Review: Dans ma peau (2002)

"In My Skin"

I have been doing the film critic thing for a long
time and have seen thousands of films at the theater.
In all that time and with all those films I was only
tempted once to walk out on a movie. Well, now I have
had this temptation a second time and that is with the
hard-to-take debut work by Marina De Van,  "In My
Skin."

I should explain myself. It is not that "In My Skin"
is a bad film. On the contrary, it is a movie of
amazing complexity with an intriguing lead character
that explores the depths of the human mind through the
eyes and actions of Esther. This exploration begins
with the young woman attending a cocktail party. For
some unknown reason, she wanders out of the house and
into a yard that is a construction site - in the dark.
As she strolls through the dangerous detritus in the
yard, she stumbles and falls, ripping her pants. As
she prepares to leave the party later, Esther uses the
ladies room and notices a trail of blood behind her.
The tear, it seems, was not just her pants and she
sees that her leg is horribly lacerated. But, she goes
out for cocktails with friends instead of heading to
the hospital right away  

This is the point where I started to get the urge to
leave the theater as Esther first explores the
pleasure pain of her injuries. Soon, this leads to
inflicting new gashes on her leg - this is not
graphically shown, making it all the more gut
wrenching. As the story progresses and Esther falls
deeper into madness, her self-abuse takes on epic
proportions as she attends an important work dinner -
she is newly promoted over her more experienced friend
and coworker. As her colleagues discuss marketing
methods in Japan, she hallucinates that her left arm
has taken a mind of its own. Soon, under the table,
she begins to cut herself and feel the divine anguish
of her wounds.

About now, my stomach is totally knotted and I am
watching "In My Flesh" with one eye wincingly closed.
Then it starts to get weird as Esther takes the
supreme leap from self-mutilation to self-cannibalism.
As she munches intently on her extremities, I began to
draw into a fetal ball in response to the horror on
the screen. But, like a train wreck, you cannot take
your eye (my other on was permanently shut at this
point) off of "In My Skin."

First time director Marina de Van has been writing
screenplays for a while with credits for "Under the
Sand" and "8 Woman." There were dark qualities in both
of those films but nothing that prepared me for the
tour-de-force debut by de Van behind the camera.

I don't think that I have ever reviewed a film like
"In My Skin." On one hand I was disgusted by the story
and reacted physically to the on screen violence that
Esther inflicts upon her own flesh. I came as close as
I ever did to walking out and not coming back. But,
there is something to admire in a work like this that
made the critic within me decide to sit it out.

The film is an allegory of Esther's inner fears and
doubts, which manifest, ultimately, in her consuming
herself in response to her insecurities at the
workplace. She is both ambitious and insecure and her
accident triggers the conflict that has been there all
along. At first, her self-awareness, sparked by her
injuries, causes her to examine the wounds, her skin
and its folds. She is soon inflicting new wounds and,
at this point, crosses a boundary. 

De Van's character study of Esther is the real draw
for those with a strong stomach who happen to want to
see a story about self-mutilation. There isn't much
beyond this, though, with other characters given
little or no shrift. Esther's boyfriend, Vincent
(Laurent Lucas), comes across as concerned when he
first learns of Esther's early pleasure pain
excursions.  But, as she descends into madness and
grosser and grosser acts of self-destruction he
doesn't seem to notice or care. This I think is the
actor's fault, though. Lucas gave no depth to his
character.

I'm at a quandary. "In My Skin" is not a film that I
could possibly recommend from a personal standpoint. I
don't see how someone could be attracted to a movie
that, quite literally, turned my stomach. But, I live
with a movie nut who just so happens to be a big fan
of the macabre, so I know there are people out there
to whom the film will hold interest. 

I guess I'll just say that "In My Skin" is
"interesting" but not my particular cup of tea and
leave it at that. I give it a B-.


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X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1221820
X-RT-TitleID: 1121104
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X-RT-RatingText: B-