Les félines

I had the chance to catch this film at a screening for the "Outfest" in LA. I'm very happy I did because this is a truly incredible film. It tells the story of Una (Katy Selverstone), who helps find talent to make records and become a rock star. She's very talented and when she meets with B, a sexy lesbian k.d. lang type rocker, she immediately sees talent. B. sleeps with Una and they become lovers, however B is a slutty bitch who uses sex to get what she wants. Una has a servant "Dick" who serves her toast every morning and if he's on good behavior, gets make visitors. And the tiger, the pet tiger, who frightens people when first meeting it, but upon firther inspection, it's just a "baby tiger", harmless. This movie was absolutely brilliant. The acting alone was first-rate. B. and Dick do fabulous jobs, but the real standout is the very talented Katy Selverstone (Una). Katy resembles Jodie Foster so much you could swear they were sisters. Her emotional range and depth in this film were the best I've seen this whole year. I really hope this movie gets an audience becasue the direction, script, and acting just blew me away!

The Politics of Fur (2002) was presented at the Rochester ImageOut film festival. I assume it was chosen because three main characters are lesbian or gay, and ImageOut is Rochester's gay and lesbian film festival. However, just because a film features gay and/or lesbian characters doesn't mean it is good enough to be shown at this important festival.

There were two excellent aspects to this particular showing of The Politics of Fur. The first was the very gracious speech made by Laura Nix, the director and screenwriter. The second positive aspect of the event was the presence of Katy Selverstone, who is the film's star. She is extremely beautiful on screen and in person.

That's about all I can say in praise of this movie. Ms. Selverstone plays Una, a entertainment industry wheeler-dealer who "puts people together" and apparently reaps immense financial benefits from doing so. She is given the "gift" of a tough young rock singer, who has not talent, no personality, no intellect, and--for me--no redeeming virtue. The rest of the story unfolds in a tedious and predictable fashion.

The most interesting aspect of this film came from a laughable mistake. In one scene, we are presented with seemingly endless views of Ms. Selverstone's very dirty feet. Obviously, this scene was shot after the scene that could explain this out-of-character lack of hygiene. My question--Didn't anybody notice? If the director didn't notice, didn't the camera operator? (OK--it was low budget film. But couldn't they afford soap?)

Stay away from this one. It's a loser.

I went into this film expecting the worst since I don't care for remakes, but what I got was something daring and original. Fur takes the basics from Fassbinder's original and takes it to another level. The cinematography and direcion are excellent and the acting is superlative,

especially by the lead, Katy Selverstone, who could have gone the easy route

and camped it up but instead gives an absolutely riveting and engaging

performance. I saw this at a festival but hopefully it will get a wider release

I loved the way Una carried herself and moved and i liked the relationship between Una and Dick. There were parts that made me laugh out loud. I'm not sure i liked the way the film changed toward the end, but all those changes (lighting, characters, setting) were very meaningfull and consistant with the storyline.

I can't say that I've seen anything like this movie. I've seen a couple of other films from this director and each one is worse than the previous one. It was recently screened at a film festival and there were so many walkouts. Do yourself a favor and skip it. It's truly terrible.