In My Skin by French
director Marina de Van is a disturbing film about a thirty year old woman who
cuts and mutilates herself.  De Van plays Esther, a professional woman with her
own apartment and a steady boyfriend.  She gets injured in the leg while at a
party and she becomes obsessed with her the injury, making it worse by gouging
her skin with metal implements.  It is not clear in the film exactly what her
motives are: she does not seem to have prior psychological problems, and she
does not seem be emotionally numb, so she is not causing herself pain as a way
of avoiding other issues or finding a way to experience something real.  The
film presents her behavior as self-sustaining, almost an addiction.  Even
though her preoccupation with her wound starts interfering with her
relationship and her job, she does not seem to care very much.  She only wants
to dig into her own flesh, and even seeing meat reminds her of her desire. 

There are several scenes that are
quite revolting and upsetting because they are shown with so little adornment:
there are none of the cues that one gets in horror movies, with music and a
fairly predictable plot.  The scenes in which she mutilates herself are quiet,
and we can hear her peeling away her skin or cutting scraping her flesh away. 
These are deeply personal, quite sexual moments.  She seems to be aware that
what she is doing is horrible, yet she is fascinated with the horror of her
actions, so she continues.   

This is a very unusual and
difficult film, reminiscent of the work of David Cronenberg, but without the
subtle humor that can lighten his films.  It is deeply psychological, and of
course, quite bleak.  There is a commentary by the director, which sheds plenty
of light on what she aimed to achieve.  The film is subtitled, however, and
unless one can understand spoken French, one has to choose between having
subtitles for the dialog or subtitles for the commentary, and this makes it difficult
to follow.  Nevertheless, de Van is very articulate about her work, and she
relates the film to many philosophical and psychological themes.  The DVD
contains two other short films by de Van, which explore similar terrain as the
full length film.   

© 2006 Christian
Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities
Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is also editor of Metapsychology Online Reviews.  His main
research is on philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Movies