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* WhipOfDominance: Olga takes a bullwhip to Wanda during the assault scene.
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* INeedAFreakingDrink: When this disguised Wanda appears to him, then abruptly disappears, Kapp responds by shakily pouring himself a brandy.
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* INeedAFreakingDrink: When this the disguised Wanda appears to him, then abruptly disappears, Kapp responds by shakily pouring himself a brandy.
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''Venus in Furs'' is a 1969 film directed by Creator/JessFranco, starring James Darren, Maria Rohm, Barbara [=McNair=], Dennis Price, Margaret Lee, and Creator/KlausKinski, and featuring music by Music/ManfredMann.
In UsefulNotes/{{Istanbul}}, Jimmy Logan (Darren), a troubled jazz trumpeter in the midst of a creative slump, ventures onto the beach and discovers a dead woman in the surf. He recognizes her as Wanda Reed (Rohm), whom he saw being abused by three people (Price, Lee, and Kinski) at a party the night before.
Jimmy travels to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival. There, he reconnects with his girlfriend Rita ([=McNair=])--until he encounters a woman identical to Wanda. Jimmy leaves Rita in order to return to Istanbul with this Wanda.
Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to Jimmy, Wanda (who actually ''is'' a {{revenant}}) has been tracking down the three people responsible for her death, seducing them, and killing them. When the police come after her, she and Jimmy flee--and the film promptly turns into a MindScrew.
This was one of two 1969 films titled ''Venus In Furs''; the other was directed by Massimo Dallamano and is a somewhat more faithful adaptation of the novel. An [[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064789/alternateversions/ alternate cut]] of the Franco film, titled ''Paroxismus'', differs significantly from the version discussed here. Among other changes, it omits both the Rio interlude and the twist ending.
!!This film provides examples of:
* AccompliceByInaction: Jimmy witnesses three people assaulting and murdering Wanda, and does nothing. His monologue suggests that this is something more than BystanderSyndrome--he considers himself somehow simpatico with the killers. Given that [[spoiler:he dies, and Wanda's relationship to him has visual parallels with her relationship to another of the killers (Olga)]], it's likely that Wanda considers him complicit as well.
* BathSuicide: Olga dies by slitting her wrists in the bath.
* ChaseScene: Jimmy and Wanda flee from the police in a fairly perfunctory (but nicely scored) car chase.
* DeadAllAlong:
** Near the end of the film, Jimmy finds Wanda's tombstone, which seems to make him finally accept that the woman he's just gotten involved with was not a lookalike, but the dead Wanda herself.
** Soon afterward, Jimmy finds another corpse on the beach. It's [[spoiler:[[DiscoveringYourOwnDeadBody Jimmy himself]], and he realizes ''he's'' been dead all along]].
* DrivenToSuicide: Olga dies by slitting her wrists in the bath. She is the only one of the three murderers who expresses remorse, the only one who survives sex with Wanda (instead of going OutWithABang), and the only one whose manner of death is made perfectly clear.
* DrowningMySorrows: When Jimmy first arrives in Rio (before he becomes seriously involved with Rita), he's shown drinking in a rather mechanical and pleasureless manner in response to his [[AccompliceByInaction complicity]] in Wanda's death and his (possibly related) inability to play his trumpet.
* {{Epigraph}}: The film ends on a quotation from Creator/JohnDonne:
-->I runne to death, and death meets me as fast,\\
And all my pleasures are like yesterday
* EverybodySmokes: It's [[TheSixties the '60s]], and it's a European film. Everybody smokes.
* FanserviceExtra: Ahmed's role-reversal fantasy includes a selection of nameless, half-naked women standing at the edges of the shots.
* FeetFirstIntroduction: The first shot begins on Wanda's feet, then pans up her {{stocking|Filler}}ed legs.
* {{Foreshadow}}: Early in the film, Jimmy's monologue narration alludes several times to his feeling like [[spoiler:he is dead]]. This could read as {{Wangst}}--right up until the end, when it is shown to be literally true.
* GreenEyedMonster:
** Rita tries, but fails, to suppress her jealous resentment of Wanda. Eventually she leaves Jimmy over it.
** Jimmy sees Wanda making out with Olga at a party. He drags Wanda away in a jealous rage.
* TheHedonist: Wanda's three killers--and Ahmed in particular--are implied to have been blinded by their desire for sexual pleasure.
* HemoErotic: Ahmed cuts Wanda and, with evident pleasure, tastes her blood.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: When this disguised Wanda appears to him, then abruptly disappears, Kapp responds by shakily pouring himself a brandy.
* InNameOnly: The only things this film has in common with Creator/LeopoldVonSacherMasoch's novel ''Literature/VenusInFurs'' are a character named Wanda who appears NakedInMink and some sexual goings-on that could be described as "sadomasochistic." The plot is completely original, and the novel is not even credited as source material.
* ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans: When Jimmy arrives in Rio de Janeiro, it happens to be during Carnival.
* LipstickLesbian: Olga is a long-haired, makeup-wearing lesbian who is explicitly attracted to the equally feminine Wanda. Downplayed (perhaps even {{averted|Trope}} by the [[ValuesDissonance standards of the day]]), since during one significant love scene they are both wearing "masculine" pantsuits.
