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The Skin I Live In

 

Year: 2011 
Running Time:
Aspect Ratio: Unknown 
Certificate: BBFC 15 Cert – Not suitable for under 15s 
Subtitles: It is expected that this film is fully subtitled. 
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar 
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya and Marisa Paredes  
An image from The Skin I Live In
Review:

The Skin I Live In, having premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, is the latest film to be released from celebrated Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. Based on the 2003 novel Mygale by Thierry Jonquet, the narrative follows a wealthy and respected surgeon (Banderas) who, after the death of his wife to burns in a car crash, attempts to create a new human skin. In his palatial home-cum-clinic, he has a private operating theatre where he operates on the beautiful Vera, who he keeps prisoner in his home.

Almodóvar describes the story as a ‘horror story without screams or frights’, adding a twist of horror and science fiction to the characteristic traits of sexual identity, anxiety, death, family and loneliness that are rife in Almodóvar’s cinema. The film’s design is superb, with beautiful costumes and sets creating effortlessly the mansion prison of horror, and as you would expect from Almodóvar, the film makes a strong use of colour, largely red, with a sensual and stylised feel.

As the first collaboration in twenty-one years between Almodóvar and Banderas (who was a regular cast member of Almodóvar’s films of the 1980s), the film is certainly worth a watch as Banderas' performance is engaging and twisted as the obessional surgeon, and the perverse and sensual relationship between him and his prisoner Vera keeps you intrigued.

If you a fan of Almodóvar, or simply a fan of revenge thrillers this film will keep you watching to the last second.

Fionna McLauchlan

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Screenings of this film:

2011/2012 Autumn Term (35mm)