"Dans ma peau" ("In My Skin") is a French film from the mind of Marina de Van, who wrote, directed and starred in this horrific tale of self-annihilation. Before I go any further let me state this clearly: PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM. I cannot in good conscience advise any friend/foe/stranger who stumbles across this blog to see this. I watched it several days ago & quite frankly have been trying to forget it ever since. I watched it at home on an average size TV, I don't believe I would have made it through watching it in a cinema.
De Van is the French 21st-century cinema Sylvia Plath, and even goes so far as to name her protagonist "Esther" (If you haven't read "The Bell Jar," Please do) a 20something who goes to a house party with a friend/co-worker where she wanders off into the woods & cuts her leg quite severely on a piece of scrap metal. She doesn't notice it until much later, after she gets back to the party & even then she goes out for coffee afterwards before seeking medical attention. The doctor (played by de Van's brother, Adrien) is shocked that she didn't notice it--as are her bourgeois, older boyfriend Vincent (Laurent Lucas) and the aforementioned Sandrine (Léa Drucker). Esther is fascinated by the cut and one day at her market research job she has a report to revise on a strict deadline and a terrible case of writer's block. What does our heroine do? Surely not pop a Vyvance & power through. Instead, she heads for the building's boiler room where she takes something sharp out of a tool box & proceeds to cut up on her stitches. Somehow she manages to not bleed to death & the next time we see her, she is at her desk, typing a lot faster than I am now. She later goes to Sandrine at her desk (who is busy & bitchy--how French!) and asks her to go out for a coffee. When Sandrine rejects her offer & says she's busy Esher tells her about her self-mutliation in a puzzled yet elated tone. By the time Sandrine has caught on to how serious it is, Esther clearly feels rejected and rescinds the coffee invite & heads back to her desk.
As the film progresses we watch as Esther becomes increasingly disconnected from her body, turning it into an erotic object which she is compelled to cut. The film is shot mostly in a very naturalistic style, but there is one scene so starkly surrealistic as to be Cronenburg-esque. She is being groomed for a big position (in favor of Sandrine) and attends a business dinner with her boss and some clients. As they exchange comments on various European capitals where they have lived, Miss Crazy decides to gulp down several glasses of wine and proceeds to perceive her forearm as a disconnected prosthetic that she can't control. So she screws it back in & under the table, stabs this thing. Yes, at dinner. With people sitting around, not even noticing what she is up to. She is quite pointedly rude to them, only giving simple, brief answers to questions and when the dinner is over Susy Slicer is off to a hotel where we are treated to her continued mutilation as an erotic act. There is a shot where she is laying back, holding her leg over her face, cutting into it & letting the blood just flow all over her face that positively made me nauseous.
Afterwards, she stages a car accident and Vincent, somehow allows himself to hope in vain that she isn't lying about the whole thing.
By the end of the film, she is on her way to work, but instead goes to another hotel room, with a Polaroid camera and a knife & we just know what is coming next. Interestingly, the camera angles change to show us just how disconnected she is--we are seeing things from her POV but through a split-screen that would have done Brian de Palma proud--as she cuts & photographs herself. Around this point, the DVD I had stopped working & I have never been so relieved in my whole life!! I tried to watch it on my computer, but Praise Be, I will never have to see the end! Of course I know by the end this ho dies--there is no room for any hope here. I was pleased that the commentary was also subtitled & my French is strong enough not to need them for the dialogue, so I was able to read what the director said without having to watch this nightmare twice.
Reading over this, I am struck again by the parallels with Plath. "Lady Lazarus" springs to mind:
"The peanut-crunching crowd/Shoves in to see/Them unwrap me hand and foot--The big strip tease." Although I can't imagine anyone wanting any popcorn while watching this horror show, I think you get my drift here.
Just in case you missed what I was saying earlier, PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THIS. This is far worse than Human Centipede. This woman is scarier than Freddy, Jason, or anyone else & has given me nightmares you would not believe. I am only hoping that now that I have written about this, I will not have this awful thing on my mind any longer. I truly hope no one else has to go through this ordeal.
New york times, I say...
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHA! I'm sorry, but I've got the most horrific fit of giggles over here, imagining the faces and comments you made whilst attempting to watch this train wreck of a horror flick. I cannot watch them. I can't even watch suspense movies, because I am overly sympathetic to the characters and have horrific nightmares for days afterward. As soon as I saw the name "Sylvia Plath," the words "No, no, NO!" came out of my mouth. Darling, do yourself a favor and don't watch such depressing and dark things. It only drags on the soul. :)
ReplyDeleteI did not mean to watch this nightmare. A prof of mine who has a taste for the macabre loaned it to me.
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