Peau d'homme coeur de bête (1999) User Reviews

Feminist Parable

[conedust · 7/10 · 16 September 2004]

The earliest reviews in this list baffle me. While this film does deal with violence towards women (that's the whole point, really), it hardly "celebrates" it. Very little violence is actually shown on- screen, and much of it is male-on-male.

Threat is certainly present throughout the film. An oppressive sense of impending danger suffuses nearly every frame. We're made constantly aware that certain male characters are teetering on the brink, and that the women and girls around them are likely to suffer the consequences. This threat, once invoked, serves the film so well that very little on-screen violence is required to keep the audience in a state of anxious, horrified dread.

For example, we learn early on that a police officer is being sent on a forced vacation due to his drinking and unruly behavior. We also learn that his marital difficulties have resulted in his wife's hospitalization. When asked about an injury to his hand, he jokes about someone hitting herself on it. Though he's obviously beaten his wife into the hospital, we're not shown the incident as we would be in an exploitation film.

We later see the same character cavorting with two prostitutes in a brothel. The scene isn't at all violent, but we learn that the brothel owner is angry because the man has harmed one of his employees and "likes to make women bleed". Tellingly, this is seen primarily as a property crime by the odious brothel owner.

I can see why aggrieved antifeminists might object to the film's portrayal of masculine brutality, but the filmmakers hardly seem to endorse the horrors they depict. Nor do I read the final scene as a "hopeful" sign of better things to come. The closing scream is one of rage.

complex tale about the nature of man

[emilyhoffman42 · 6/10 · 28 May 2005]

while watching this film i often found myself repeating the title over and over again like some sort of mantra that would help me truly figure out its shadowed and concealed plot. after viewing i was left feeling perplexed and unrequited but intrigued but the goings on of a family clearly plagued by inherent violence and unusual treatment of their "fellow" human beings. i put the term fellow in quotation marks because of the unique perspective taken on human nature as a theme of the film as understood from the title. the line between human and animal is blurred and the matter of where our humanness divides from our animalness is never fully resolved.

intriguing film.

wow i didn't think it was as bad as all that..

[Embley · 6/10 · 30 September 2000]

the only other two reviews of this film on here at this time make it out to be awful. i don't think it was - i thought it was interesting. it isn't a film i can say that i "like" - it is very difficult to like this sort of horrifying film.. but i thought the characters were interesting and well-portrayed.. the young girls were very good. and i liked the ending very much. i guess the reason i did not hate this film was the performances and the fact that i was filled with a tension throughout the film - bad films do not generally fill me with anything but annoyance. and you can feel the tension from the beginning of this film, way before anything happens to confirm our suspicions.

it is not an easy ride, but i think it is worth it.

Very ambitious thriller about masculinity and childhood. (possible spoilers)

[the red duchess · 6/10 · 15 November 2000]

'Company of Wolves' crossed with 'Olivier Olivier' directed by Claire Denis? This is a film that unearths the dark traumas and psychological nightmares latent in the fairy tale, a family mystery-melodrama that explosively critiques the family unit, and a film by a female director obsessed with masculine sexuality and culture. It is also an obliquely horrific look at the banal machinations of the underworld, a look at the spiritual impoverishment of rural life AND a rites-of-passage movie. One can only praise ambition - most of these themes link each other; and if the work as a whole doesn't really succeed, one can only rejoice in a French film that is not another triper-realistic bore, or look at the interminable ramblings of dithering intellectuals.

You would think with a blunt title like 'Son of Man, Heart of Beast' that the film sets its stall fairly unambiguously. But the disturbing thing about the film is that it's not clear who exactly the title refers to, and by the end you worry about its lack of definite article, and wonder if it is ALL men the director means, that there is something fundamentally beast-like in the heart of every man. A kind of horrible mystery is set in train by the title, and the opening narration, with its relentless foreboding - we know something ghastly has taken place, and that it's going to be pretty savage, committed by a man.

The first man we meet is a burly cop in the Depardieu mould, who is being forcibly put on leave and deprived of his gun for his excessive violence. When we discover he is the girl's father, that their mother is 'away', we fear the worst. His restless hail-and-hearty routine quickly turns to brutality - his first greeting to a long absent brother is to punch him in the face; a drunken binge with brothers and friends turns into a near-rape of an old flame, leaving deep scars on her face; he wakes up after a particularly energetic night out at a brothel with blood all over his shirt.

