X
- 2011
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 2 h
- 2011
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 2 h
Summary Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a fu...
Directed By: Pedro Almodóvar
Written By: Agustín Almodóvar, Thierry Jonquet, Pedro Almodóvar
- 2011
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 2 h
- 2011
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 2 h
The Skin I Live In
70
8.0
Where to Watch
Summary Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a fu...
Directed By: Pedro Almodóvar
Written By: Agustín Almodóvar, Thierry Jonquet, Pedro Almodóvar
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 37 Critic Reviews
70
70% Positive
26 Reviews
26 Reviews
30% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 37 Critic Reviews
70
70% Positive
26 Reviews
26 Reviews
30% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
And while it may be true that Almodóvar doesn't have Hitchcock's way with terror, it's not clear that Hitchcock could leave the real world behind so wholly and convincingly as Almodóvar does here.
Even when the film's frigid elegance, perfectly captured by cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, becomes off-puttingly clinical, Almodóvar's passion burns through. The skin he lives in is alive to challenge no matter what warped form it takes.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 175 User Ratings
8.0
90% Positive
157 Ratings
157 Ratings
9% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
1% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 175 User Ratings
8.0
90% Positive
157 Ratings
157 Ratings
9% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
1% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
superb story and the way it plays in the screen was good
never expected this kind of climax brilliant
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The Skin I Live in is Almodóvar reaching back to his sickest, kinkiest self, and it's nice to see him trying to luxuriate in sleaze again.
The Skin I Live In is a meditation on profound themes: memory, grief, violence, degradation, and survival - so why does it leave the viewer (at least this one) so curiously unmoved? Watching the parts of this multigenerational melodrama slowly fuse into a coherent (if wackily improbable) whole offers aesthetic and intellectual gratification, but little in the way of emotional punch.
As coldly calculating and infuriating as it can be, the film and its production design are stunning. But characters' actions and motivations are beyond comprehension.
It's as disquieting as it is unsatisfying, a slog through gender issues, surgery and violence - sexual and otherwise.
It's the only Almodóvar movie in which feeling, emotional or sexual, doesn't suffuse the imagery and hold the ramshackle melodrama together.
This was a movie that had me in awe as I had no clue that the characters were so interlinked.
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I know people say this all the time, but this is the best movie I have seen in probably 5 years. i searched out all of Pedro Almodovar's other movies because of this. I won't give anything away, don't read about it, just watch this amazing movie, kind of a remake of Eyes Without a Face, but like 10x crazier.
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[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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After three straight boring disasters, this film is an improvement. He is still no where near the top of his game as in "All About My Mother" or "Talk to Her" but at at least I was interested and did not walk out shaking my head and cursing. The story was too convoluted for the mild payoff that we got at the end but at least there was a payoff. Pedro is simply running out off his bag of kinky tricks as times are passing him by. Een the old style 1960's endings are starting to lose their allure. Still, it gave me hope that the next film may return us to the mountaintop we reached a decade ago. I am wiling to give it a try.
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This is a very bizarre movie that has a good idea at its core but is very badly executed. The first half of the movie is bizarre and makes little sense and offers the viewer nothing in the way of explaination of who the characters are and why things are happening. On top of this, the directing gives the first half a confusing impression: much of it seems like it is meant to be a farce and I was wondering if I was meant to be finding the bizarre antics funny. Only the thing is is that much of it is quite unsettling and contains a disturbingly creepy man who abuses his own mum and then **** a young woman who has been locked in a room for a very long time. All this leaves the very confused as to what the hell is going on and what direction the movie is going in.
The second half at least begins to explain some of what we have seen in the first half and from that point onwards you can at least look forward to progression and plot development. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of things that still don't make much sense and the viewer is expected to accept some fairly large diversions from logical reality (people do things and react to situations in ways no normal real world person would, along with many other things that don't fit with normal reality).
About 2/3 of the way through you figure out where the movie is going (but still not really WHY) and then it is simply a case of watching the inevitable take place on the screen. The ending is unsatisfying and finishes at a point where there is actually some potential for interesting themes.
I feel I need to qualify my opinion with the fact that I watch many foreign language and independent bizarre films so it is not just the case that I am someone used to very mainstream conventional films.
While everyone has different opinions, I'm amazed that this film gets such universally positive reviews. I can't help feeling that perhaps this has something to do with it being a foreign language film which I think bluffs many pretentious people into thinking it 'must be good cus it's foreign', and if they don't like it they think it's because they don't understand the more 'intellectual' foreign ways. No, it's just not very good.
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Production Company
Blue Haze Entertainment,
Canal+ España,
El Deseo,
FilmNation Entertainment,
Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO),
Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA),
Televisión Española (TVE)
Release Date Oct 14, 2011
Duration 2 h
Rating R
Website
http://www.lapielquehabito.com/
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
Goya Awards
• 4 Wins & 16 Nominations
Spanish Actors Union
• 1 Win & 5 Nominations
