Peau d'âne

To me, Donkey Skin (Peau d'Ane) is like Jean Cocteau reborn into the French New Wave(!). Gorgeous and stylized, it's a fairytale told with the cinematic magic we've come to expect from director Jacques Demy. This is a fairytale that adults will enjoy more than children, as it's full of dark humor. Ms. Deneuve is stunning as always, and the sassy fairy is also wonderful. Surreal and bizarre, Donkey Skin traps you into its world of bold colors, real-life french châteaux, living statues, and loads of fairy magic. But Demy doesn't seem content to let the viewer completely lose him/herself in the world he's created. The movie is full of self-references, something Demy had partly explored earlier with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but really let himself have fun with in Donkey Skin. For just when you come to believe the magic, Demy likes to remind you that this is just a movie. With only a smudge of dirt and an animal skin, the beautiful princess (Deneuve) is transformed on screen into the ugliest girl in the entire kingdom, so ugly that whenever she shares the screen with other characters, they all look on in horror. We still see a beautiful woman, under the dirt on her face and the donkey skin on her back, and we are reminded that this is only a movie-world. The helicopter is an amazing touch, and it made the movie for me. I won't say more, see it for yourself! (The reprint is currently making its rounds and is well worth it!)

A fairy godmother (Delphine Seyrig) helps a princess (Catherine Deneuve) disguise herself so she will not have to marry a man (Jean Marais) she does not love.

Jacques Demy loved fairy tales since childhood, and they remained a strong presence in his life. He attempted to make a Sleeping Beauty film in the 1950s, and ended up putting fairy tale references in both "Lola" (1961) and "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964). With "Donkey Skin", he finally succeeded, and made what could be his greatest film.

He also cast Catherine Deneuve, possibly Europe's greatest actress, and his constant muse. Rounding out the talent was Italian costume designer Gitt Magrini, who is apparently not a well-known figure, but based solely on this film ought to be.

Numerous elements in the film refer to Jean Cocteau's 1946 fairy tale film "Beauty and the Beast": the casting of Jean Marais (who had been Cocteau's beast), the use of live actors to portray human statues in the castles, and the use of simple special effects such as slow motion and reverse motion.

There is also the influence of Walt Disney. Demy himself noted in 1971, "When I wrote the scene where we see Donkey Skin kneading the dough and singing the song of the love cake, I saw Snow White, assisted by birds, preparing a pie." What are we to make of the incest theme? Interestingly, the whole concept seems to be ignored, with the idea of father-daughter love being wrong only on practical, never moral, grounds. What is the film trying to say? Demy returned to this theme in "Three Seats for the 26th" (1988), although in a very different context.

There is also the unusual blend of fairy tale and modernity, both in the "poetry of the future" and a later reveal concerning transportation. Again, how are we to interpret this? Is it all a dream, a fantasy world outside of time itself?

I saw this movie for the first time in the movies when I was a little girl. I never forgot it, I never forgot the main song. For years I tried to find it in the video stores, I wish it was released in DVD. This is a cult-fantasy movie and deserves to be more available to the general public. Nowadays the "fantasy" movies have a lot of silliness and disgusting behavior due to lack of imagination of new filmmakers. Movies like Peau d'ane should not be forgotten and should be re-released so the new generation can learn to appreciate true art. Catherine Deneuve is in the top of her beauty in this movie, the clothes are wonderful, the music unforgettable.

If ever you need any kind of indication that fairy tales were not always excessively cute stories to entertain children, look no further than Jacques Demy's movie version of Charles Perrault's "Peau d'ane" ("Donkey Skin" in English). I had heard some about the story but until now never known the specific plot. The events during the first part of the movie imply that it must have been harder to gross people out in the 17th century.

But once Donkey Skin (Catherine Deneuve) flees, the film becomes almost a different movie. Aside from the fact that she now has to live among the peasants and do lowly work, her experiences with the prince (Jacques Perrin) take on a dimension of their own. The movie has a hippie-like quality, what with the colors and the fact that Donkey Skin and the prince set out to break the rules. And finally at the end, a deliberate anachronism; not only has the film had several contrasts between colors, there's a contrast between old and modern. This is truly a movie unlike any other.

So while I do recommend the film, I should remind you that this is not really a movie for the little ones. Seriously, some of the stuff in the first part of the movie was the sort of stuff that one would expect in a Farrelly brothers movie. No matter; as a whole, the movie is one that you'll probably never forget. Also starring Jean Marais, Delphine Seyrig, Micheline Presle and Fernand Ledoux.

PS: in a DVD featurette about the production, they note that Jim Morrison visited the set. Now there was something that Charles Perrault never could have predicted!

Talking flowers, red horses, bizarre musical numbers and a girl walking around in a donkey carcass, this is my kind of movie. The great prince may look more like a glam rocker than anything else, and the plot may not make a lick of sense, but it's still a pretty magical tale. Many of the scenes are rather surreal, and some scenes look like the entire crew just broke out of rehab, but if anything that just makes the movie more exciting. As for content, it's just weird. It's a classic love story, but it's told in such a peculiar way that for the most part I just stared blankly and pointed at the screen. Still, it's a very entertaining movie. Also comes with the most surprising helicopter appearance in movie history.