Il fantasme di Venere. Dal testo letterario all’adattamento cinematografico

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's novel has created a complex imaginary world that has influenced the history of arthouse and genre cinema (erotic and otherwise), but the films that can be considered true ‘adaptations’ are few: in this essay we will focus on Roman Polanski's Venus in Furs (2013) and on another film by the same director, Bitter Moon (1992), which, although not an explicit representation of von Sacher-Masoch's text, contains many interesting elements for exploring the masochistic dynamic. In particular, a psychoanalytical interpretation will be used to explore the figure of Wanda as a fantasme, or rather as a textual invention capable of protecting the subject from the emergence of anxiety. Reflecting on the relationship between the perverse subject and his desire, different ways of representing the ‘contract’ as a form of protection from excess of enjoyment will be analyzed.