In My Skin
Directed by:
Marina de VanScreenplay:
Marina de VanComposer:
Esbjörn SvenssonCast:
Marina de Van, Laurent Lucas, Léa Drucker, Thibault de Montalembert, Dominique Reymond, Bernard Alane, Damien Roussineau, Alain Rimoux, Marc RioufolPlots(1)
After suffering deep gashes to her leg from an accidental fall, Esther (Marina de Van), a young research analyst, becomes preoccupied with her body and skin, especially her wounds. At first, she merely caresses her arms, pinches her excess skin, or traces the cuts on her legs, but it isn't long before she is carving wounds directly and aggressively into her own body. Her boyfriend (Laurent Lucas) becomes understandably concerned and angry, but his inability to understand forces Esther into reclusion to explore her newfound passion. Increasingly unhinged - to situations of perverse dark humor - Esther seems determined to continue her compulsion until the removal from her own body is complete. (Fox Lorber US)
(more)Reviews (2)
Formal and psychological greyness and a huge borefest that hides behind a supposedly controversial and not very often addressed topic in films. Self-harm is, of course, a fetish worthy of a thorough cinematic probe, but Marina de Van doesn't even come close to it and only attempts to break the taboo in two slightly explicit scenes (which, dear fans of extreme cinema, can't be compared to every other representative of New French Extremity). I understand the idea of the impossibility of somehow supporting and confronting this psychological block, but I don't understand why I had to stare at 90 minutes of pure filmmaking shoddiness that doesn't psychologically progress and in sum goes nowhere.
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To give the film depth, it aims for a more artistic approach rather than trying to win over the audience. There are unnecessarily long scenes that start to become quite boring after a while, even though they depict somewhat believably self-harm. Marina de Van became intoxicated with her idea and plot, only to end up halfway there and not bring anything substantially new, just the self-harm itself, which simply affects you because it won't be pleasant to watch.
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