The Unofficial Peter O'Toole Pages!

The Venus Experience
by Erin Schultz

Hello international audience of fellow Peter O’Toole nutcases:

I’d like to share with you my experience of seeing Venus yesterday in Ann Arbor, Michigan, home of the prestigious University of Michigan and 100s of snotty people who call themselves “artsy.”I live in Lansing, home of Michigan State University and several dying General Motors plants (one of which I live right next to.

It’s worse than Godzilla). People are down-to-earth and friendly here, but good beer beyond Labatt Blue and anything with even a tinge of “culture” is hard to find, especially at AMC, NCG, or Celebration cinemas.

A friend of mine called yesterday –

“Hey, let’s go see Ghost Rider.”

Hey, let’s not.

I hopped in my car and drove an hour to Ann Arbor. I wanted to see Venus – alone.I call seeing this movie an “experience,” because that’s what I made it. It was very important to me – Peter O’Toole is a very personal artist to me. I feel like he’s “mine.” I’m sure many of you all know what I mean. He’s been such an inspiration to me for years, not only in regards to my choice of careers but in how I go about my daily life – going about it intensely, flamboyantly and, most importantly, gut-honestly.

He’s like the Etta James of acting. You don’t just hear her sing; you experience every note. You don’t just watch Peter O’Toole’s acting – you experience it. In the words of Richard Burton, O’Toole “elevates acting into something mystical and deeply disturbing.”

He did this in Venus. Burning like a silver flame.

I’ll try not to give the whole movie away here (but I might spoil some of it, so beware reading on). I’ll try to focus more on “the experience.”

I was nervous when I went into the Michigan Theater, because I’d read that at some screenings around the world, people had walked out, saying things like “god, what a nasty old letch.” I was afraid this would happen in Ann Arbor. I take that shit personally.I showed up right on time, and to my surprise, the screening room was packed and the mood was one of cheerful anticipation. That made me feel great, because you don’t see Venus without respecting the PO’T. And, also to my surprise, the audience was diverse – I was expecting all blue-hairs. Sure, half the audience was over 60, but the other half consisted of college kids, younger couples, families with their teenage kids.

I sat next to a girl that looked to be about my age, late twenty-something-ish. Like me, she was alone. We exchanged a friendly, knowing greeting. And that’s another social litmus test for me – you either “get” Peter O’Toole or you don’t; you’re either in on the joke or you’re not.

This crowd was “in.”

In the beginning, Venus reminded me a lot of Creator, a thing Peter did in the ‘80s w/whats-her-face Hemingway. But the “older-man, younger-woman” relationship in that movie was treated with kid gloves; it was extremely light-hearted – there might have been one kiss or two. It was a crowd-pleaser but not convincing what-so-ever.

The relationship between Maurice and Jessie that develops in Venus IS. The two actors do – really do – pull it off. It is not “creepy,” but some scenes are, inevitably, difficult to watch, like the one when he tells her what he REALLY wants to do to her, and he asks if he can touch her hand. This scene COULD have been creepy if it had not been for the subtle response of Jodie Whittaker– she visibly quivers as she exhales cigarette smoke. She’s turned on by this!I was expecting walk-outs or verbal cringes at the very least after scenes like this, but there was nothing. Ann Arbor stuck with it in complete, respectful silence ‘till the bitter end. Venus explores a VERY delicate issue: how an old old man can fall in love/lust with a young young woman – and how that feeling becomes mutual. It could be interpreted as a dirty old man taking advantage –i.e., molesting – an emotionally and physically scarred young lady, yes, because it is NOT played light-heartedly. It is played delicately and gut-honestly. That's why this movie works, and that's why he MIGHT get an award for it, but who gives a fuck about that anyway...What I give a fuck about is the experience of sitting for an hour and half with 100 other like-minded people with a lump in my throat, watching Peter O’Toole at his best playing someone at his worst -- a pathetic, dying, loving, kind, wonderful old man – watching him hold his ex-wife, feeling old feelings (and who doesn’t have an ex they still love deeply?), listening to that voice I’ve loved for so long whisper a famous sonnet like it’s the first time we’ve ever heard it through a door to a beautiful girl he loves, honestly, but can never love fully, and she feels the same way. Oh God.

A lot of people are saying that O’Toole is just playing O’Toole and this is just a twisted ego stroke for him – “hey look at me, 19-year-old girls still want me, and I got one foot in the grave haha!” He is certainly NOT playing himself, but as with all of his roles, there is a lot of himself in the character of Maurice. And he was PLAYING a dying old man; he’s not dying himself. He looked great on Charlie Rose.

Don’t let him fool you. Peter O’Toole is going to live forever. :)

I walked out of the theater, straight to my car and got the hell out of Ann Arbor. That’s what I like to do when I go there – in & out. I had my Venus experience, I had a lot to think about, and life next to a dying factory suddenly became interesting again.

Now I think I can handle a Labatt Blue or six and a couple hours of Ghost Rider.