Customer Reviews

The Soft Skin ( La Peau douce ) ( Angústia ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ]

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When this film was released in 1964 it bombed commercially and was critically panned in every quarter, even booed at the Cannes Film Festival. Retrospective overviews and a more enlightened appreciation of Truffaut's entire body of work as a unit has done some good in enhancing its reputation, although not enough.

Truffaut was still being justly commended for his beautiful masterpiece JULES ET JIM when LA PEAU DUCE premiered, and the derision it met with can be attributed to the unfounded notion that a director cannot follow one "tour de force" with another. Reluctance and wariness greeted the film's sombre tone and downbeat ending. LA PEAU DUCE was not allowed to breathe, and therefore not allowed to intoxicate and energize its audience. Ultimately what its detractors failed to realize was that great artists do not make bad art.

The film concerns writer Pierre (Jean Desailly) and his infatuation with air stewardess Nicole (Francoise Dorleac) whom he meets on a matter of fact flight from Paris to Lisbon. Fascinated, the Balzac aficionado leaves his sensually lovely wife (Nelly Benedetti) and daughter (played to our delight by little Sabine of JULES ET JIM) in order to commit himself totally to Nicole, only to meet with unforeseen ruin.

The role of Pierre is a somewhat unsympathetic one and, although played superbly by Desailly, he would later claim that it thwarted his career. As in all of Truffaut's films, it is the complete rebuttal of machismo that serves to humanize our male protagonist - unable to consult with his common sense when touched by the Soft Skin - and also to reinforce the potent femininity of our heroine; she who lives her life from one moment to the next, engaging her most endearing whims impulsively and without the consideration of consequence.

The film's greatest performance is that of Francoise Dorleac. The sister of Catherine Deneuve, she shares with her sibling the most striking and intelligent beauty ever to grace the cinema. But where Deneuve's icy sensuality make her the perfect anti-heroine of Bunuel's BELLE DE JOUR and Truffaut's own MISSISSIPPI MERMAID (another stroke of genius from Truffaut that is sorely underrated), Dorleac's allure is one of warmth and exuberance. She smiles with her whole body, joyously and completely unaffected. This film is one of only three worthy showcases of the flair of this great enigma. She is most beautifully photographed in Polanski's ingenious CUL DE SAC, where she is visceral, fearless and elegant; and in Jacques Demy's gorgeous and effervescent LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT, the world's most beautiful sisters share the screen for what surely would not have been the only time, had not Dorleac's life been tragically cut short before her prime.

Indeed, one of Truffaut's key cinematic virtues was in directing actresses, women with whom he almost always fell in love, just as we fall in love in front of the screen. His mantra, evoking that of Jean Renoir, was that the actor take total precedence over the character. Women who are formidable, beautiful and enigmatic do not need to invoke these charms through performance. Thus in JULES ET JIM Catherine is Jeanne Moreau; in SUCH A GORGEOUS KID LIKE ME Camille is Bernadette Lafont; and in LA PEAU DUCE Nicole is Francoise Dorleac.

There is not a single shot in this film that is showy, affected or unnecessary. It is directed with such concise brilliance and tact - and by such a young man - that it can only be marvelled at. Witness Desailly's curious observation of Dorleac's feet as she changes footwear; His removal of her stockings while she sleeps (a scene relived by Truffaut with Belmondo and Deneuve in MISSISSIPPI MERMAID); And the succinct and callous manner in which the camera follows a telephone conversation - evidence of Truffaut's skilfulness in using seemingly inane components to create cinematic mastery and beauty.

You should see this film, not once but many times. It is subtle, understated and completely beautiful.

Fourth movie of François Truffaut, THE SOFT SKIN is altogether a drama, a melodrama and a comedy. And it's easily one of the best films of the french director. Let's note that, in 1964, it was the third Truffaut movie in a row that ended with a brutal murder. So we have to forget the still well alive cliché presenting François Truffaut as the gentle and peaceful observer of the 1960 french society. His movies and particularly THE SOFT SKIN can be very cruel and can touch you at the bottom of your heart, where it hurts the most.

