The Skin I Live In (2011)

Only a true genius can make one film after another and somehow manage to shock and awe the audience each and every time with his unique talent to transform the deepest darkest subjects of fantasies we could possibly imagine into not only art but into sheer beauty and a total masterpiece.

If you want to see a provocative beautifully directed film that keeps you guessing while glued to the seat then this a film for you. If you are a narrow minded prude then you probably will get nightmares from watching this.

I can never get enough of Almodovar's films, they are as addictive as they are unique.

Fmovies: In Toledo, the scientist and surgeon Dr. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) is researching a synthetic skin capable to resist fire and any harm after the death of his beloved wife, who was burnt in a car accident. He is isolated in his mansion with his maid Marilia (Marisa Paredes) and his mysterious subject Vera Cruz (Elena Anaya), who is testing his experiment but is locked in her room.

After the assault of the thug Zeca (Roberto Álamo), who raped Vera, Robert has a nightmare with his daughter Norma (Blanca Suárez), who was raped in a party by the youngster Vicente (Jan Cornet) and committed suicide later. Robert plots a scheme to revenge his daughter that has begun with the abduction of Vicente. What is the connection between Vicente and Vera?

"La Piel que Habito" is an intriguing and dark film of revenge and obsession by Pedro Almodóvar that recalls George Franju's "Les Yeux Sans Visage" ("Eyes without a Face") but in a David Cronenberg's style.

It was very difficult for me to write the plot summary without spoilers since the screenplay is very well developed like a puzzle and the mystery is kept along most part of the story. The gorgeous Elena Anaya has a great performance in her ambiguous role. Antonio Banderas and Marisa Paredes are wonderful, as usual. Ending my review, I would like to write that even those viewers that have never seen a film by Almodóvar will enjoy "La Piel que Habito". My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "A Pele que Habito" ("The Skin I Live in")

The Skin I Live In is really a film that should be seen by a very big audience, obviously it's a movie that probably doesn't appeal to a very big crowd, it appeals to an older crowd or a young hipster type crowd who enjoy foreign films. I have read the novella Tarantula that this is supposedly loosely based on, however I found that it followed the novel extremely closely, I thought a lot of the twists and stuff that were in the book would be taken out if the film but thankfully most are present and accounted for.

Antonio Banderas is so terrific as the leading man, he hasn't looked this great in screen in a long time, I think he seems more at home in his native language, and Elena Anaya is absolutely radiant on the big screen, her face just lights up the screen and she is absolutely exceptional in a very strange role. The story is really a bizarre one, it's seems like a less perverted De Sade and a more understandable David Lynch, it always takes you by surprise and it is highly original and also somewhat daring I think, and thank god a director like Almodovar decided to film it and not some silly director.

The cinematography and music is beautiful, the colours and textures in the film are picked up beautifully by the camera and the music is a great companion to each scene, it's so close to perfection in the production design department that i would go so far to say as I haven't seen a better looking film this year.

This movie is in my opinion the least accessible of all of Almodovar's films but I hope it doesn't put people off, as his touch and style is clear and present here. It's very different, strange, perverted, horrific, beautiful and always entertaining.

Enjoy :)

The Skin I Live In fmovies. In his latest film Almodóvar takes a qualitative jump into new philosophical depths. His usual reflections on the nature of relationships and the consequence of one's actions take on a well- defined shape and advance forward with self-assurance.

The order in which the events of the story are told is a cunning device that allows the director to make us reflect on how superficially - indeed, skin-deep - we perceive reality and how quick we are to judge first impressions and jump to conclusions. What we first perceive one way, those initial scenes that slightly baffle us but which we nevertheless do not hesitate to judge in a specific way, take on a completely new meaning when the story pauses to take us back into the past in order to tell us about an important series of events that happened at the time which bear a direct relation to present events. The new light that is shed on the present changes completely our perception of the story as we had first witnessed it, which is a humbling experience. We are then taken back again to the present and continue watching the rest of the film, but with this completely new understanding of the real underlying motivations for the characters' actions. It is at this point that through a slight thriller-style twist in the plot the story takes on a Shakespearean dimension as it delivers its powerful humanist lesson that vengeance begets vengeance.

Food for thought, in fact enough food to last you days and feed other people, as you are left on the one hand wondering at the concept of skin: what we actually desire when we desire someone, whether all desire is skin-deep, whether the skin does not allow us to see the person behind. And on the other hand you are left with the reflection on how the road of vengeance leads only to self-destruction. When a film leaves you pondering so deeply, I can only conclude it is a great film.

Nice Almodóvar film revolving around a a nutty doctor (Antonio Banderas) who creates a type of synthetic skin and attempts to remake the bruised body of beloved beings , then , he kidnaps people . Moody terror movie about a mad doctor , assisted by a maid (Marisa Paredes) , removes the structure of a gorgeous women and attempts to graft her skin onto her body . His guinea pig results to be a brave and rebel girl (Elena Anaya) , but this patient is very closely linked to dramatic deeds from past he would like to forget , then things go wrong .

