The Skin I Live In
Director: Pedro Alomodovar
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Blanca Suarez, Elena Anaya and Marisa Paredes
Releasing in cinemas: 26 December 2011
Rated: MA 15+
Pedro and
Antonio reunite in the theatre of the bizarre
The Skin I Live In is the latest film from flamboyant Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, and it explores some of his usual themes and preoccupations – obsession, sex, sexual identity, transgender issues, love and desire. It also reunites him with Antonio Banderas, whose career he virtually launched with Labyrinth Of Passion. The pair went on to make five movies together including Law Of Desire and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! before a career in Hollywood beckoned.
In The Skin I Live In,
Banderas plays
Robert Ledgard, a brilliant plastic surgeon and scientist who is
haunted by tragedy. His beautiful young wife was horribly burned in a
car accident, although he was unable to save her. He has created a form
of artificial burn resistant skin. He also sets out to seek a bizarre
revenge on the man he believes raped his teenage daughter (Blanca
Suarez). And who is Vera (Elena Anaya, from Talk To Her), the
guinea pig who appears to be a virtual prisoner in his house?
What role does she play in this drama?
The film unfolds in a series of flashbacks and to
reveal too much of the off beat plot would be to spoil its twists and
surprises. Based loosely on the novel Tarantula by French
author Thierry Jonquet, this is a bizarre take on the Frankenstein
tale, although there are obvious homages to other films like
Hitchcock’s Vertigo, and Georges Franju’s eerie Eyes
Without A Face. Almodovar invests it with his usual visual
flourishes and gradually mounting sense of horror and he subverts the
usual cliches of the mad scientist genre.
Banderas delivers his best performance for a long
time, and he brings a certain intensity to his role as the deranged
Ledgard. Almodovar regular Marisa Paredes plays his loyal housekeeper,
who has secrets of her own. The film features some striking
cinematography from Almodovar regular Jose Luis Alcaine.
The Skin I Live In is a dark, disturbing and bizarre film that will not be to everyone’s tastes, but fans of the director’s idiosyncratic body of work will savour it.
Greg King
Read more of Greg King's reviews at filmreviews.net.au