The Skin I Live In by Pedro Almodóvar
At 1818, when Mary Shelley launched her famous book about a creature conceived by the young and smart Victor Frankenstein, the world of literature got excited with gothic terror classics. Impassioned by natural sciences and being a successful self-taught person, Victor did what was impossible; in his own words:
“I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body”¹.
Probably, Frankenstein is a “must -have” book of Dr. Robert Legard, the character played by Antonio Banderas in the film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. At “The Skin I Live In”, Robert is a renowned surgeon that by personal and familiar reasons, adopt an unethical but brilliant stance: he can create a super-resistant skin by transgenesis. However, more than surgical methods, Almodóvar’s new thriller shows multiple qualities at script, direction, and performance, which hold the attention of the viewer, while giving us that slight sensation of discomfort we feel near the surgical equipment. It is as if the director puts us on a stretcher with a horrible needle pointed at us.
With an astonishing script, the story develops all the time and not gets boring in the course of time. Nevertheless, in the end of the film, the director sins, and fall into the comfort zone with a little creative end. Even so, Banderas gives a great performance showing confident at the role, and Elena Anaya, with her exceptional performance, carries in the eyes more drama than a whole bunch of Hollywood artists.
It is important to highlight all the attention that Almodóvar gives to the movie aesthetic which is not only restricted to the plot but also incorporates elements of the scene, such as the incredible makeup of the actress that makes you think that it is really the softest skin in the world, or by the uniform of the maid perfectly matched with the tones of the house, or the glossy suit worn by the doctor and his always very –combed hair, or for the care of the arts scattered throughout the mansion carefully planned and maintained. All this show Robert’s fascination for beauty and aesthetic harmoniousness. Unlike Victor Frankenstein, Ledgard doesn’t create a scary monster but a masterpiece, better than a human being, without needs of touch-ups, like himself affirms.
As Robert, Almodóvar was very meticulous directing the movie, maybe to show such characteristic in the character construction: the doctor meticulously places the glove, and as meticulously, the camera works. It is impossible don’t notice the closes that the lenses give at strategic moments of the film, making sure to show the delicacy of the surgical procedures.
Lastly, we must talk about Vera, that living in a body violated in a variety of ways, needs to take refuge in your mind, as drawing on the walls of her prison.
Living in a body that is not hers and dealing with a forced transsexuality, the character deals with her imprisonment and the doctor’s experiments with reading and yoga, while strategically nurturing Robert’s confidence to the point of becoming “free”. However, the isolation of Vera is not restricted to the walls, she is also in a body that she did not ask for, trapped inside a successful experiment, but not for her.
More than a direct link to the work of Mary Shelley, Almodóvar does not contextualize only the story. He plays with genre roles and does a fine job of creating a character that is both a work of science and a work of art and another character who is both a scientist of gothic literature and a Pygmalion². He makes his own film a Frankenstein: sewing science, madness, family issues and sexual confusion in two hours of film. Almodóvar does not build a monstrous creature, he is a good surgical and almost doesn’t let visible scars.
