nzswanny The Skin I Live in is a very disturbing movie about plastic surgery, and if you are easily disturbed I suggest you know what you're in for. This Spanish horror movie stars Antonio Banderas as an obsessed plastic surgeon called Robert Ledgard that looks for the way to make the perfect skin and who gives a subtly eerie performance that visualizes the insanity of obsession, breaking thick boundaries to get there. Unexpectedly, the film then entirely develops into a horrific nightmare that gets more frightening as it goes along, with Robert Ledgard going to extreme lengths to create the skin as perfect as possible. There have been a lot of shocking scenes in this film that have stuck in my memory for a few days now and have troubled my mind hauntingly, and that effect on a two hour event gets my dearest respect for the courage it has to not play it safe and keep away from disturbing it's audience. The soundtrack, editing and cinematography then top it all off, creating an extremely disturbing horror movie that is repulsing and at the same time frighteningly fascinating.

iaieteaime It is truly puzzling how this movie approaches each character's perspective and memories. I was astounded by the delicacy with which each detail was placed into the film. This truly is a film worth watching, but be prepared to be shaken up a bit. The actors are truly the cream of the crop, and they are able to properly allow us to delve deep within their character's emotions.

tomgillespie2002 The work of lauded Spanish writer/director Pedro Almodovar has always been relatively unclassifiable. While his movies clearly bare his fingerprints, the tone can often switch between high drama and comedy, tragedy and farce, restrained and sexually liberated, and often within the same scene. 'Melodrama' is the tag he usually receives, but his vision is far more complex than that. The Skin I Live In, a film which reunites him with actor Antonio Banderas 22 years after Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989) is perhaps his most genre-conscious yet. It's a teasing thriller cleverly disguised as a horror, taking inspiration from classics and art-house pieces that explored both the beauty and horror of the human form, and our eagerness to tamper with it.The reserved and clearly mad plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard (Banderas) is on the verge of a breakthrough in the development of a synthetic human skin; one that avoids blemishing and has a resistance to mosquito bites and even fire. While his ethics are questioned by his peers, he also holds a terrible secret. At his home, he keeps a beautiful woman named Vera (Elena Anaya) locked away in a white room surrounded by cameras. The images are shown throughout the house, and Robert usually watches with fascination and desire on a huge screen that takes up most of the wall its perched upon. His loyal housekeeper Marilia (Marisa Paredes) also seems to harbouring a secret, and when her violent son Zeca (Roberto Alamo) returns, he sets off a sequence of events that will affect the lives of everyone involved. To give any more of the plot away would be to reveal too much, and Almodovar is happy to tease us by jumping back and forth between the past, present and the not- too- distant past.It could be argued that this technique is a cheap tactic, but Almodovar wants to keep us from making any knee-jerk judgements until we've fully grasped the mindset of the characters. The movie goes to some seriously twisted places, and would perhaps be laughable if the events weren't so masterfully and elegantly pieced together. The doctor is terribly mad - this is evident early on - but Almodovar is clearly intrigued and seduced by Ledgard's dedication to his craft and his obsession over his creation. Banderas is brilliant in the role and reveals a more reserved and darker side to the persona seen in his American movies, as is Anaya, who manages to exercise a range of emotions through those stunning brown eyes of hers. If you enjoyed the themes explored in the likes of Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (1960), Hiroshi Teshigahara's The Face of Another (1966) and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, then The Skin I Live In will no doubt fascinate you as it wanders into some incredibly dark places.

gelineeweenie I've been meaning to watch this film for some time, but knowing that it might be confronting have put if off. Confronting it was... If you read through the reviews on IMDb you will find a lot of people telling you it's a horror film along the 'silence of the lambs' vein. Although it has that element, I found the film to be a complex look into the unhealthy way in which men relate to women. Whether it be the animalistic 'tiger' predator, the man who puts women up on a pedestal by objectifying the 'perfect woman', the young 'accidental' rapist, the son who treats his mother as a servant or the incestuous father, most women will identity with at least one of the creepy relationships in this film.If you consider yourself a feminist, it will test you. How far would you go to obtain revenge? What would it take to teach a man what we, as women, go through? Who is in charge of teaching that lesson? It opens up so many questions, which to me is the mark of a great film.