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The skin I live in (2011) - Almodóvar
Eye of the beholder
The set-up? After a series of family tragedies, Robert Legard has retired from active life and withdrawn to his country home/private medical center, with it's state of the art research capabilities and operating room.
As a character, Robert (Antonio Banderas) is a wonderful mash; a successful plastic surgeon at the top of his profession and a kind of a world beater in terms of medical research, and yet the sum total of what he doesn't know about his own private life is astonishing. He invents a kind of super skin capable of resisting the various "handling" traumas of life which subtly brings into question the actual living and breathing person inside all that outward perfection. Which introduces the character of Vera; she's (Elena Anaya) the fateful burn victim stoically enduring every procedure no matter how painful in order to live another day. The depths of her suffering is more than a little unsettling.
There's actually quite a long list of things to like about this film. The lensing is outstanding---there's a sense of poise to everything. I particularly loved the shots positioned on the horizontal axis which, in addition to being constantly visually arresting, subconsciously establishes the idea of superiority and looking down at something or someone.
Other nice things? The exquisite set decoration---just the lamps in this film are completely insane. The escaped tiger on the prowl. The shot where the "therapeutic" tools lined up on a dresser which suggest the bars of a prison cell and a life sentence with no hope of parole. If we remove the good doctor from the mix, this story could easily be either be the tragedy of one woman, or another woman's indestructible desire to live. Robert's little lab rat is watched on camera 24/7 on the various screens in the house and yet she's also rather steely eyed and observant---nothing escapes her attention, which Robert misreads as coquetry.
But best of all, the film is kind of a puzzle. Almodóvar really plays with your identification with the various characters, achieving at times, complete reversals of sympathy and this usually happens imperceptibly. Vera's skin colored body suit is a great visual example of this. Unfortunately, the film seems to be a little distant: most of the characters seem to be a little dicey and immediately set off your spidey sense---making one a little reluctant to sympathize with them emotionally.
This is basically a horror film with all the gore excised, so the audience is left with suggestion and drama. There's a depth to the story, so film is guaranteed to provide lots of fodder for the after screening coffee shop or restaurant discussion. The irony of Robert's vocation becoming his avocation---he's basically paid to do exactly that. Is he a kind of Professor Higgins character, who instead of phonetics and frilly dresses, uses scalpels and blow torches? The logical conclusions of merciless eye for an eye style retribution and justice. Or the idea that suffering indelibly molds and defines who you are?
The skin I live in (2011) - Almodóvar
Eye of the beholder
The set-up? After a series of family tragedies, Robert Legard has retired from active life and withdrawn to his country home/private medical center, with it's state of the art research capabilities and operating room.
As a character, Robert (Antonio Banderas) is a wonderful mash; a successful plastic surgeon at the top of his profession and a kind of a world beater in terms of medical research, and yet the sum total of what he doesn't know about his own private life is astonishing. He invents a kind of super skin capable of resisting the various "handling" traumas of life which subtly brings into question the actual living and breathing person inside all that outward perfection. Which introduces the character of Vera; she's (Elena Anaya) the fateful burn victim stoically enduring every procedure no matter how painful in order to live another day. The depths of her suffering is more than a little unsettling.
There's actually quite a long list of things to like about this film. The lensing is outstanding---there's a sense of poise to everything. I particularly loved the shots positioned on the horizontal axis which, in addition to being constantly visually arresting, subconsciously establishes the idea of superiority and looking down at something or someone.
Other nice things? The exquisite set decoration---just the lamps in this film are completely insane. The escaped tiger on the prowl. The shot where the "therapeutic" tools lined up on a dresser which suggest the bars of a prison cell and a life sentence with no hope of parole. If we remove the good doctor from the mix, this story could easily be either be the tragedy of one woman, or another woman's indestructible desire to live. Robert's little lab rat is watched on camera 24/7 on the various screens in the house and yet she's also rather steely eyed and observant---nothing escapes her attention, which Robert misreads as coquetry.
But best of all, the film is kind of a puzzle. Almodóvar really plays with your identification with the various characters, achieving at times, complete reversals of sympathy and this usually happens imperceptibly. Vera's skin colored body suit is a great visual example of this. Unfortunately, the film seems to be a little distant: most of the characters seem to be a little dicey and immediately set off your spidey sense---making one a little reluctant to sympathize with them emotionally.
This is basically a horror film with all the gore excised, so the audience is left with suggestion and drama. There's a depth to the story, so film is guaranteed to provide lots of fodder for the after screening coffee shop or restaurant discussion. The irony of Robert's vocation becoming his avocation---he's basically paid to do exactly that. Is he a kind of Professor Higgins character, who instead of phonetics and frilly dresses, uses scalpels and blow torches? The logical conclusions of merciless eye for an eye style retribution and justice. Or the idea that suffering indelibly molds and defines who you are?