Jesus Franco's Venus In Furs (1969) Review

Tonight my new favourite television station Movies4Men brought us another Jess Franco Italian co-production in the shape of Venus In Furs and what a strange but satisfying experience it ultimately turned out be.

We open with a soundtrack full of the joy of the swinging sixties and see some towers telling us that this is Istambul which They Might Be Giants once informed us is not Constantinople anymore. Then we pan to an out of focus shot of some nice seaside.

Here is Jimmy Logan (James Darren). He is a musician who cannot do without his horn and so digs it out of the sand. Luckily for Jimmy it still works and hasn't been stolen by kids with metal detectors. Lucky Jimmy you may think but alas no.

Jimmy runs in slow motion across the beach, finds a dead body on the beach which turns out to be a beautiful but definately dead woman and proceeds to tell us his story.

Jimmy tells us that the woman is "beautiful even though she is dead"

We flash back to a party where we meet Olga, Percival, Ahmed and Wanda, the dead one, played by Margaret Lee, Dennis Price, Klaus Kinski and Maria Rohm repsectively. The kinky party gets out of hand and Wanda is whipped stabbed and if memory serves Ahmed (Kinski) gets to sup her blood.

So our hero, thats Jimmy, sods off to Rio for the carnival, drinks in a bar and lstens to Rita sing. Rita is a woman who undertands Jimmy which, fair play, does take some effort as he does go on a bit narrating his way from scene to scene with mind boggling 60s philosophy not unlike the narration from Johnny Got His Gun.

Jimmy moans about not being able to play his horn then we get more carnival footage. Back at the bar he spies Wanda, narrates a bit about this, then it gets all trippy as he follows Wanda despite her explicitly saying for him not to. Jimmy likes the sound of his own voice to much to listen to sound advice from Wanda and his persistence gets rewarded with some tastefully shot ghost sex interspersed with some close ups of paintings that I am sure signified something important but I personally didn't get it.



Of course he knows Wanda is dead and therefore he has no shame for what he is doing is necrophelia and probably illegal in Rio. Wanda tells us that she doesn't know who she is. Hmm quite. You're Wanda dear, he could have offered but he instead narrates his head off again. Indeed he trumps Wanda's philosophical point about self knowledge by going off on one himself about the fact that he was not sure if he was alive or dead.

The deed done he returns to Rita.

We then jump scenes to see Wanda visit Percival. She appears, disappears, reappears and masturbates herself a bit while Percival lies on the bed writhing until he can take no more then he dies.

Oh at this point we learn that Herman's parties never stop and Jimmy confesses his love for dear departed Wanda. Jimmy goes on about being hypnotised and I don't think that this is the first time that he's mentioned this, but since he talks so much he's probably forgotten.

Jimmy then goes for a walk on the beach and returns again to Rita who he informs that "they will be ok" presumably because in his eyes necrophelia isn't technically being unfaithful. Everyone watching by this point though should be aware that Jimmy is lying as he clearly has the hots for the stone cold Wanda.

At a party Jimmy plays some trumpet, Olga shows up and decides to make out with Wanda while people stand around watching and throwing feathers over them. Jimmy is not pleased so he drags Wanda out and demands to know where he stands or as he puts it

"If thats your scene baby then I'll split"

Jimmy then trips out again, presumably hypnotised by the sound of his own narration talking himself to sleep. He wakes up in bed. Rita tells us she is jealous of the late Wanda but Jimmy assures us that he is a bit scared of her.

The action then shifts to Olga's pad where she sets up a camera, enter Wanda. Some nudie shots are taken, they make out. Olga runs herself a bath then slits her wrists, rabbiting on about how sorry she is and doing her best to outperform Jimmy in the narration stakes.

More shots of the sea then its back to the club for more trumpets. Wanda shows up and Rita doesn't look pleased.

Again Jimmy goes off one of his trippy journeys and there is a fair bit of footage of him and Wanda walking about. Rita packs her bags while Jimmy is asleep.

Jimmy decides to return to Istambul with Wanda on a voyage of discovery. Here he allows Wanda to speak a bit and she uses the chance to tell how the people at the party Olga, Percival etc were her friends, they were sick and they needed punishing.

Jimmy promises not to leave the deceased, sorry, I mean Wanda, then there is some footage of towers just to emphasise the point that we are no longer in Rio as carnival footage means Rio.

Wanda hooks up with Ahmed (Kinski) and he tells her a story about a Sultan and this turns into a flashback that features him and Wanda. He is tied up and she sexes him to death.

Police show up at Jimmy's place, tell him that Wanda is dead. This is news to Jimmy and proceeds to make his escape with Wanda. A car chase through Istambul ensues and along the way Wanda gets out of the car runs into a graveyard. Jimmy wanders about as the view is filtered in a similar way to the logo of Bloody Italiana blues, purples etc. Jimmy finds Wanda's fur coat near a grave then notices the grave belongs to Wanda.

The film sort of closes as it opens but to find out what happens next you will just have to buy the DVD, which incidentally I do recommend.

So Venus In Furs is a bit wordy and heavy on narration and it's score and Beatnik philosophy are very much of another time but, its all worth the effort. This film is a delight to watch and to be honest is worthy of a second viewing.