I have always felt uncomfortable about calling some people geniuses but I think that in the case of Roman Polanski, the director of Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, Frantic, The Pianist, we can use this term! What a great film!

Based on the controversial novel Venus in Fur by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch which was adapted into a play written by David Ives. The scene is set in a theatre where a late-comer actress (Emmanuelle Seigner) persuades the director (Mathieu Amalric) to have a go at the adaptation of the novel that he has written for the theatre. She's loud, she's brash, she's vulgar and he really thinks it will all be finished in five minutes time. And then she pronounces the first lines, and he is mesmerised, and so are we, about to embark on 96 minutes of pure theatrical delight, growing more and more dense as the actors switch back and forth from the play to reality, how to play the play… and much more! Another great Polanski, not to be missed!