In My Skin

Amazon.com

Much like Roman Polanski's Repulsion, In My Skin chronicles a young woman's descent into madness. Esther (Marina de Van) accidentally gashes her leg at a party, but instead of being alarmed by the sight of her torn flesh, she becomes fascinated by it. She begins cutting herself, much to the dismay of her best friend (Lea Drucker) and boyfriend (Laurent Lucas), who are unnerved by her refusal to discuss her actions. From there things only get more horrifying, but it's not simply the fact of self-mutilation that makes In My Skin compelling, it's the movie's acute depiction of psychological dislocation. This is not a movie for everyone--the cutting is unsettlingly realistic and vivid--but viewers drawn to portraits of emotional extremity (like, for example, The Piano Teacher) will find In My Skin gripping. Written and directed by de Van, who co-wrote Francois Ozon's 8 Women and Under the Sand. --Bret Fetzer

Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

Weak.......2007-03-05

There's no real violence here. Just some crazy, french chick that wipes blood from a knife onto her skin. Ohhhhh, I use the same 'horrifing' technique to put mayonaise on sandwiches. Some elements were entertaining, such as her attempt to conceal her insanity from her boyfriend and colleages, which built suspense and tension. Worth renting, but good luck finding a wierdo-foreign film like this at a rental store. I mean 'wierdo-foreign film' in a good way of course.

In my skin.......2007-02-24

In My Skin is a very hard movie to follow with it being in English subtitles and with every thing going on in the move. If you have a weak stomach for blood or self mutilation this is not for you. This movie is VERY graphic and shows a lot of self mutilation to the point of removal of chunks of skin.

Would have been better as a short film........2006-07-17

Slow as molasses story about a woman who accidentally gashes her leg in a fall and soon becomes obsessed with playing with the wound and in creating more cuts. That's about it. It always amazes me how filmmakers can take a 20 minute idea and tell it in 93 minutes.

For other, better, females gone strange check out: REPLUSION, MAY, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, KISSED and MISERY. Hell even the boring NEKROMANTIK 2 was more eventful than this snoozer.

In my skin....in all our skins!.......2006-03-01

The first time i saw marina de van was in francois ozon's film see the sea and felt her character in that film was pretty insane from the get go. But she had some dark unique beauty in her that is hard for me to explain perfectly. That dark unique beauty trancends even more in her own film In my skin. Yes it's a very disturbing film and you're honestly not given an exact reason why she's into cutting herself. It's all ambiguous. But one thing for sure is that it'll keep you in your seat because you need to see the outcome of this film which in the end leaves you wondering. I'd personally loved it and thought it was way better than Trouble everyday and even The piano teacher. Check it out!

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THESE FRENCH PEOPLE?.......2006-01-19

This story of an ordinary woman's descent into madness truly shocks. Although this is no exploitation flick, and if you want just to watch something really nasty, don't bother - this one is not only a film of gore. Of course it's quite disturbing (but I bet you've seen much more disturbing ones), but generally it's a food for thought. Here it's not only cutting and flesh-gnawing that's important, but a clash of Esther and society. We see how difficult is to deal with other people when you have a slight, so to say, deviation. And on the other hand how hard is to communicate with someone who has this deviation. As soon as Esther acquires this strange habit of cutting herself, her relations with her fiance and with colleagues deteriorate very quickly, and Marina De Van asks us (maybe asking herself at the same time): is society wrong not accepting some weird manifestations of a person? Or is this person wrong? Is Esther insane? Or is it just an innocent devotion of hers? You'll have to answer all these questions yourself which is rather difficult, because De Van doesn't give us any clues. Maybe it's good she doesn't tell us what to think. The ending is pretty obscure and ambiguous, personally I don't know what to think yet. But it's not the first movie about European society, happy and decent from the outside, disturbed and distorted inside. Maybe we'd want to see some tendency here.
People wish to devour themselves and other people - there's much to think here about. Probably "In My Skin" would remind you of "Trouble Every Day" with Vincent Gallo, they are pretty much the same. Some will recall Roman Polanski's "Repulsion". Anyway, if you like really dark, disturbing and thoughtful pictures (the majority of which is European, as it appeares lately), you'll like this one too. It's rather slow and sleepy, but maybe for a reason.

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