* MillionairePlayboy: Ahmed, who is explicitly described as a playboy, is a [[SharpDressedMan sharp-dressed]], sexually perverse [[TheHedonist hedonist]].
* NakedInMink: Wanda appears topless in a fur coat during the murder scenes.
* OutWithABang:
** Ahmed and Kapp die in the midst of hallucinatory sexual encounters with Wanda. Since she inflicts no visible violence, the impression is that she ''literally'' sexes them to death.
** Olga narrowly averts this, as Wanda sleeps with her but then lets her survive long enough to die by suicide.
* {{Overcrank}}: Drastic slow-motion is used in several shots of Jimmy pursuing Wanda. This serves both to create a dream-like effect and to show off James Darren's beautiful running gait.
* PaperThinDisguise: When Wanda appears to her killers after her death, she disguises herself to varying degrees with a different hairstyle. (Her hair was originally long and blonde.)
** To Kapp, she appears with short red hair. He doesn't seem to recognize her until she gives him a vision of her dead body.
** To Olga, she appears with short blonde hair. Olga does seem to associate her with the original Wanda, though it isn't clear whether she realizes they are the same person.
** To Ahmed, she again appears with short red hair. He does seem to recognize her.
** [[spoiler:To Jimmy, she appears with short blonde hair. Like Olga, Jimmy does seem to associate her with the original Wanda. In later scenes with Jimmy, Wanda ditches the disguise and wears her hair long as she did in life.]]
* APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy:
** Played for dark drama when Kapp, Olga, and Ahmed break away from one of Ahmed's jet-set parties in order to sexually assault Wanda in a side room.
** Played more conventionally later in the film, when Wanda seduces Olga at a wild party while {{Fanservice Extra}}s cavort in the background.
* ThePeepingTom: Jimmy spies on Kapp, Olga, and Ahmed sexually assaulting Wanda, then walks away without intervening. His monologue suggests that his [[AccompliceByInaction inaction]] is because he latently sympathizes with their perversion.
-->"Maybe I split because I was just as sick as they were but couldn't face up to it."
* PsychosexualHorror: Visually, the film is soft-core erotica, advertised as "A Masterpiece of Supernatural Sex." Plot-wise, it's a revenge film in which several characters are seduced as a prelude to being punished for a horrific sex crime.
* RapeAndRevenge: A variant: Wanda returns from the dead in order to get revenge on the people who lustmurdered her.
* TheScourgeOfGod: The theme song, especially the version heard in full at the end of the film, positions Venus as an agent of divine retribution, wreaking justice upon the depraved.
* StockingFiller: Wanda typically appears wearing thigh-high stockings.
* WhipOfDominance: Olga takes a bullwhip to Wanda during the assault scene.
----
In UsefulNotes/{{Istanbul}}, Jimmy Logan (Darren), a troubled jazz trumpeter in the midst of a creative slump, ventures onto the beach and discovers a dead woman in the surf. He recognizes her as Wanda Reed (Rohm), whom he saw being abused by three people (Price, Lee, and Kinski) at a party the night before.
Jimmy travels to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival. There, he reconnects with his girlfriend Rita ([=McNair=])--until he encounters a woman identical to Wanda. Jimmy leaves Rita in order to return to Istanbul with this Wanda.
Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to Jimmy, Wanda (who actually ''is'' a {{revenant}}) has been tracking down the three people responsible for her death, seducing them, and killing them. When the police come after her, she and Jimmy flee--and the film promptly turns into a MindScrew.
This was one of two 1969 films titled ''Venus In Furs''; the other was directed by Massimo Dallamano and is a somewhat more faithful adaptation of the novel. An [[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064789/alternateversions/ alternate cut]] of the Franco film, titled ''Paroxismus'', differs significantly from the version discussed here. Among other changes, it omits both the Rio interlude and the twist ending.
!!This film provides examples of:
* AccompliceByInaction: Jimmy witnesses three people assaulting and murdering Wanda, and does nothing. His monologue suggests that this is something more than BystanderSyndrome--he considers himself somehow simpatico with the killers. Given that [[spoiler:he dies, and Wanda's relationship to him has visual parallels with her relationship to another of the killers (Olga)]], it's likely that Wanda considers him complicit as well.
* BathSuicide: Olga dies by slitting her wrists in the bath.
* ChaseScene: Jimmy and Wanda flee from the police in a fairly perfunctory (but nicely scored) car chase.
* DeadAllAlong:
** Near the end of the film, Jimmy finds Wanda's tombstone, which seems to make him finally accept that the woman he's just gotten involved with was not a lookalike, but the dead Wanda herself.
** Soon afterward, Jimmy finds another corpse on the beach. It's [[spoiler:[[DiscoveringYourOwnDeadBody Jimmy himself]], and he realizes ''he's'' been dead all along]].
* DrivenToSuicide: Olga dies by slitting her wrists in the bath. She is the only one of the three murderers who expresses remorse, the only one who survives sex with Wanda (instead of going OutWithABang), and the only one whose manner of death is made perfectly clear.