That long absent brother, Coco, claims to have been in the Foreign Legion (that hallowed refuge for transgressors) for 15 years, something most people doubt, especially when his niece finds a prison uniform in his bag. He is gaunt, cropped, with a grimly ugly face, but we've learned to look past appearances and may even find his shy nervousness sympathetic. When he eventually cracks up, we expect some kind of 'Olivier Olivier'-type revelation. The strange thing is why couldn't his family remember - this past is conveniently repressed, returning with a violent vengeance.

There isn't much to choose between these maniacs. The younger brother is quiet and sensitive, diligent in his menial work. But when this work raises his prospects in the underworld, including white slavery, we slowly watch this marginal character become the cold centre of the film, as we watch a soul closing in on itself, inuring itself to humanity. The denouement consciously echoes 'Of Mice and Men' (similar title to this film), and tells of similar spiritual diminishing.

This film doesn't try to 'explain' masculinity, although it offers a number of possible causes - the authoritarian ideals of much French history, transmitted to generations of men with untold detriment (one OAS veteran cracks up at a farewell party); the flawed pedigree of family values (especially the sons' absent father, what happened to him?); even Jackie Chan movies!?

This insufferable testosterone tries to suffocate the narrative, but is appropriately overtaken by two female presences. First is the fairy-tale viewpoint of the youngest child, which suffuses the film in haunting colour (especially through a magic lantern), and structures the film with familiar fairy-tale motifs - the conflict between these two worlds is the battleground of the film. Secondly is the naarration, highly unreliable, related by a sister who had little access to events, apparently told to her by a sister who no longer speaks. This fractured storytelling further emasculates the 'heroes'. It's nice to see teenagers still listen to The Divine Comedy like I used to.

Oh yeah, it stunk

[bjslade-2 · 25 February 2000]

Its the story of a guy who returns to his family after being gone for fifteen years. Then an hour later, he goes nuts and starts beating the crap out of everyone. He's the bad guy, I guess, but none of the characters are interesting or enlightening in any way. There's not much to this except watching this guy beat up all the females in the film for no reason. Pretty sick stuff really.

Whatever

[=G= · 6/10 · 12 March 2004]

"Skin of Man, Heart of Beast" is a subtitled French flick which tells of a man who wanders back into the lives of his mother and brothers after a long absence he unconvincingly alleges to have spent in the Foreign Legion. A laconic and distant person, the film never really develops the character as it clumsily shows him becoming an increasingly aberrant "head case". A unfortunate attempt at dark psychodrama with low-end production value, this painfully tedious flick spends most of its time with the mundane activities of the family members making its 90%-filler/10%-thriller screenplay too little payoff for too much effort. Passable for all but the most diehard foreign film freaks into psychodramas in spite of above average critical reviews. (B-)

Horrible film,dismal performances..

[dbdumonteil · 1/10 · 18 January 2004]

There are French directors who dare:François Ozon is one of them ,and even when he pushes his art to extreme limits (les amants criminels),both his screenplay ,his directing and his mastery remain powerful.

This poor thing has a ghost of a screenplay,and features some of the worst performances that can be seen in a contemporary French movie:to say that the actors overplay would be an euphemism: you should (but you must not if you are wise enough to spare you this turkey)see them scream,grimace (with pain) and look "deep" .Also handicapped by frequent use of a little girl's voice over .Ugly pictures,absurd editing,obscure motives of the characters.

HORRIBLE.

Men in the skin of wolves

[fireflyhill · 8/10 · 20 November 2000]

"Peau d'Homme Coeur de Bête" is a fairy tale in the classical sense. This isn't a Disney movie and we get the feeling that the children might be devoured at any moment. This tension runs throughout. Does this movie depict violence towards children? Not exactly. But the threat is real and ever-present. It saturates everything.

All of the men in this movie are struggling with their emotions and anger. After having left various male organizations (such as the military, the pseudo-military fraternity of cops and perhaps even prison) we see that these men don't know how to vent or focus their own aggression. It spills out. They lash out at those around them. When the men gather together this emotion tumbles from riot to celebration seemingly at random.

