Review: Dans ma peau (2002)

IN MY SKIN (DANS MA PEAU)
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Esther (writer/director Marina de Van, "See the Sea," cowriter "Under the
Sand," "8 Women") initially seems a little reluctant to begin networking
for a job, but effortlessly flirts with her girlfriend Sandrine's (Léa
Drucker, "Chaos") boss at a party one night.  She also has a nasty run-in
with some metal outside in the yard, yet oddly, Esther seems unaware that
she's ripped her leg open until she notices she's tracking blood in the
bathroom. Esther's calm gaze as a doctor sutures her up (he's recommended a
skin graft, the injury is so severe) is but the first sign of a fascination
with her own outer packaging that becomes full blown psychosis "In My Skin."

This thoroughly disturbing French film goes beyond the cutting behavior
seen in "Secretary," "The Piano Teacher" and "Thirteen."  "In My Skin,"
which can be viewed as a metaphor for an inability to deal with modern
life, heralds the arrival of a powerful new filmmaker whose unflinching
exploration of madness recalls the works of Cronenberg, Polanski's
"Repulsion" and Lodge Kerrigan's "Clean, Shaven."

Esther's boyfriend Vincent (Laurent Lucas, "With A Friend Like Harry") is
troubled by the circumstances of her injury and the fact that she flinches
from his light touch.  Vincent's attention is divided, though, by their
financial status and the smell of sell-out around the corporate job he's
about to take. Working in Sandrine's office, Esther takes time out in a
storeroom to cut herself deeply around her healing wound, then tells her
girlfriend what she did.  She is also disturbingly condescending towards
Sandrine's work and the relationship becomes more strained when, against
Sandrine's advice, Esther speaks to their boss and is promoted over her.

Esther impresses clients (Dominique Reymond, "Demonlover" and Bernard
Alane, "Read My Lips") and her new boss Daniel (Thilbault de Montalembert,
"Stardom") with her research analysis and knowledge of the Middle East, but
at a business dinner, Esther begins gulping wine, then observes her
disembodied forearm on the table (which she reattaches beneath the
tablecloth and proceeds to stab with her knife and fork).  The consumption
of flesh by her colleagues gives rise to a need to consume her own.  Her
odd behavior noted, she leaves and checks into a hotel for an orgiastic
bout of self-cannibilism that rivals Denis's "Trouble Every Day" for
bloodletting.  The next day, she fakes a car accident to 'explain' her
state to Vincent, but he is obviously suspicious of the pitted flesh on her
upper thigh.  Her later horrific discovery at an ATM machine (fear the
words 'I need money') is the first sign of Esther's own disturbance by her
behavior, but Vincent's concern turns to frustrated avoidance when she
tells him she is crying over a forgotten PIN number.

Marina de Van, whose Christina Ricci forehead, raven hair and oddly spaced
teeth give her the appearance of a Bleeding Edge Goth doll, gradually
nudges Esther's behavior into the realm of madness.  Outside of her skin,
she appears to be in control.  She pinches the flesh around her wound and
peers into the cut and shows the agony of her first act of self-mutilation.
 She's aware enough to conceal behavior she knows will appear odd.  Her
business dinner incident is foreshadowed when she awakens that morning and
finds that her arm is asleep, flopping it about like an inanimate object.
Her final indulgences of her increasingly extreme behavior are preceded by
an inability to cope with the out of doors - lights are too bright, motion
too fast - the culmination of a collapse within herself that began with her
previous inabilities to deal with her job and modern technology.  "In My
Skin" could be seen as a fleshy, female companion piece to Laurent Cantet's
"Time Out."

Technically, de Van's production is first rate.  Director of Photography
Pierre Barougier follows Esther with a gliding camera, but the shots remain
tight, focusing on her face, to imply most of the nastier action.  She
employs a split screen in later stages, to both reflect the state of
Esther's mind and to partially obscure gruesome pictures.  Sound (Jerome
Aghion, Jerome Wiciak and Cyril Holtz) suggests stomach-tightening images
and sparely used original music by Esbjorn Svensson helps build unease.

Make no bones about it - "In My Skin" is an excruciatingly tough film to
sit through, but Marina de Van has created a minor masterpiece.

A-

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X-RT-RatingText: A-