Donkey Skin (Peau d'Âne) (1970)

Watched in 2010 - Alusta alkaen (274 items)
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French "Fantastique" Cinema (1900 - 2000) (95 items)
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300 Great Foreign Films (254 items)
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Since I'm a big fan of Catherine Deneuve, I was really curious about this flick. I must admit, she seemed to be a perfect choice to play a princess and she was indeed just mesmerizing. Furthermore, the costumes and set dressing were also pretty good. The story is a very famous fairytale in France and I guess it was a rather faithful adaptation but, honestly, I must say that I was rather bored duri... read more

(MU) Provocative fantasy ends somehow in some part of the film, and the story imposes its romantic classicism, fairytale with happy conventional ending. Semi musical, semi fantasy, semi achieved...

Description: Donkey Skin reunites Catherine Deneuve with Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand, yet it's quite unlike The Umbrellas of Cherbourg or The Young Girls of Rochefort. Those 1960s musicals were set in some semblance of the modern world, but Donkey Skin, based on a fable by Charles Perrault, takes place in a fantastical fairyland, located somewhere between The Wizard of Oz and La Belle et la Bête. Jean Marais, Jean Cocteau’s Beast, is even the king of the kingdom. Alas, he's just lost his queen (Deneuve), whose dying wish is that he marry a woman more beautiful than she. Deranged by loss, he decides on his daughter (Deneuve again). She Donkey Skin reunites Catherine Deneuve with Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand, yet it's quite unlike The Umbrellas of Cherbourg or The Young Girls of Rochefort. Those 1960s musicals were set in some semblance of the modern world, but Donkey Skin, based on a fable by Charles Perrault, takes place in a fantastical fairyland, located somewhere between The Wizard of Oz and La Belle et la Bête. Jean Marais, Jean Cocteau’s Beast, is even the king of the kingdom. Alas, he's just lost his queen (Deneuve), whose dying wish is that he marry a woman more beautiful than she. Deranged by loss, he decides on his daughter (Deneuve again). She's horrified--her fairy godmother (Delphine Seyrig), as well, so she devises a plan for the princess to flee, hidden by a donkey skin. Strange by any standards, Donkey Skin is one of the more magical musicals to emerge from the 1970s. --Kathleen C. Fennessy ... (more) (less)