Peau d'âne (1970)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Jacques Demy

Writers:

Jacques Demy (writer)
Charles Perrault (fairy tale)

Release Date:

20 December 1970 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Family | Fantasy | Musical | Romance

Plot:

A fairy godmother helps a princess disguise herself so she won't have to marry a man she doesn't love.

Plot Keywords:

Princess | King | Queen | Donkey | Prince

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Catherine Deneuve	...	La princesse / 'Peau d'âne'
Jean Marais	...	Le premier roi (The King)
Jacques Perrin	...	Le prince charmant (The Prince)
Micheline Presle	...	La reine rouge, la seconde reine
Delphine Seyrig	...	La fée des lilas (The Fairy)
Fernand Ledoux	...	Le roi rouge, le seconde roi
Henri Crémieux	...	Le chef des médecins (The Doctor) (as Henri Cremieux)
Sacha Pitoëff	...	Le premier ministre (The Minister) (as Sacha Pitoeff)
Pierre Repp	...	Thibaud
Jean Servais	...	Le Récitant / Narrator (voice)
Georges Adet	...	Le savant
Annick Berger	...	Nicolette
Romain Bouteille	...	Le charlatan
Louise Chevalier	...	La vieille fermière
Sylvain Corthay	...	Godefroy

Also Known As:

Donkey Skin (USA)
Magic Donkey
Once Upon a Time (UK)

Runtime:

USA:90 min | Netherlands:100 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Stereo (restored version) | Mono (original version) | Dolby SR (restored version)

Certification:

Brazil:Livre | Singapore:PG | Netherlands:AL (re-release) (2008) | Australia:G | Finland:S | France:U | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Château de Chambord, Chambord, Loir-et-Cher, France

Company:

Marianne Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in L'âge des possibles (1995)

Charming French nonsense

With his bold use of color, and his fascination with objects and patterns, Jacques Demy is the Vincente Minnelli of France. I say this, even though I haven't seen all of Demy's films. I've only seen "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, "The Young Girls of Rochefort" and now "Donkey Skin." The fairy tale about a young princess who escapes from her (more than) somewhat wrong-headed father is charming, if slightly disturbing, nonsense. The disturbing part alludes to a suggestion of incestuousness. But, never mind. It's all so light-hearted and silly it hardly matters, and in intellectual France it probably matters even less.

Catherine Deneuve is divine as always. And she has some competition here from Delphine Seyrig, she of the throaty voice, as her fairy godmother.

I still prefer "Umbrellas...". "Donkey Skin" is not quite as lacquered. I even saw a few stray hairs on Deneuve's head in one shot! You would never see that in the other film. And "Donkey Skin" is obviously not shot on the same color stock that gives that deeply artificial saturated look (a problem I had with Todd Haynes' "Far From Heaven"). And even though both movies are wildly stylized, "Donkey Skin" is a fairy tale and "Umbrellas..." is about real people, so the latter is much more emotionally involving. Still, "Donkey Skin" is definitely worth seeing and I recommend it.