Pedro Almodovar is the most successful and acclaimed Spanish director of the last 30 years. Although he makes accessible, adult movies that blend comedy, melodrama and pop culture into his own unique style, Almodovar is categorized in the U.S. as an art-house director and his films have never received mainstream commercial success. Although he has won an Academy Award for best foreign language film and several Cannes Film Festival awards, Almodovar has never abandoned his native Spain for the lure of Hollywood money.
The Skin I Live In (2011) is somewhat of a departure for Almodovar in that it incorporates traditional horror film elements into his melodramatic formula. Antonio Banderas plays Dr. Robert Ledgard, a renowned scientist who is attempting to develop synthetic human skin. His wife died years earlier in a car accident and he is trying to create skin that will be impervious to fire and cuts. However, Dr. Ledgard is soon revealed to be an obsessed “mad scientist” that has actually kidnapped a young woman named Vera in order to have a test subject for his skin experiments.
Dr. Ledgard keeps Vera locked in his isolated mansion, bound in a compression bandage to keep her synthetic skin graft in place. Vera is a morose and mysterious figure who looks more like a mummy than a living woman. After a visit from the housekeeper’s son ends in brutality and violence, the film begins to reveal the tangled web of sinister events that has led both Ledgard and Vera to this dark and twisted existence.
At times, the film’s outlandish plot has comical coincidences but they always lead to gruesome and disturbing developments. The Skin I Live In reminded me a of a modern-day giallo with its sometimes absurd but always diabolical plot twists and turns amidst the picturesque European locations. It is difficult to discuss any events in this movie without giving away the myriad of surprises Almodovar presents throughout the film. Suffice to say that Ledgard and Vera both have vicious secret pasts that are revealed in flashback, and eventually they become lovers. However, as one is captor and the other captive this affair always carries an ominous undertone of menace.
While The Skin I Live In is filled with dark and violent scenes, Almodovar keeps the tone from being overly bleak through his vivid mis-en-scene and the melodramatic quality of the script and performances. Casting Antonio Banderas in the lead is part of the key to keeping the film from becoming a parade of misery. Banderas, who Almodovar made a star through numerous early movies, brings those movie star looks to the role of a mad scientist. The audience wants to like him and feels sympathy for him at times because even when he is committing atrocious acts he never projects the quality of someone who is truly evil. Whether Banderas is capable as an actor to even project those emotions is debatable but you can judge that for yourself.
The Skin I Live In obviously borrows heavily from the surreal classic Eyes Without A Face, but it does so with a knowing wink. Almodovar uses both Eyes Without A Face and Frankenstein as the genre canvas on which to paint his own original piece of modern pop-gothic art. He takes horror genre elements and builds a 21st Century version of those classic tales by adding a layer of sexuality that those earlier films could only hint at through obtuse subtext. The classic mind-body schism is contemplated through the lens of gender identity, sexuality and even love. Almodovar is contemplating not only what makes us human but also what makes humans male or female and asking where human sexuality fits on the continuum between the mind and body.
While this is an enjoyable film for all the reasons I have mentioned, it is not in the same league with Eyes Without A Face. That film may not ever be equaled for the quality and subtlety it used even while incorporating elements of medical horror in its contemplation of the pain of human loss and suffering. Almodovar’s modern version of medical horror is an interesting experiment and it is nice to see a filmmaker step out of his comfort zone and tackle an unfamiliar genre with such genuine affection and verve.
Available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Sony Pictures.
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