Dans Ma Peau [2002] [DVD]

I haven't seen any movie like this all my life. I own around 4,000 dvds and blurays and probably have seen around I don't know over 50,000 movies in my life but nothing this painful to watch. So real and painful I almost about to vomit and felt so sorry for this woman and also felt guilty watching this film at the same time.This movie definately reminded me of another filmmaker David Cronenberg and you will have more idea if you hear his name.It's about this woman, a skinny woman who is having her peak in her career at her work had an injury in the dark being tricked by a bunch of construction place. She injured one leg real bad that she had to sew a lot of times.Seeing that, her boyfriend freaked out.Moreover she did strange thing to it. She uncovered the bandage and the wound was in a real bad condition. It was really painful to look.From then on, she enjoys self torturing her leg real bad.She goes to a hotel and freely, even tears apart her skin and eats part of it. She is in a really bad condition.To cover up, she rolls her car to the edge of the street and pretends that she had a car accident. Her boyfriend and cops bought it.It is called self-mutilation what she is doing.She had problem with communication before.She just didn't knew it before. She just happens to find an exit which is doing this thing to her body.By the time when she was promoted and had this meeting with important client, her one arm was numb. I think it has something to do with her leg injury. Maybe it's a mental thing. She poked her arm with a folk and the blood came out.So why are we watching this movie?We sometimes see movies because we see it something we cannot experience in real life. We are experiencing through the movie.I can never do it to my body that this woman did to her's. I rather end my life simply when I cannot stand my life anymore then tear apart my skin and drink my blood just like this woman did.When she awoke even the part of her skin were all over the ground. I really couldn's stand it. But for some how I did watch through the end.There is this scene with a split screen- two screen in one -when this woman is again self-injuring with a knife, this time really really bad, when she put a knife really close to her eye, I was amost couldn't breath.Is this art? This movie also reminded of <SEVEN>.She took all the picute of her skin and she wanted to stuff her took out skin part.The ending seems unending.We were left speecheless.What can I say.It was a strange morbid movie that many people will be walk out during watching.From https: [...]

A highly original and extraordinary piece of work, Dans Ma Peau epitomises the very experimental nature of the 'New French Extreme'. A body horror by way of David Cronenberg's Crash, directed by and starring Francois Ozon collaborator Marina de Van, Dans Ma Peau forwards a taboo shattering image of deliberate self-harm. After recieving a deep gash to her leg, a young research analyst becomes dangerously fascinated by her own skin. A clandestine addiction, and a distraction from mounting personal and professional pressures, the woman's self-destructive tendencies push her towards to the brink of mental collapse. An obsessive compulsion - the result of which places it very firmly in the horror genre - director de Van opts to explore the affliction from an increasingly visceral point of view. Growing ever more dependent upon the desire to harm herself, Esther's graduation from initial cutting to the eventual gnawing of her skin, is equally tragic as it repulsive. A far cry from such genre archetypes as the vampire and the zombie, wherein the threat is clearly manifest, in Dans Ma Peau there is no differentiating between the victim and victimizer. Visually and audibly disquieting, the scenes of self harm - picking at sutures with a rusty door hinge before progressing onto the practice of cannibalistic auto-erotica - are incredibly difficult to watch, and in Dans Ma Peau, there is little ground that de Van leaves unexplored. A scathing reflection as to the over-emphasis placed on body image, Dans Ma Peau affords a timely reminder on the physical and psychological dangers of hopeless addiction.

A brave film dealing in the main with self-mutilation, but going even further by depicting self-cannibalisation. You become strangely drawn into watching the downward spiral of a seemingly normal businesswoman, and wondering to what level she will take it. She being Marina de Van, writer, director and star of this unique cinema.As to why she is doing this to herself, that I suppose is open to your own interpretation, but I felt it portrayed the beginning of a decent into madness.The story itself however is just too narrow, there isn't enough character development of the people affected by her actions - her colleagues and her boyfriend. The film would have been a little more insightful if we had been witness to a few scenes that did not include Marina de Van. She really does seem to be in almost every scene.Definitely worth purchasing if you like watching something challenging, but it could have been better I think.The DVD includes:* A 4-page Booklet* Director's Commentary* Original Theatrical Trailer* French Language with English Subtitles (can be turned off)* Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo* Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround* DTS 5.1 Surround* 1:85 Anamorphic Widescreen

This is perhaps an undiscovered gem of French cinema - and a film that I'm sorry I didn't watch sooner. Esther appears to be a totally normal 30 something, that is until she has a bad fall at a party and suffers a disfiguring injury to her leg.After the wound has been dressed, she develops an unhealthy obsession with her own body and embarks on a journey of both self discovery and disfigurement, that is as difficult to watch as it is hypnotic.This is not a story of depression and self-harm - no - this delves far deeper into the darkest realms of the human psyche, and it's not a film that you'll forget easily.What is equally clever and disturbing about "Dans Ma Peau", is how the self harm scenes are highly sexual, and the pleasure she feels is conveyed perfectly, as we feel more aroused than disgusted by her actions - then again, maybe that's just me!!If you love cinema that gets under your "skin" and refuses to leave, Marina De Van is welcoming you with open arms!