A brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key... Read allA brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.A brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
- Won 1 BAFTA Award
- 28 wins & 69 nominations total
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAfter a few days of shooting, Pedro Almodóvar had a conversation with Antonio Banderas in which he told Banderas that he needed to drop all of his tics as an actor, because the director wanted a really restrained character and the actor was playing him in a more typical psycho way.
- GoofsWhen Doctor Robert Ledgard and his colleagues are preparing themselves for surgery, they fasten each other's surgical gown from the back, contaminating their sterile gloves.
- Quotes
Profesora de Yoga en TV: There's a place where you can take refuge. A place inside you, a place to which no one else has access, a place that no one can destroy.
- Crazy creditsAt the start of the end credits, there is a rotating DNA double helix in the background.
- ConnectionsFeatured in At the Movies: Cannes Film Festival 2011 (2011)
- SoundtracksPor el amor de amar
(Versión Castellana)
Written by Jean Manzon and José Toledo
Performed by / interpretada por CONCHA BUIKA (Buika), al piano Iván González Lewis (as Iván 'Melón' Lewis)
© 1960, by Jean Manzon & Jose Toledo.
Autorizado para todo el mundo a Universal Music Publishing, S.L.
Todos los derechos reservados.
Grabado en CATA (Madrid).
Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar has a just reputation for taking women seriously in his films. His latest effort (as usual in Spanish with English subtitles) is no exception, even tho he gives most of the screen time to his most accomplished discovery and frequent star, Antonio Banderas (seemingly one of the few Hispanic actors whom Americans will tolerate in a lead role), playing the brilliant and innovative plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard. This is a deadly serious role, in marked contrast to Banderas's other current star turn as the voice of Puss in Boots.
The female lead, Elena Anaya, plays Vera Cruz (yes), Ledgard's stunningly gorgeous patient, experimental subject, apparent captive, and well, here Almodóvar (who co-wrote the screenplay with brother Agustín) gets a bit coy. Is she a manikin, an Eliza Doolittle to Ledgard's Henry Higgins, a Sabina Spielrein to his Carl Jung, possibly a creature to his Frankenstein? Or maybe none of the above? We know only that she seems devoted to him, tho he is unresponsive to her charms.
Vera is confined to the big bedroom, elegantly furnished, where she does her yoga exercises dressed in a flesh-colored body stocking. Ledgard has the only key to the room, and he always keeps her locked in. He himself stays in the smaller bedroom next door, where he watches her intently on a wall-sized video screen. All her food and other needs are delivered from the kitchen via a dumbwaiter, and she communicates with only 2 people: Robert in person, and the housekeeper via intercom.
Ledgard is a widower, and we see in flashback that his wife Gal suffered a terrible car accident and fire, leaving her horribly disfigured even after Robert's virtuoso surgical work and devoted care. But even after all his efforts, Gal is unable to stand her pain, weakness, and ugliness, and she commits suicide. Unfortunately, it's right in front of their tweenage dotter Norma (Blanca Suárez), who is driven into hysterics and a nervous breakdown by the sight.
Ledgard, as one of the world's leading reconstructive surgeons, does not lack for cash, so he devotes the next several years to his twin obsessions, coaxing his dotter back from the precipice of madness and developing a graftable artificial skin, which he somewhat ghoulishly dubs Gal, a combination of human and pig genes that's highly resistant to burns, cuts, and punctures. Such an epidermis would have saved his beloved wife, he reasons, and this alone justifies his transgressing the ethical boundaries against transgenics. (This is the only science-fictional element in the film, and it's not much of a stretch from what modern medicine is actually capable of doing, which is why I categorize it as essentially a psychodrama.)
There are 3 other characters of note: Ledgard's housekeeper Marilia (Marisa Paredes), an older woman with secrets of her own; her wastrel son Zeca (Roberto Álamo), who pays an unwelcome visit; and studly young Vicente (Jan Cornet), son of and apprentice to the local dressmaker, who takes a shine to now-teenage Norma as she shyly tries to work her way back into normal society.
We learn most of the above during the first half hour, which leaves us wondering just what on Earth is going on here. The remainder of the film slowly pulls aside one curtain after another to fill us in. And that is all I will say on the subject. You'll have to see the rest for yourself.
And you should.
- RichardSRussell-1
- Dec 20, 2011
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Tôi Sống Trong Tôi
- Filming locations
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- €10,002,914 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $3,185,812
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $223,119
- Oct 16, 2011
- Gross worldwide
- $33,716,389
- Runtime2 hours
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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![Antonio Banderas and Elena Anaya in The Skin I Live In (2011)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYmFmNjY5NDYtZjlhNi00YjQ5LTgzNzctNWRiNWUzNmIyNjc4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTMxODk2OTU@._V1_QL75_UY133_CR2,0,90,133_.jpg)