feel a bit glad this was happening to Severin, firstly because it will hopefully stop him endlessly banging on about loving suffering and also because I don’t think he is a very nice person. Don’t get me wrong, neither is Wanda, but Severin is a very selfish character and despite him wanting Wanda to do what she wants in their relationship, he is saying that purely to satisfy his own desires and not hers.

Battered and bruised, Severin lays in his bed. Considering he wanted the cruelty to have “no bounds” and that he was seemingly willing for Wanda to kill him, he doesn’t seem to have reacted well to being roughed up a bit. Be careful what you wish for Severin. That night, Severin has a fever dream which consists of Wanda being tied up and then whipped by what looks like members of the KKK, which is odd.

Now, at this point in the film, I had in mind how I wanted the plot to go. In my version of the film, as Severin is dreaming about Wanda being whipped by the KKK, one of the klan members would remove their mask off to reveal it is actually Wanda. With this, Severin wakes up to find Wanda in front of him with a crazed look and a knife in her hand and then murders him. Using the note written by Severin earlier, Wanda manages to clear herself from being under suspicion by the police, however, the housemaid who saw Wanda and Severin having sex, and then tried to seduce Severin, tries to go after Wanda to prove she was in fact the killer. Sadly, this is not what happens next…

Rather jarringly, the scene after Severin’s fever dream shows him now healed from his beating, driving Wanda around in the car as before when she spots a man on a motorbike she likes the look of. Wanda makes Severin pull over and pick up the man, Bruno (played by Loren Ewing), and she then orders Severin to drive to somewhere secluded so they can have sex. Once the car has stopped, Wanda tells Severin to get out and leave them alone, much to Severin’s distain. Is this Wanda now punishing Severin for getting her into a situation that in retrospect, she didn’t want to be in? Whilst that does seems plausible, I have limited sympathy as she had plenty of opportunities to leave before it got to this point.

In the next scene, we find out that Bruno has now been hanging around with them for 4 days and Wanda is showing no signs of being ready to ask him to leave. “Didn’t you ask me to make you suffer” questions Wanda. “You are ruining everything, do you realise that?” replies a disgruntled Severin. “I realise your theories are failures” retorts a dismissive Wanda. The conversation gets even more heated, resulting in Severin slapping Wanda, much to the displeasure of the brutish Bruno, who then knocks Severin to the floor with a single punch.

We then cut to Wanda and Bruno having sex in her bed when Bruno notices Severin watching through the veil. Angrily, Bruno questions why Severin is always lurking about. Wanda takes the opportunity to inform Bruno that Severin is in fact her husband and that he is degenerate as he gets his pleasure from seeing her with other men. Bruno takes it upon himself to get rid of Severin by repeatedly punching him as a delighted Wanda eggs him on in the background. Heartbroken, Severin drives to a clifftop to commit suicide but bottles it and instead returns to the house with his tail between his legs. It appears in Severin’s mind that there is no equal ground in love, someone is always the slave, and ultimately a “normal” dynamic only tear couples apart. His theory allows a man to know his place, and enjoy the pain caused by their partners actions. When the pain is caused to the man knowingly, it is fine, but when it is done unknowingly to the man or against his approval, it becomes vulgar, just as what has happened with Wanda upon the arrival of Bruno. This theory, to my mind, is total bollocks, but despite his wild and troubling theory, at this point in the film I couldn’t help but feel some sympathy towards Severin. The best thing for him to do at this stage would be to leave and never look back but clearly he does love Wanda still in some twisted way and it’s this that makes him go back, despite knowing the abuse, both psychological and likely physical, he is going to encounter.

Back at the house, it doesn’t take long for the abuse to start, but this time it is not limited to just Severin as Bruno has restrained Wanda and the housemaids (all naked) with some sort of wooden gallows contraption whilst Severin wears a wire mask. Wanda asks Bruno why he must humiliate her, to which Bruno replies that Wanda will have to watch him have sex with other women just as she demanded of Severin. I don’t think Bruno has quite understood that it was Severin that wanted to see Wanda with other men rather than Wanda forcing that onto Severin but never mind, Bruno clearly wants to take control of the dynamic between him and Wanda.

