PRESS CONFERENCE – Roman Polanski : “Here is something for Emmanuelle”

The room was packed for the press conference for Roman Polanski’s Venus in Fur. The director was accompanied by Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric, by David Ives, the author of the original play, Alexandre Desplat, composer, Pawel Edelman, director of photography, and the producers Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde and Mariusz Lukomski. Selected extracts below. 

Roman Polanski, on the fact that the film echoes his work:
I didn’t realise it, but when people started saying it, I saw that in fact there are quite a few similarities.

Roman Polanski and Mathieu Amalric, on their favourite part of the film:

Roman Polanski : When Mathieu realises that she is not stupid and that she can play the role.

Mathieu Amalric : The relentless and unsettling passing from one character to the other, which makes it seem like there are four of us rather than two.

Roman Polanski, on his choice of French as the language for the film:
I still hadn’t made a film in French – that was the motivation (laughs). When I read the play, I said to myself “here is something for Emmanuelle”, but in order for her to best express the character, it had to be in French.

David Ives, on the misogyny in his play
I don’t think that we can say the play is mysogynist, it depends on your point of view. When it was put on in New York, there was a woman who raised her arms every three minutes and shouted “yes!”

Alexandre Desplat, on the music
It’s not dificult working with Roman, the expectations are high, but his realm of creativity is huge and profound, and he is not afraid.

Pawel Edelman, on the photography
We didn’t have much time this time. We had a few conversations and saw a few films, but we had to get down to business very quickly and it was partly improvised. We also used digital cameras for the first time.

Quotes collected by  B. de M.