Venus of Ille

In 1969’s WENUS Z ILLE (VENUS D’ILLE) Majewski returned to the work of Prosper Merimee, specifically his 1835 story “Venus d’Ille,” about an accursed statue (a story that was subsequently filmed by Mario and Lamberto Bava in 1979). Said statue, fashioned in the guise of an anguished woman, is seen in a remote inn, having been recently interred from the ground. The occasion is a wedding attended by the protagonist, an unassuming man who becomes caught up in a bizarre nightmare when the groom unthinkingly sticks his wedding ring on a finger of the statue--and can’t get it off!