Venus

I know I say "I looove that movie!!" about a lot of films, but really -- I LOOOOVE this movie!!! As Peter O'Toole puts it in the interview that's on the DVD, "Venus" is "about a dirty old man and a sluttish young woman" -- but it is so much more. Really, it's about the unexpected joy that someone, really anyone, can possibly bring to our lives not only when we least expect it, but also when we may have forgotten that we can still experience that joy. The passion that the human body itself represents and is always empowered to instill in others is another main theme, humorously wrapped up by the strange relationship that strikes up between a brash, country teenage girl and a septagenarian ladies' man. "What interests you?" the young Jessie asks of old Maurice. "Pleasure interests me. I have tried to give pleasure," he replies. Now, in the last few weeks of his long life, at the end of a successful career, Maurice is unable to provide the sexual pleasure that he formelry could have, but he gives Jessie a much more important one - that of being listened to, taken care of, loved unquestionignly and unabashadly, a love that is part dirty old man and part fatherly protection.

Vanessa Redgrave also has a very small (three scenes) but quite memorable part, that of Maurice's wife. These two have shared decades of their lives, even after their marriage dissolved decades ago after another woman, she tells him, "took you away from us." Strong, funny, indominable, Maurice allows himself weakness in front of her, reflecting on another complex side of human relationships. "I loved you, for a time, and after that I was always very fond of you." Painful as the words are to say and hear, they perhaps encapsulate what many experience in marriages or in long friendships. Passion flares and fades, but that fondness that we grow to have for people is somehow relentless and more important than all the passionate sex in the world.

Peter O'Toole (above, in "Lawrence of Arabia") makes "Venus" such a sensitive, attentive movie. I loved watching it, and I seriously think you should go out and rent it right now! Special bonus is the super funny scene in which Maurice and his friend of 50 years get into a fight in their local cafe, hitting each other over the head with rolled up newspapers. My mother very poignantly remarked, "Oh, how foolish men are, even when they are old!"

Original post date: September 2, 2007