* DrowningMySorrows: When Jimmy first arrives in Rio (before he becomes seriously involved with Rita), he's shown drinking in a rather mechanical and pleasureless manner in response to his [[AccompliceByInaction complicity]] in Wanda's death and his (possibly related) inability to play his trumpet.
* {{Epigraph}}: The film ends on a quotation from Creator/JohnDonne:
-->I runne to death, and death meets me as fast,\\
And all my pleasures are like yesterday
* EverybodySmokes: It's [[TheSixties the '60s]], and it's a European film. Everybody smokes.
* FanserviceExtra: Ahmed's role-reversal fantasy includes a selection of nameless, half-naked women standing at the edges of the shots.
* FeetFirstIntroduction: The first shot begins on Wanda's feet, then pans up her {{stocking|Filler}}ed legs.
* {{Foreshadow}}: Early in the film, Jimmy's monologue narration alludes several times to his feeling like [[spoiler:he is dead]]. This could read as {{Wangst}}--right up until the end, when it is shown to be literally true.
* GreenEyedMonster:
** Rita tries, but fails, to suppress her jealous resentment of Wanda. Eventually she leaves Jimmy over it.
** Jimmy sees Wanda making out with Olga at a party. He drags Wanda away in a jealous rage.
* TheHedonist: Wanda's three killers--and Ahmed in particular--are implied to have been blinded by their desire for sexual pleasure.
* HemoErotic: Ahmed cuts Wanda and, with evident pleasure, tastes her blood.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: When this disguised Wanda appears to him, then abruptly disappears, Kapp responds by shakily pouring himself a brandy.
* InNameOnly: The only things this film has in common with Creator/LeopoldVonSacherMasoch's novel ''Literature/VenusInFurs'' are a character named Wanda who appears NakedInMink and some sexual goings-on that could be described as "sadomasochistic." The plot is completely original, and the novel is not even credited as source material.
* ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans: When Jimmy arrives in Rio de Janeiro, it happens to be during Carnival.
* LipstickLesbian: Olga is a long-haired, makeup-wearing lesbian who is explicitly attracted to the equally feminine Wanda. Downplayed (perhaps even {{averted|Trope}} by the [[ValuesDissonance standards of the day]]), since during one significant love scene they are both wearing "masculine" pantsuits.
* MillionairePlayboy: Ahmed, who is explicitly described as a playboy, is a [[SharpDressedMan sharp-dressed]], sexually perverse [[TheHedonist hedonist]].
* NakedInMink: Wanda appears topless in a fur coat during the murder scenes.
* OutWithABang:
** Ahmed and Kapp die in the midst of hallucinatory sexual encounters with Wanda. Since she inflicts no visible violence, the impression is that she ''literally'' sexes them to death.
** Olga narrowly averts this, as Wanda sleeps with her but then lets her survive long enough to die by suicide.
* {{Overcrank}}: Drastic slow-motion is used in several shots of Jimmy pursuing Wanda. This serves both to create a dream-like effect and to show off James Darren's beautiful running gait.
* PaperThinDisguise: When Wanda appears to her killers after her death, she disguises herself to varying degrees with a different hairstyle. (Her hair was originally long and blonde.)
** To Kapp, she appears with short red hair. He doesn't seem to recognize her until she gives him a vision of her dead body.
** To Olga, she appears with short blonde hair. Olga does seem to associate her with the original Wanda, though it isn't clear whether she realizes they are the same person.
** To Ahmed, she again appears with short red hair. He does seem to recognize her.
** [[spoiler:To Jimmy, she appears with short blonde hair. Like Olga, Jimmy does seem to associate her with the original Wanda. In later scenes with Jimmy, Wanda ditches the disguise and wears her hair long as she did in life.]]
* APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy:
** Played for dark drama when Kapp, Olga, and Ahmed break away from one of Ahmed's jet-set parties in order to sexually assault Wanda in a side room.
** Played more conventionally later in the film, when Wanda seduces Olga at a wild party while {{Fanservice Extra}}s cavort in the background.
* ThePeepingTom: Jimmy spies on Kapp, Olga, and Ahmed sexually assaulting Wanda, then walks away without intervening. His monologue suggests that his [[AccompliceByInaction inaction]] is because he latently sympathizes with their perversion.
-->"Maybe I split because I was just as sick as they were but couldn't face up to it."
* PsychosexualHorror: Visually, the film is soft-core erotica, advertised as "A Masterpiece of Supernatural Sex." Plot-wise, it's a revenge film in which several characters are seduced as a prelude to being punished for a horrific sex crime.
* RapeAndRevenge: A variant: Wanda returns from the dead in order to get revenge on the people who lustmurdered her.
* TheScourgeOfGod: The theme song, especially the version heard in full at the end of the film, positions Venus as an agent of divine retribution, wreaking justice upon the depraved.
* StockingFiller: Wanda typically appears wearing thigh-high stockings.
* WhipOfDominance: Olga takes a bullwhip to Wanda during the assault scene.
----
