Product Details

• Actors: Viggo Mortensen, Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy Cooper, Sheila Moore, Duncan Fraser
• Directors: Philip Ridley
• Writers: Philip Ridley
• Producers: Diane Roberts, Dominic Anciano, Jim Beach, Les Kimber, Ray Burdis
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Lions Gate
• VHS Release Date: February 10, 1993
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302283620
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,578 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The finest poetic surrealism since Jean Cocteau, July 9, 2001

By 

Carl Tait (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reflecting Skin [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A unique and deeply moving film by Philip Ridley. The dreamlike atmosphere never becomes disconnected from reality, which adds to the impact. Humorously oddball scenes suddenly become serious and human, while moments of quiet introspection are often interrupted by a jolt of unexpected hilarity. The moments of beauty and poignance go well beyond anything David Lynch has accomplished -- though Lynch fans would certainly enjoy this movie.

The excellent musical score sounds like a cross between Ralph Vaughan Williams (or Gerald Finzi) and Philip Glass on an exceptionally good day. There are several well-integrated references to moody icons: Andrew Wyeth's paintings, the stuffed birds of "Psycho" -- and in the breathtaking final sequence, the sliver of a cloud slicing across the moon (here, the setting sun) as it does at the start of "Un Chien Andalou," the root of the surrealist film tree.

This is absolutely *not* a movie for everyone. Those who have no patience with leisurely, meditative character studies -- or who couldn't care less about brilliant cinematography -- should stay away. On the other hand, fans of (for example) Ingmar Bergman's dark, intense films of the 1960s will love this movie.

"The Reflecting Skin" should already be on DVD. The fact that it's currently out of print even in VHS is little short of ... well, surreal.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for your average movie-watcher, June 1, 2000

By 

"j-z" (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reflecting Skin [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Well, this one has been on my favorite movie list for quite some time. I haven't been able to view it for several years now but I recommend it to those who enjoy the darker (or deeper) side of film-making. Digging into the memory banks, I vividly remember the spectacular cinematography and powerful use of colors throughout the entire movie. Even though the pace is slow, its a perfect mix of creative thought and human expression, with a potential twist of insanity and madness. While working in a movie store, I had the pleasure of finding a select few who enjoyed this film as much as I did. Cohen bro's and Lynch fans should be well satisfied... Hollywood fans, I suggest something else. This film will hit all the right nerves for those who have "danced around the campfire" but those who prefer to live along a straight line... just stay away, you may end up being one of the dissatisfied reviewers making no sense. I agree completely with the already stated theme of humanity's loss of innocence, its an excellent approach to a very mindful movie. Potent and somewhat haunting images will be implanted into your mind and not everybody will find an appreciation for this film... its that simple. However, the film is not simple. It travels somewhere behind your mind's eye and where it ends up is up to you. For those of you who are avid fans of underground movies, I'd say this is a nice blend of Koyaanisqatsi, Fire Walk With Me and maybe a splash of Miller's Crossing... or something like that---

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars American Gothic, May 10, 2002

By 

Phil Avetxori - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reflecting Skin [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This a highly original, creepily surreal film dealing with the loss of innocence, the depths of irrational childhood fears, and the dark underbelly of middle America. If this description makes it sound like a David Lynch film, you're not far off the mark. Ridley's film shares with Lynch's work the artful, compositionally balanced cinematography, the disquieting psychosexual undertones, and, yes, even the wooden characters. The one-dimensional archetypes that populate this film have been criticized by many reviewers, but, as in Lynch's films, the "flatness" of the acting/dialogue serves an important purpose: the characters are mere canvases for the depiction of aspects of the work as a whole. The overall mood of the film is paramount, and the various libidinal energy flows underlying it are best served by characters who act as conduits for paticular eruptions of perversity and other compositions of incident which manifest in discreet situation rather than autonomous personality. The collective madness at the heart of America, the latent violence that came to a head with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, repressed sexualities, and oedipal sadism: this film is NOT easy to swallow. That the seemingly placid expanses of midwestern fields could incubate such twisted madness suggests that "the world's breadbasket" has been feeding us something far more sinster than corn and wheat.