Dans ma peau

Saw this at a cult film festival. You'd think a cult audience would be able to stomach depictions of self-inflicted violence, but several people walked out. I can't really blame them. It is an intimate and plausible portrait of a woman who has lived her life on autopilot until she finally finds a way to feel alive and beautiful: by mutilating herself. She seems painfully aware that her friends and coworkers won't get it, understandably, and that once she takes that path, there is only one way out.

Devastating.

This is a movie made with the confidence of one who knows exactly what she is trying to communicate. The problem is that what is being communicated is so far beyond the norm that it is not going to be easily grasped. Esther is a highly intelligent young woman. The main thread of the story begins when she accidentally injures herself. Through the injury she begins to see her herself as merely meat, an object. Meat can not suffer, has no emotions, has no ambitions, is immune to the pressures and pettiness of everyday life. She finds this release increasingly more fascinating and attractive. This is not something she can communicate to anyone around her so she explores it in secret attempting to finally exist as a mere object devoid of all humanity. Her loneliness adds a cutting edge of sadness to the story. If she found the right person to share her thoughts with we may have ended up with an equally bizarre love story.

I found it difficult to watch this movie all the way through without a break. Some of my friends have not even managed to watch it past the first twenty minutes. If you do manage to sit through this movie, I am pretty sure that not only will you thereafter remember it vividly, you will also find it hard to stop talking about it.

"In My Skin" is considered by many horror fans as the most disturbing film ever made.I really don't know why,because I have seen much more graphic scenes of self-mutilation in "Cutting Moments" and Japanese "Naked Blood".It's still an excellent and deeply unsettling piece of horror.A young woman named Esther(Marina de Van)indulges in self-mutilation.She starts cutting herself and keeping pieces of her own flesh in her purse.However "In My Skin" refuses to explain Esther's behavior.At first we are led to believe that Esther cuts herself because she feels nothing else in her life,but I'm not really sure that this is the point.Anyway,the performance of the lead actress Marina de Van is excellent and the gore effects are quite good.So if you like transgressive cinema give it a look,but if you're easily offended don't watch it.8 out of 10.

In this french psychological horror flick you have a woman who's seriously losing touch with the real world. The real world in a common sense way of thinking is a place where a person would never want to eat them-self. Well, in our leading lady's world, this is the case.

In My Skin is really a bizarre flick. It's not overly gross, it's not gory, it's not offensive, but I'll be damned if this flick didn't make me feel weird while watching it. It's incredibly intimate with it's portrayal of a really messed up situation. There were many instances where I'd feel uncomfortable, and that rarely happens to me.

I always thought I was kinda weird (I was told that it's weird) when I would pick a scab off and eat it. But this takes that to a whole new level, and I can kinda see where my friends were coming from when they were telling me that what I was doing was messed up. I didn't stop, and who knows if our French character will either.

Give this flick a shot if you're into unique film-making. But if you're slightly queasy about graphic bloody injuries, I'd say pass. But you'd be missing out, since this is one portrayal of a personality that's quite unique.

I was bitterly disappointed with this film. I was expecting something, deep challenging and thought provoking. As it was, yeah I nearly walked out as well, but only through boredom. The special effects are at a level of unrealism only surpassed by bad horror films- found myself laughing at scenes meant, presumably, to be something other than comedy. What could have been a fascinating portrayal of self injury ends up as forgettable blood porn and if you want that go see Crash, at least that cast can act.