It happens that Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist opens on the premiere of just such a film, with a live orchestra. He’s high on drugs, she’s full of prescription pills, and the encounter goes badly.Īt his press conference, Almodóvar said he considered making La Piel Que Habito as a black and white, silent film. Here a brash young store window designer, Vicente (Jan Cornet), meets and tries to seduce Ledgard’s daughter Norma (Blanca Suárez) at a party. The movie traces how he’s come to this desperate point, cutting to six years ago. Vera is a Frankenstein’s monster, surgically and genetically engineered to fulfill Ledgard’s revenge fantasy. Though its formal parameters may be different for Almodóvar, the themes of La Piel Que Habito are familiar, including family dysfunction, sexual transgression, and shifting gender identities.

He also announced that he has entered a “thriller” period, influenced by Fritz Lang, as well as Franju’s definitively creepy Les yeux sans visage ( Eyes Without a Face). And, yes, she looks a lot like his dead wife.Īlmodóvar insisted at his Cannes press conference that La Piel Que Habito is “not science-fiction,” given that human genome experiments have become a reality. Vera is entirely Ledgard’s creation, his work of art. The doctor watches her on a giant monitor as she moves around her room. Vera’s entire body surface is covered with the new skin, over which she wears a protective skin-colored bodysuit. He’s been testing on a mysterious woman, Vera (Elena Anaya), who lives in a locked room in his house, under strict observation of the maid Marilia (Marisa Paredes). This question hovers, as you learn that Ledgard, a plastic surgeon living in Madrid, in working on the skin, broke bioethics laws forbidding transgenesis and experimenting on humans. He’s dedicated this work to the memory of his wife, who burned to death in a car accident - or did she? Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) has genetically engineered a new type of skin, resistant to fire and malaria-infested mosquito bites, among other things. The first few minutes of Pedro Almodóvar ‘s La Piel Que Habito ( The Skin I Live In) suggest an intricate plot.

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