Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2013: #72. Roman Polanski’s Venus In Fur

Published on January 11, 2013

Venus In Fur

Director/Writer: Roman Polanski
Producer(s): Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Emmanuelle Seigner and Louis Garrel

And just before we were about to throw out the notion of Polanski adapting another play for the big screen (2011’s Carnage didn’t go over well), in comes a potentially juicy meta project with Polanski’s actress wife Emmanuelle Seigner (they last worked together on The Ninth Gate) taking the lead role of the actress almost begging/demanding a role. Like Carnage, we imagine that this might be once again set in a self-contained backdrop, meaning this will be a performance-driven drama. Could be the guilty pleasure film of the year.

Gist: Based on the Off-Broadway play by David Ives, this is about an actress (Seigner) attempts to convince a director (Garrel) how she’s perfect for a role in his upcoming production. This chronicles the shifting dynamic between the male director of a play and the actress.

Release Date: Production on this title commenced in late November, with enough prep time it should receive a Competition slot at the Venice Film Festival.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).