Sundance Selects nabs Roman Polanski’s "Venus in Fur"

PanARMENIAN.Net - Sundance Selects has nabbed U.S. rights to Roman Polanski’s "Venus in Fur", the indie label said Wednesday, June 5, according to TheWrap.

The adaptation of the Broadway play of the same name stars the "Chinatown" director's wife Emmanuelle Seigner as an actress auditioning for a demanding and kinky playwright played by "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"s' Mathieu Amalric.

It premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival to mixed reviews with some critics faulting the picture for being overly stagey.

In a measured appraisal, the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw complained the film was hammy, but lauded Polanski's skill behind the camera.

"For all its avowed danger and transgression there is something a little bit dated and even genteel in this theatregoers' adventure in sex," he wrote. "Yet Polanski brings to it a certain elegance and wit."

Polanski has been on something of a theater kick of late, most recently adapting the hit stage comedy "Gods of Carnage" into a film with Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster. In addition to "Chinatown," his works include "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Pianist," which won him the Academy Award for best director.