Lucky Frog Films

Jigsaw Venus

Press

Critical praise for Jigsaw Venus from the following:

Film Threat

LA Weekly

Reel Roundtable

There's someone out there for everyone. That old as chondrite cliché seems to be the message behind director Dean Kapsalis' sentimental and enchanting love story "Jigsaw Venus."

In a different era, the redheaded woman would have been the paragon of beauty. In our supermodel thin-worshipping world, however, she's simply heavyset, which goes a long way towards explaining why she lives alone and lonely, passing the time by assembling the jigsaw puzzle of the goddess Venus laid out on her hardwood floor.

Yet, she has an admirer; a handsome but exceedingly nervous and clutzy fellow who lives in an upstairs apartment. Standing naked, she watches him through her peephole as he tries to screw up the courage to knock, inevitably fails, and stumbles his way on up the stairs.

This might have continued forever, had she not taken matters into her own hands one day; flinging the door open wearing only a nightgown and greeting her stunned suitor as he stood poised to knock. Heavenly bliss and a bittersweet recollection of how lonely she'd been follows.

This silent film is one of the most beautifully lit and photographed films to flicker across the big screen in quite some time. It's clear that Kapsalis and company were trying to capture the rich visuals and warm, softly illuminating lighting style of the painter who created the Venus masterpiece our heroine assembles. It's equally as clear that they succeeded.

This brave and unconventional love story is as sweet as it is gorgeous. It's made even better by the mischievous streak Kapsalis displays; the pratfalls and gently cheap laughs he generates by having a particularly strategic piece of the puzzle come up missing, stuck to our heroine's ample bare behind. Oh, and yes, this piece doubles as a fine metaphor, in case you were wondering.

Would most guys have preferred watching "Jigsaw Venus" if the naked lead actress had been someone like Jennifer Aniston? No doubt. But then, that would have defeated the whole purpose of this exceptional film.

–Merle Bertrand (review website or pdf)

From LA Weekly (Sept. 7-13, 2001)

“This is the third go-round for the annual celebration from Women’s Image Network, an L.A.-based nonprofit dedicated to advancing images of strong, independent women. Among the very best titles in this year’s program is Dean Kapsalis’ Jigsaw Venus, a 10-minute, dialogue-free fable in which a heavyset woman with flame-red hair and Coke-bottle glasses (Margret RR Echeverría) lives alone, killing time doing jigsaw puzzles on the floor of her apartment. She is perhaps only surpassed in her fear of contact with others by her fear of her klutzy upstairs neighbor (Adrian Tridel), until she discovers he’s enamored of her. Using gold hues, soft focus and frank sexuality, Kapsalis tells a sweet, cockeyed story of seduction that reminds us that even the big girls - especially the big girls - are beautiful.”

–Nicole Campos

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From ReelRoundtable.com

Two lovers lie in post-coital bliss, one is awake and wiggling her toes, one is asleep and snoring soundly. Bathed in golden rays of light and serenaded by an accordion, this film is the epitome of the idyllic romance. But the bathing beauty weighs over 200 pounds and wears thick-rimmed glasses.

The film begins as she stumbles in from the rain dropping her soggy groceries and fumbling for her keys but once inside her sanctuary, she lounges around in the nude, indulges in snack cakes, and fantasizes about her upstairs neighbor. As she assembles a puzzle that depicts the Birth of Venus, she notices that an important piece is missing...missing not only from the picture but from her life as well.

This film is so classically beautiful and fulfills every artistic element so delicately that one would think it was created by the Nine mythical muses themselves. But the God in this case is writer/director Dean Kapsalis and his muse is actress Margret RR Echeverría and her simple story has been deified into a rhapsody on longing and loneliness.

Ordinary objects become meaningful treasures. A forgotten orange, a stray puzzle piece...the key props are glorified in this film as deliberately as a painter commits a still life to the canvas. The irritating screech of a violin, the illuminating rush of wind... the sound effects create an emotional symphony that accompanies the bittersweet score.

Using body language instead of dialogue, the actors reveal the pure instincts of the human heart and capture an innocent charm and candor that existed in early films before the Hays Code suppressed our true emotions and censored nudity, which this film relishes with Grecian delight.

Actress Margret RR Echeverría nonchalantly exposes her Rubenesque body which instantly creates humor because it is something we're not used to seeing (maybe in art class, but never in the movies.) But more importantly it shifts the Hollywood paradigm of what the leading actress has to look like and creates a refreshing new sex symbol...move over Brunhilde. Taking a cue from the classical era of film, actor Adrian Tridel plays the clumsy object of her affection with a Chaplinesque charm that provides a sweet match to her insecurities.

This film proves what the metaphorical jigsaw puzzle suggests, that every piece must fit together for the picture to be complete. With the elements of poetry, painting, dance, and music working flawlessly together, there is nothing missing in this sublime work of art.

–Derek Horne

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