Shot in black & white, like the films noirs he loved so much, THE SOFT SKIN describes a moment in the life of Jean Desailly, a publisher and a lecturer, who cannot choose between his wife and Françoise Dorléac, a young and beautiful airline stewardess. Basic plot but treated with the Truffaut touch.

Françoise Dorléac, Catherine Deneuve's sister, who tragically disappeared in 1967, gives here a superb performance that can only give eternal regrets to movie lovers. Jean Desailly is perfect in the role of an ordinary man with his weaknesses and his simple desire for happiness.

Some problems with the images : sometimes they stand still for seconds and the words suddenly are not in harmony anymore with the movement of the lips of the characters. Seven or eight trailers of Truffaut's movies available in the DVD standard.

A DVD for your library.

A successful businessman and affective husband meets an alluring airline stewardess in a flight to Lisboan. And as product of a kind invitation to dinner will emerge a torrid romance that will become an unstoppable passion, with the expected tragic consequences.

Truffaut uplifts this simple and so many times told before story to unexpected levels. The employment of the camera as a scrutinizing eye, makes we become true peeping Tom; the poetic of the images, the sublime visual eroticism in sequences of enraptured charm, the accurate use of the melancholic music, suggests and warns step by step by Hitchcokian paths, where the disturbed soul of this man never equals to the steeled determination of his lover. For her, that affair means much more than a random encounter; while his wife begins to suspect something's wrong among them.

Truffaut avoids to fall in the circumstantial anecdote, spicing of audacious narrative innovations, where the social conventions really have enmeshed this man and led him into a deep end, due his lack of self conviction and vital determination to admit the consequences once he crossed the line.

One of the main factors that nourish the narrative vigor of the film, resides in the theatrical influence (Jean Anouilh and William Shakespeare) smartly bounded with suspenseful moments that conform an outstanding and original proposal.

In fact, forty three years have elapsed since this movie was released and (with some little details here and there) the narration has not aged a bit.

And although I am not a twenty four hours hard fan of Truffaut, I have to acknowledge we are in presence of one of his best artistic achievements of his prestigious career.

Inquire and then convince by yourself. "La peau doce" is a sumptuous masterpiece!

This movie is so beautiful to watch, and it is simply too bad that we cannot buy it!!! Well-acted, suble, and in particular, Dorleac is lovely. Thrilling emotional turn-arounds all the way through.

This is far from the most likeable of Truffaut's films. It has an undercurrent of sadness that contrasts achingly with Dorleac's extraordinary charm and beauty. She is a fleur carnivore with little sense of who she is or what she's about and therefore especially dangerous. Desailly's character doesn't have a chance. How then do we find ourselves sympathizing more with her than with him? There is the threat of trouble throughout, building quietly to a deadly resolution. All of that said, to me "The Soft Skin" achieves, above all, a refined and stylish perfection that I can't recall having seen in any other film. Every frame, every sequence is masterful.
Truffaut buffs will notice a charming moment -- daringly placed just as the inevitible tension approaches the tipping point -- with a kitten and a saucer of milk that was done similarly, almost quoted but with a comic edge, for an entirely different effect in his "Day for Night" nine years later in 1973.

La Peau Douce/The Soft Skin is a very pleasant surprise indeed. There's a tendency in much of Truffauts' later work to be over-literate, often throwing in narration that plays more like a prose recital than thought or dialog to convey what he should be doing without it, but there's none of that here. Instead, its illicit romance is told in purely cinematic terms and telling details and, despite the potentially hackneyed material, plays beautifully, whether its the title sequence of two hands caressing in the darkness, a mix-up with room keys as a prelude to seduction or the kitten and the breakfast tray that would make such a memorable comeback in Day for Night.

