La pelle

I'd like to say that all these comments against this movie are inaccurate. La Pelle is a great movie. Hollywood would never make a movie like this. This movie has nothing to do with `Pearl Harbor'. La Pelle is a work of art, this is not another US war propaganda designed for a public brain wash. This movie is realistic, funny and sad at the same time. The story is very cleaver, intelligent. Perhaps, Americans don't like it because this movie depicts the US army involved in prostitution and in a certain disregard for the Italian people. Anyway, it's the best war movie I've ever watched in my life. There is no lies like in `Rambo', there is no hate like in `Platoon' (in which is good movie too). I recommend , I would say that it's excellent.

I have more or less the same feelings toward The Skin as I do towards Liliana Cavani's more well-known The Night Porter. Both movies deal with provocative and uncomfortable sexual themes/situations taking place during World War II. Both are daring and sound fascinating on paper. Both are also weirdly boring, making me feel as though Cavani is a filmmaker who's admirably daring and willing to go to places most other directors won't go, but at the same time, can't really tell a story or make things properly involving.

Much of what The Skin and The Night Porter explores is thought-provoking and boundary-pushing. These are difficult stories that I'm glad have been told, but I just wish they were told better. I was shocked by how boring The Night Porter was, and I'm similarly surprised/disappointed by how dull and poorly paced The Skin was.

I also didn't like how the whole thing was in Italian, even though many scenes involve characters who don't speak the same language interacting and needing translators. It's very odd and distracting to have to remind yourself "I hear Italian right now, but in the film's universe, this character is actually speaking English at the moment, and so the actual Italian characters can't understand him/her."

The Skin succeeds in being thought-provoking and disturbing, but fails elsewhere, as a movie. And it's not that I think it should be "entertaining" in the traditional sense, given the subject matter. I just think it should be more involving and engrossing on a gut level. I can honestly understand why this one wallows in obscurity, despite some things here that are certainly able to be appreciated.

One of my all-time favorite war films. Americans might have trouble with it as it doesn't show us in the best possible light, but it is probably very close to the truth. It demonstrates better than any film I've seen how terrible and dispiriting life can be for a defeated population. Marcello Mastroianni gives another of his trademark world-weary but compassionate performances as the liaison between the American and Italian armies.

My father was in this film as the "Veterinarian" and therefore I was able to be on the set for a couple of the scene's being filmed. This was a great experience and being up close to the filming, the director and the cast was really a fantastic opportunity and then to see the film when it was released in an Italian movie theater as a finished product was a real treat.

Over the years I have had contact with a few of the American's that were cast for "La Pele" (most of them as extra's). Many of the American's were from the NATO base in Naples, Italy and were friends with or knew my father.

This may not have been the greatest war film ever made but the experience that I had was great and will always be remembered.

Mike Cohen / mikesc99@hotmail.com

In 1943, in Naples, Germans have just left the city when the Americans arrive, commanded by Gen. Mark Clark (Burt Lancaster), having the Italian Captain Curzio Malaparte (Marcello Mastroianni) as the liaison. The population is starving, with women and children prostituting themselves for food. Principessa Consuelo Caracciolo (Claudia Cardinale) is a noble Italian friend of Malaparte, and seems to be very adapted to all situations. Private Jimmy Wren (Ken Marshall) is the support of Captain Malaparte, and falls in love with a local girl. Honorific Colonel Deborah Wyatt (Alexandra King), an arrogant pilot and wife of an American Senator, comes to Naples to be promoted and get votes for her husband and the American president. Malaparte is assigned to show her the situation of the city. This movie is very strange, bizarre and violent. But although paradoxical, it is also fascinating. It shows a defeated people, needing to sell sons and daughters to survive. The last scene, when a tank passes over a local and Jimmy comes to apologize to Malaparte is fantastic. It shows the relation between winners and losers in a war. The cast has Burt Lancaster, Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale, among others good actors and actresses. I like very much the work of Liliana Caviani, but this film certainly is not indicated for all audiences. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): `A Pele' (`The Skin')