La peau douce (1964)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

François Truffaut

Writers:

François Truffaut (screenplay) &
Jean-Louis Richard (screenplay)

Release Date:

20 April 1964 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Love Affair | Reims | Adultery | Paris France | Motel

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

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:
François Truffaut	...	Le pompiste (voice)

Also Known As:

Angústia (Portugal)
The Soft Skin (USA)

Runtime:

113 min | France:119 min (director's cut) | Portugal:110 min (cut version)

Country:

France | Portugal

Language:

French | Portuguese | English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Sweden:15 | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Lisbon, Portugal

Company:

Les Films du Carrosse

Trivia:

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

Goofs:

Continuity: Pierre and Nicole are in a hotel elevator approaching the 8th floor, Pierre is on the right side. The following shot from outside the elevator shows Pierre on the opposite side.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in La nuit américaine (1973)

Soundtrack:

Symphonie de Jouets (Toy Symphony)

The Flight of Pierre

Pierre Lachenay (Jean Desailly) is a successful writer. He is leaving Paris for Lisbon to give a conference on "Balzac et l'argent". On the flight to Lisbon he feels instant attraction for a beautiful flight stewardess. In Lisbon he'll discover that he's staying at the same hotel as her. Pierre wastes no time and gets to know her. Her name is Nicole (Françoise Dorléac). She is spontaneous and easy-going, but it's easy to detect the romantic streak in her. They start an affair right there in Lisbon. She gives him her Paris telephone number. He calls her. They meet. In Paris their relationship grows in intensity.

Pierre is a married man. His wife is also a good-looking woman and he has a 10-year-old daughter that loves him (as does his wife). Pierre is an intellectual with an organized life, maybe having had some flings here and there, but nothing that really threatened the comfortable foundations of his life. But now he has met Nicole. And Nicole represents everything that Pierre had never really experienced before: she has a real "joie de vivre" but underneath it, there is pain, and above all, strength - the strength to overcome sadness and start all over again, that is, to live right here and now.

Pierre, on the other hand, as an intellectual, lives a life of compromises. His wife, Franca (Nelly Benedetti), loves him and has a strong personality. She knows exactly what she wants and is determined to fight for it. Pierre is between two strong women. He loves Nicole - she has opened a new life, a new world for him. Will he follow his heart? And where will his heart lead him? I think that "La Peau Douce" is one of the more personal films made by Truffaut. It has a psychological subtlety not displayed in his later works (be it his later Antoine Doinel films, his literary adaptations, or his homages - to Hitchcock, Jean Renoir etc..). Never again would Truffaut reach the depth of "La Peau Douce".

"La Peau Douce" reveals understanding (and tenderness) for all the characters, but alongside these traits there's also a bitter irony and even some touches of dark comedy. The characters are shown in all their weaknesses and beauty. In later Truffaut films the tenderness would be the prevailing feature - the irony would come along in a watered-down form.