Brad Spurgeon's Blog

PARIS – For the first time on this blog I have decided to be an indulgent father and to put up on the blog a short film that my daughter made last January, when she was 19. Yesterday she decided to not submit the film to festivals, but to make public on Facebook and YouTube. There were a few problems with sound and a few other minor technical problems, and she wants to do better before submitting to a festival. However, last night I went and saw Roman Polanski’s latest film, “Venus in Furs,” and I was struck by the similarity in his film and what my daughter did last January.

Of course dads will be like that, right? But there really is something interesting here about a teenager making her first film in Paris, with lousy cameras, with her writing the script, hiring the actors, directing the film, making the sets, and editing the film, and all on a budget of 0 euros, with equipment we had hanging around the apartment. And at the other end of the spectrum, Polanski, at 80 years old, with all of his resources that he can draw on, and all of his experience, and his actress wife, and his editors, and lighting people and the fabulous theatre set… and the two of them actually had a similar need and desire to express themselves in a somewhat “twisted” kind of film about two humans in a strange sort of bondage, connected to artistic production.

Anyway, the film was written and performed in French, but if you do not understand French, take a look anyway, and see what you think. Keep in mind that Emily, my daughter, is aware of the flaws at some points in the sound production, and some of the cutting, of the film. But I think – and would do so, as a Dad – that it is blood cool first film. I loved the Polanski too, by the way. Although my one criticism of the Polansk film is that for a film with only two actors located in one set for 1 hour 36 minutes, it was just a tad too long. Maybe Emily got that idea right, to keep hers to 15 minutes.