Rita

Venus in Furs (1969)

Rita had been around and knew the score. She knew I was a pretty mixed up guy.

Rita is what I consider a “casualty” of the film’s “story” because she is wholly loyal to Jimmy, even deserved of his love but because he yearns and longs for Wanda (or perhaps lustfully aches is better termed for how he feels), she can never have his heart fully. Even in Rio, together, in embrace, Rita and Jimmy’s relationship features the Giant Elephant that keeps that elephantine wedge between them. Rita is there, but Jimmy isn’t. Wanda is what consumes Jimmy. Rita tries and fails to gain his heart; it just isn’t to be. It ultimately condemns Jimmy, this obsession for Wanda. Also the loss for his music, the inability to pick up his horn and play, is plaguing poor Jimmy. He’s in a bad way even as the Carnival in Rio has lots of hearts and spirits overflowing with vitality.

How can she just walk into a doorway in Rio…it was crazy.

As Jimmy is getting his life back together and focusing on his music, thanks to Rita’s listening ear, push for him to invest in his talent instead of wasting it through his melancholy, and love freely given with no demands, his club has a certain visitor. Wanda enters that club just as the music is leaving the instruments of his band with a renewed energy, Jimmy is once again awestruck, certain to suffer because of her return. All that has been built could collapse.