There's humor and humanity there too, and the hero's painful fallibility on his disastrous dirty weekend in Reihms is one of the great don't-know-whether-to-laugh-or-to-cry moments. The ending seems a bit contrived and unlikely despite being based on an actual incident, but he somehow manages to pull that off too.

Extras on the Australian Region 4 PAL DVD include archive interviews with Truffaut and Francois Dorleac and with trailers for various Truffaut titles.

La Peau Douce/The Soft Skin is a very pleasant surprise indeed. There's a tendency in much of Truffauts' later work to be over-literate, often throwing in narration that plays more like a prose recital than thought or dialog to convey what he should be doing without it, but there's none of that here. Instead, its illicit romance is told in purely cinematic terms and telling details and, despite the potentially hackneyed material, plays beautifully, whether its the title sequence of two hands caressing in the darkness, a mix-up with room keys as a prelude to seduction or the kitten and the breakfast tray that would make such a memorable comeback in Day for Night.

There's humor and humanity there too, and the hero's painful fallibility on his disastrous dirty weekend in Reihms is one of the great don't-know-whether-to-laugh-or-to-cry moments. The ending seems a bit contrived and unlikely despite being based on an actual incident, but he somehow manages to pull that off too.

Sadly, while the UK DVD includes an excellent commentary from co-writer Jean-Louis Richard and archive interviews with Truffaut and Francois Dorleac, this R1 disc comes only with trailers for various truffaut titles.

Both intriguing and frustrating - the latter because you want to reach into the screen and slap the protagonist on the side of the head. The plot seems to go mostly nowhere, yet is thoroughly engrossing. Character development is not thorough, but situational development is both thorough and meticulous. A great psychological exposition. Unfortunately, almost no extras.

Watched Truffaut's "Soft Skin" last night. Left a chalky aftertaste in my mouth although I think it might be one of Trouffaut's best films. Let me summarize the plot:
Successful, married, middle-age academic sleeps with stewardess he meets en route to a symposium in Lisbon. Continues to sleep with her when he returns to Paris as, like most men, he doesn't want o eat turkey sandwich every night of his life. Is it love? He thinks so. My observation: midlife crisis, bored with success and complacency of domestic life. Wife confronts him, he lies and blames her on making a scene, she apologizes, he moves out. Continues to tell her that there is not another woman. Girlfriend dumps him (she is smart enough to figure out he still loves his wife and will bore with her.) His wife finds the photos of him and the girlfriend on vacation. She hasn't had one, a vacation that is, in five years. She shoots him. (At least she shoots him and not herself.) [...]

You would think the names Alfred Hitchcock and Francois Truffaut have little in common, but, for some unexplainable reason Truffaut adored the films of Hitchcock. Now, don't get me wrong, Hitchcock was a great filmmaker. I love watching "Rear Window" and "Psycho" and all of his other films, but, Truffaut, doesn't seem to be the same "league" as Hitchcock. And what I mean by that is, they both seemed to explore different things in their films.
"The Soft Skin" finds Truffaut once again in Hitchcock mode, like "Confidentially Yours", Truffaut's final film. "The Soft Skin" is a wonderful entertaining film that doesn't let up for a moment. It has suspense and laughs. The film stars the beautiful late Francoise Dorleac (Catherine Deneuve's older sister) and Jean Desailly. Desailly plays Pierre Lachenay a well known writer who finds himself having an affair with Dorleac. But can we blame him? lol. Lachenay is now left with a serious problem, what about his wife. Can he go through with the affair and do this to his wife? Or should he call it off and never see the woman again? The way Trauffaut examines this is in a way Hitchcock would of been proud.
The film has a nice look to it, and a good musical score. And because it's a Truffaut film, the directing is great! If your a Truffaut fan, you'll love this film. If your not a Truffaut fan. I'd wait a while before I see this one. A very enjoyable film.