Review of In My Skin (2002) by Christian C — 20 Mar 2010

Do you have what it takes to dive...."In My Skin"?

"In My Skin".

"In My Skin" is exactly the the way a film should be made. French Extremism is brought front and center in this film Written/Directed and Starring Marina de Van as the beautiful "Ester", a young women who descends into an abyss of psychiatric darkness of self mutilation/self cannibalism/autosarcophagy. Her boyfriend "Vincent" (Laurent Lucas, Calvaire) and friend "Sandrine" ( Lea Drucker) deal with the frustration of trying to help, to no avail!

"In My Skin" is a horribly beautiful film with just the right amount of extremism to landscape the austerity of "Esters" ailment to a frightening reality.

"Ester" is a young women who attends a networking mixer with her friend and colleague "Sandrine". Wanting to get a breath of fresh air, "Ester" ventures out of the house in darkness. Hard to see, "Ester" falls, after picking herself back up, she ventures back inside and up stairs to the bathroom, where she notices a lot of blood on the carpet. She realizes that this trail of blood leads back to her! She looks at her pant leg, it's terribly torn. "Ester" lifts the tattered pant leg, only to reveal a ghastly tear in her flesh. Amazed at the fact she felt no pain, she leave she leaves the party and goes for a drink with her friends before visiting the hospital.

Now infatuated with her new laceration, "Ester" spirals down the path of self mutilation, with a side of denial, shame and obsessive compulsion.

"In My Skin" is a sad film. This women is so overcome by her mental illness, it becomes hard to watch. Not for the scenes of the graphic images, but for the fact that their is no explanation for her behavior. I liked de Van's direction here. I could see how this could be perceived as poor development, but on the contrary, this is real life and we don't know if she was abused emotionally or sexually to end up this way. This is a direct reflection of the horrors of real life. You could have a friend, loved one or colleague that you think is perfectly normal to only find out that after hours they are tormented by demons. Somethings in life are just unexplained, we would never know unless we walked in their shoes. "IMS" is a haunting portrayal of succumbing to demons that haunt the vast majority.

The imagination that is Marina de Van is unparalleled, a real sentiment to her writing ability, then somehow she turns it into real life on the big screen, this speaks volumes for her talent as a director. Her portrayal of "Ester" was so good, I felt for her on every slash.

Laurent Lucas' supporting role was at times a bit much and overacted(like many of his scenes in Calvaire). Gladly he leaves it all to de Van to run with, and that is exactly what she does. Don't forget the mutilations she produces on her self with every sharp instrument she can find in arms reach. These scenes are all in full view for you to wriggle about in your seat. "IMS" is so good it can not be missed. It's so real...it's scary!

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