Austerily wonderful mysterious film that contains intense drama , thrills , chills , and haunting poetic fantasy . In this enjoyable as well as eerie flick , Almodóvar established again his uniquely poetic and visually striking style , though imitating to classy "Eyes Without A Face" (1960) , the masterpiece directed by George Franju . This is a similar story but revisited by Pedro with his ordinary roles and situations , including rape , kink sex , strong love scenes and marvelous actresses . This splendid Spanish production is generally characterized by unforgettable images that owed a great deal to early cinema in general . Engaging and twisted script Pedro Almodóvar based on Thierry Jonquet's novel . Pedro worked on the script for almost a decade, and what initially was a retelling ended up being more of an inspired tale . The story is not massively strong , but it is not bad either , as Almodóvar strings a few o different threads together and that , along with tension and skin going on throughout tends to ensure the movie is always interesting and thrilling . The music by Oscar winner Alberto Iglesias , Almodovar's regular , is good in which it fits the style and feeling of the film . Luxurious and colorful cinematography by the prestigious José Luis Alcaine .The cast is also standout element of the film , as Pedro recasts Banderas in the character of unsettling doctor . Antonio Banderas is brilliant as a disturbing researcher/scientific/surgeon haunted by past tragedy who takes people removing their faces and attempts to graft them new skins . Support cast is frankly good , such as : Roberto Álamo , Eduard Fernández , Barbara Lennie , José Luis Gómez , Jan Cornet , Blanca Suárez , Susi Sánchez , Fernando Cayo . And brief appearance , as usual , by Agustin Almodóvar , Pedro's brother and film producer . .

This issue about a doctor who attempts to remake the bruised face of intimate people has been treated several times in the European cinema , such as : ¨Eyes without a face¨ (1960) by George Franju , ¨The windmill of the stone women¨ by Giorgo Ferroni . And especially by the prolific writer/producer/director Jesús Franco who shot : The Awful Dr. Orlof (1962) deemed to be the first movie of the ¨Spanish Fantaterror¨ and following a long series as El Secreto del Dr. Orloff (1964) aka "The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll" - USA . It's gone on by " Orloff y el hombre invisible (1970) aka "Dr. Orloff's Invisible Monster" , ¨Ojos siniestros de Doctor Orloff¨(1973) . Furthermore , El enigma Del Ataúd (1969) aka "Only a Coffin" and El Siniestro doctor Orloff (1984) aka "The Sinister Dr. Orloff . Finally in ¨Faceless¨ or Depredadores de Noche¨(1987) .

Pedro Almodovar has created a daring and entirely unique masterpiece, a word that I do not use lightly or often. The Skin I Live In has a lot that of aspects that feel very Almodovar, but there's also a lot of Cronenberg here as well, and with the latter being my favorite director it's no surprise that I fell in love with it quickly. The film is a startling, wild study into a world of obsession, revenge and the complexities of the human flesh. Almodovar has really outdone himself here, crafting a tale of wicked intensity and rarely met eccentricity.

The structure here is one of it's more interesting aspects and yet another film this year that isn't told in a strictly linear fashion. We first meet Doctor Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) in the present day, as he works tirelessly on perfecting a new skin for his subject, the young and beautiful Vera (Elena Anaya). Almodovar establishes us in this present day world, complete with a very Almodovar subplot (a man in a tiger suit comes to the house and brings some trouble) and a lot of baggage for Ledgard. We get to know these people, become intrigued by what brought them to their current state and that we jump back six years to explore this character further.

It's a surprising jump and I must admit that it got me off guard at first, but as we spend more and more time in the past building up to the present I slowly came to terms with what Almodovar was doing. He gave us a stake in the present day world so that when he took us into the past it becomes about more than just laying out the facts. We already have a perception on Ledgard and a curiosity into understanding the events that bring him to where we met him, so the film becomes as much of a fascinating game of putting these puzzle pieces together as it is a character study and all-around masterwork of high drama.

Slowly the pieces start to come together and I found myself constantly trying to figure out what happened in this world, how these events in the past connect to the present day we were introduced to. When we finally get our answer...stunned...amazed...jaw-unhinged...none of these words can even begin to describe what happened to my mind. This is a twist that doesn't exist for shock value by any means but absolutely sent me to the floor, one of the most shocking and unexpected moves in cinema history as far as I'm concerned. It threw me for a major loop and everything I had come to perceive about these characters and their world was altered in an instant. Everything became a thousand times more fascinating and complex with the use of one simple word.

As I said before, this is a piece of the most miraculous and bold high-drama, a world where anything is possible but nothing feels out of place. That is perhaps the most shocking aspect of the film itself, that Almodovar gives us a story filled to the brim with melodrama but none of it feels contrived or too weird or too much. Everything feels totally natural and believable in the world that Almodovar establishes for us. His ability to make this happen is nothing short of extraordinary. Of course he doesn't do it alone and there are a lot of other aspects to the film that contribute to making it work on every conceivable level, to bring us into this incredible world.

Of course there are the performances, which are just a dream on their own. I've never been a fan of Antonio Banderas and I've honestly been hesitant to watch films just based on his involvement, but he delivers something here that I ne