Bruno then rapes one of the housemaids and it is this scene which had to be trimmed for the BBFC. It would seem that the rape as a whole is “fine” to be shown on film, but where the problem lies, and the part of the scene which was cut, is when the housemaid appears to begin enjoying the rape. You may remember there was a very similar scene in Ruggero Deodato’s “House On The Edge Of The Park” where David A. Hess’s character, Alex, rapes a character with whom throughout the film there has been some flirtatious behaviour. In that scene, halfway through the female character appears to begin enjoying the encounter, kissing Alex and rolling on top of him. Just like the scene in “Venus In Furs”, the BBFC asked for the scene in “House On The Edge Of The Park” to be removed, however, “Shameless Screen Entertainment” (who also released both films in the UK) challenged the cuts which were ultimately dropped so the scene could be kept intact. Whilst I have problems with that scene from “House On The Edge Of The Park”, at least by that point in the film, the characters and the plot had been developed a lot more so it’s inclusion almost feels more justified. The scene in “Venus In Furs” however doesn’t feel justified, the characters are never developed to the extent they are in “House On The Edge Of The Park”, despite all of the internal monologues and the scene can only be there for one of two reasons, titillation or to show how horrible Bruno is. Firstly, a rape scene or “pleasure rape” as I have seen it called, should not be included in a film to provide titillation, as this sends a very worrying message to the viewer. Secondly, we know how horrible Bruno is, just by his “normal” behaviour so again, it leaves the scene utterly redundant. Therefore, I strongly agree with it being cut, and I do wonder if this was also the reason that “Shameless Screen Entertainment” did not feel it worth challenging the cut with the BBFC like they had previously. Either that, or they knew the audience for “Venus In Furs” wasn’t going to be as big as Ruggero Deodato’s film, and therefore decided not to try and get it wavered.

After that unpleasantness, Severin finally decides to leave Wanda and the house behind. What becomes of Wanda, Bruno and the housemaids we will never know, but I hope Wanda manages to find a relationship where there is no form of abuse involved and that the housemaid that Bruno raped recovered from her ordeal. Bruno can just go fuck himself.

We see Severin pull up at a gas station where he is approached by a prostitute named Polly who looks uncannily like Wanda, wearing a curly wig and with a “beauty mark” on her cheek. Severin takes Polly back to a hotel room where she queries why he keeps staring at her so intensely. Severin begins to have a flashback to all the times Wanda was horrible to him which causes him to begin hitting Polly and then strangling her, thus destroying the tiny bit of sympathy I had gained for Severin over the last couple of scenes. Two men burst into the room and pull Severin away from Polly but Polly begins pleading with them to leave Severin alone, stating that it was her fault and that she had provoked it. The men leave, warning Polly that she is staying with Severin at her own risk. “Women are all alike, I will never understand them” one of the men says as they leave the room.

Once alone again, Polly approaches Severin and excitedly says “for a moment I thought you wanted to kill me, it was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. I want to be your woman, I’ll give you all of my earnings, every last cent.” Severin’s anger slowly turns into some sort of happiness as when he asks Polly if she would do everything he would ask, she replies “yes, yes, yes!”. The newly formed couple then embrace and Severin asks Polly gleefully “can you guess what I want you to do?”. The film ends with Severin on the bed, smiling like a cheshire cat whilst Polly whips him repeatedly. So, it seems, Severin has learnt nothing from what happened with Wanda. He has met Polly, a woman who is more vulnerable than Wanda was, and as such he is likely to have more control over the relationship enabling him to be able to tailor it to the “perfection” he wanted with Wanda. Poor Polly.

“Venus In Furs” is an odd little film which seems unsure of it’s message. Or even if the filmmakers had a message. If it was made purely for arousing the viewer, then for me it failed. If the film was made to portray a different approach to relationships then I guess it was successful but it is not clear what the filmmakers were actually trying to say. Maybe they were just putting forward a story and leaving it for the viewer to make up their own minds.

“Venus In Furs” is one of many films is based on a book of the same name by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch, which I haven’t read, so I can’t tell you how faithful this film is to the source material. What I will say is, and hopefully you can tell by what I have written in this review, the film did make me think about relationship dynamics, abuse and the struggles when two people end up wanting different things. This has more going on in it than your average “swinging 60s” sex movie, but that might be because I am looking at it 50 years after its release. Or, and this is probably more possible, I am just reading too much into it.

The film is beautifully shot and all the actors play their roles well, despite none of the characters being anything close to what I would describe as likeable. The violence, both sexual and physical, although infrequent and largely bloodless, is still very brutal and realistic. The music is annoyingly catchy and not in a good way – trust me, the music from the film will stay in your head far longer than the story will!

During the horse fucking scene, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get through the rest of the film, let alone review it! I’m glad I stuck with it, as whilst I wouldn’t really recommend it, especially not to the average movie goer at least, it did provoke some interesting thought, even if I do think my conclusion to the film would have been better and more satisfying.

Just remember girls, this film highlights something that is just as true now as it was 50 years ago. If a man approaches you and states that he wants to go to bed with you, politely decline and don’t speak to them again.