The Skin I Live In [La piel que habito] *** (2011, Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Jan Cornet) – Classic Movie Review 3575

Writer-director Pedro Almodóvar’s intriguing but odd and alienating 2011 thriller is his 18th film, in a brilliant career that runs all the way back to Pepi, Luci, Bom in 1980.

In his first collaboration with Almodóvar in 21 years since Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990), Antonio Banderas stars as scientist Dr Robert Ledgard, who is trying to synthesise the perfect skin that can withstand cuts and burns after the death of his wife in a car accident blaze. As directed by Almodóvar, Banderas gives a restrained performance of his weirdo character.

It also stars Elena Anay and Jan Cornet. Playing the same character, they spent time together on set to decide on the physicality of Vera/Vicente. They jogged together so their bodies would mimic each other naturally and finally one day, Almodóvar noticed they walked similarly.

Almodóvar’s screenplay is certainly dense and packed with highbrow ideas. Almodóvar started off writing an adaptation of Thierry Jonquet’s novel a decade earlier but the screenplay ended up being a story inspired by the novel, with Angel at My Table by Janet Frame (an autobiographical account of how she grew to appreciate her sexuality) and The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (porposing that a human being is a gene’s way of making a new copy of itself) acknowledged in the credits.

The UK release date was 26 August 2011.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3575

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