The Soft Skin (1964)
"La peau douce" (original title)

Pierre Lachenay is a well-known publisher and lecturer, married with Franca and father of Sabine, around 10. He meets an air hostess, Nicole. They start a love affair, which Pierre is hiding, but he cannot stand staying away from her.

Director:

François Truffaut

Writers:

François Truffaut (original scenario), Jean-Louis Richard (original scenario)

Stars:

Jean Desailly, Françoise Dorléac, Nelly Benedetti

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Jean Desailly	...	Pierre Lachenay
Françoise Dorléac	...	Nicole (as Françoise Dorleac)
Nelly Benedetti	...	Franca Lachenay
Daniel Ceccaldi	...	Clément
Laurence Badie	...	Ingrid
Philippe Dumat	...	Directeur cinéma Reims
Paule Emanuele	...	Odile
Maurice Garrel	...	Bontemps
Sabine Haudepin	...	Sabine Lachenay
Dominique Lacarrière	...	La secrétaire Dominique
Jean Lanier	...	Michel
Pierre Risch	...	Chanoine
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Maurice Magalon

Storyline

Pierre Lachenay, a middle-aged, well-known publisher and lecturer, is married to Franca, an unbalanced woman, and father of Sabine, a 10-year-old girl. While traveling to Lisbon for a lecture, Pierre Lachenay has a one night stand with Nicole, the Panair do Brasil air stewardess. He wants to see her again and again, they travel to Reims together, and Pierre hides the affair from his family, mostly to spare his daughter the anguish of a separation. Nicole is taking it lightly but Pierre, misunderstanding her feelings and expectations, decides to live with her. The couple's break-up leads to a tragic end.

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Plot Keywords:

love affair | reims | photo shop | motel | 1960s | 

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Taglines:

The Eternal Triangle At Its Most Eternal

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French Portuguese English

Release Date:

20 April 1964 (France)

Also Known As:

The Soft Skin

Filming Locations:

Lisbon, Portugal

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Films du Carrosse, Societé d'Exploitation et de Distribution de Films (SEDIF), Simar Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min 119 min (director's cut) 110 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film's seemingly melodramatic concluding incident is actually based on a real event which François Truffaut read about in a newspaper.

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Goofs

Nicole changes out of her jeans at Pierre's request and we see her in her new outfit, but by the time they arrive at the hotel her blouse has also changed.

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Connections

Referenced in Day for Night (1973)

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Soundtracks

"Symphonie de Jouets (Toy Symphony)"
by Leopold Mozart (as Haydn)
(Vogue EXTP 1.039)

User Reviews

One of Truffaut's most accomplished films

Truffaut filmed La Peau Douce immediately after the international success of "Jules et Jim". Released at the heyday of the nouvelle vague, critics and audiences panned the film as a futile resort to bourgeois classicism after the unconventional antics of his previous masterwork.

They could not have been more mistaken. Time has treated La Peau Douce better than most of his later efforts. It is definitely a triumph of direction with each scene being carefully planned and meticulously structured, not unlike a Hitchcock movie. In practice, Truffaut transposes Hitchcock's mechanisms of suspense into a seemingly trivial story concerning the illicit love affair of a distinguished editor/author with a younger stewardess and its withering consequences. The characters and the milieu of the story are effortless evoked, but the main joy is derived from the visual inventiveness that Truffaut shows in scene after scene. It's a triumph of a purely cinematic mode of expression, which Truffaut was one of the few who had really mastered it.