This is a dark portrait of "the heart of a beast" that beats within all men. In the end, however, there is a small sliver of hope. Perhaps it is possible, somehow, to vent this aggression in a non-destructive way.

WORST FILM I have ever seen

[cenko · 1/10 · 16 February 2000]

This is absolutely the worst film I have ever seen in my life. As far as I am concerned, it shows violence towards women and children without explaining why it happened. The whole thing looks like an excuse to show violence on cinema.

DON'T SEE IT!!

a priminal scream!

[cleo-11 · 10/10 · 19 March 2002]

I just returned from watching this film at class at cal arts and it left me without many words to say. Sorry that this review is all over the place.

This is a film to not watch lightly, it is dark, it is honest, and it doesn't give you answers. I have to disagree with the two neg. comments. The violence in this movie is not just towards women or children or is it looked well upon.

This is a film that tries to look at Men or Violence of men in a post war France. These men all are human, but are not able to deal with their beasts.

The acting in this film is amazing. All in the cast pulls from themselves real characters and real emotions. I never felt like these were actors instead they seems to be these people.

I have to give a lot of credit to the little girl she was just amazing. She held this movie together with her beautiful performance.

This movie is one I recommend highly, but be warned, it is not a movie to just go see and not think about, there is a lot to think about in this movie, and like I said there are no answers given, no morals, no understanding to take from it, but there is a lot there.

An added note.

This movie was made by a women and while it might be hard to see how a women would make a movie with so much violence towards her own sex it is not hard

to see why she choose to in the end because the women rule in this kind of violence needs to be shown.

Don't look away.

10 out of 10.....

A great film

[vincent_brems · 8/10 · 22 July 2002]

I had read imdb users' comment before watching the film. I was very surprised. Though it is not the best film I ever watched, this film is very good. It is NOT a violent film - have a look at David Lynch's Lost Highway or Blue Velvet! It is not a thriller either. It tells the story of a lower class family in southern France. An uncle comes back after fifteen years. He pretends he was in the army but one guesses he was in prison - was he? It seems this guy is not clean and may get dangerous. Indeed, except killing a woman by accident, nothing happens but the tension is very high and you are expecting all the time the worst will happen : I was stuck to my chair.

Awful movie!!

[Lorna1986 · 3 December 2004]

If ever there was a movie teaching people how NOT to act - it is this one. Horribly over-acted, Bernard Blancan (Coco) is particularly awful! The films saving grace is Cathy Hinderchied (Aurelie - the little girl) who is absoltely beautiful and actually acts her part better than all of the so-called accomplished older actors. The part where Coco thumps the gradmother should be shocking. Instead I burst out laughing - thanks completely to Bernard Blancan hilarious facial expression. The way he shows anger is to open his eyes wide. he uses the same facial expression for happiness, confusion, etc. etc.

Pascal Cervo as Alex is very under-used as he is a very promising actor who simply isn't given the chance to really shine...

Overall, a huge disappointment!!

Powerful, disturbing.

[runamokprods · 9/10 · 23 September 2016]

Powerful film about a deeply dysfunctional and violent family.

Helene Angel dives deep to explore the emotional toll male violence ultimately takes on two children where violence is a part of a way of life. Great performances.

The film is both disturbingly real, and yet slightly surreal, as much is perceived thorough the children's eyes - something that's hard to do, but pulled off well here.

The film deeply divided critics, some of whom saw it as purely sadistic, but without point. But I agree with those that saw it as both a metaphor and examination of the damage to all involved done by the masculine id.

Movie of crap

[bjslade-2 · 13 June 2002]

The last review pretty much nailed it on the head. I saw this movie at a film festival two years ago where it was much ballyhooed because it had won some award at some European festival in the months before. But I was stunned at how confused and just generally crappy this movie was. Its violent without reason or preview, the characters really don't make much sense and that title--oh boy! I believe its supposed to be released around the States this summer, but I'd recommend just cruising the freeway looking for free car accidents before you blow your cash on this one.

A taut exacting drama on the nature of family violence

[akari10013 · 25 June 2001]

This is an exceptional first film on the ways violence can poison a family. The film pulls no punches and Angel wrist great performances from her cast. Especially the young girls. The film plays-out like a thriller and finishes like a Grim fairy-tale. I look forward to her future releases.