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Movie Review

Jess Franco's “Venus in Furs"

Directed by: Jess Franco

Starring: James Darren,

Barbara McNair,

Maria Rohm,

Klaus Kinski,

Dennis Price,

Margaret Lee

Released: 1969

Language: English

Length: 86 minutes

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The first movie I ever reviewed for Predominant (February 2005) was the 1994 Dutch film version (dubbed in English) of the Sacher-Masoch classic novel “Venus in Furs”. Some time had passed before I received any feedback about that review however a gentleman wrote me, a self-proclaimed film connoisseur and an equal lover of cinema (especially independent films), to inform me that he had purchased a copy of the movie based on my lukewarm (3 stars) recommendation.

Upon watching the film, he only gave the movie 2 stars at best and he mailed me his copy of the 1969 Jess Franco version of “Venus in Furs”, a movie he rated as 4 stars. This gentleman was a fan of Jess Franco comparing his style of film making to that of David Lynch with his usage of dreams and dream-like imagery within his works. David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” is one of my all-time favorite films, therefore I was eager to observe Jess Franco’s version of “Venus in Furs”. I considered reviewing it for Predominant but since I had already reviewed the Victor Nieuwenhuijs and Maartje Seyferth’s Dutch version, I decided to watch Franco’s film version purely for my own personal enjoyment.