Whilst the previous films I've seen by auteur François Truffaut have been very easy to pick up,The Soft Skin has somehow been difficult to get,with each attempt to order it ending in the DVD being sold out,or getting lost in the post. After visiting a friend I took a look round a DVD shop,and was thrilled to find 2 copies of the movie,which gave me a chance to find out how soft the skin is.
The plot:
Saying goodbye to his wife Franca and daughter Sabine, writer and literary magazine editor Pierre Lachenay gets on a flight to attend a conference. On the plane,Lachenay is unable to take his eyes off beautiful air hostess Nicole. Thinking of her when he later checks into a hotel and sets off for the conference, Lachenay is surprised to spot Nicole in the hotel lobby. Getting hold of her hotel room and phone number (!) Lachenay and Nicole begin to have an affair,that Lachenay hopes will remain confidentially yours.
View on the film:
Planned as a quick 4 week production as the rights to Fahrenheit 451 were sorted,but ending up as a flop at the box office,and causing its maker to distance himself from the French New Wave (FNW) style,co-writer/(with Jean Louis-Richard) directing auteur François Truffaut presents a swansong to this era in his credits,which gathers all the themes built up across the works. Shooting scenes in his own apartment,Truffaut & cinematographer Raoul Coutard build upon their tracking shots in Shoot the Piano player with delicate extended tracking shots round the Lachenay household, circling in on the declining state of their marriage.
Done after he had written his book on Hitchcock, Truffaut prominently uses Georges Delerue simmering score to give Nicole and Pierre's affair an atmosphere of unavoidable doom,with Truffaut continuing to use silhouettes for the most romantic scenes,and "on the streets" walk & talks revealing a disconnection between Pierre and Nicole understanding what they each desire in the relationship.Inspired by newspaper stories,tales from pals and events in their own lives,the screenplay by Truffaut and Richards trims the loved-up state of Jules and Jim for a fractured melancholy romance. Smartly making Pierre's daughter Sabine and his wife Franca (played by a wonderful Nelly Benedetti,who plants Franca's seeds of doubt in a no-nonsense way) be vocal over what Pierre is leaving behind,the writers give Pierre's love for Nicole a brittleness,where Pierre's dream of running off on the road with a young lover is hit by the reality of family life and their jobs.
Firing up a photo finish,the writers subtly shift the point of view from the Nicole and Pierre's loving state to Franca delivering her verdict from the sight she sees in the breakdown of her marriage.Coming from the "Classic" era of French cinema, Jean Desailly gives an excellent performance as Pierre, whose meek, middle-management manners are blended by Desailly with a burning wish to capture the sparks in a new relationship. Possibly being the most beautiful air hostess there has ever been, Françoise Dorléac gives an exquisite performance as Nicole,who shares Pierre's wishful state of the romance,but is given a feisty edge by Dorléac,which flowers at the touch of the soft skin.
The plot:
Saying goodbye to his wife Franca and daughter Sabine, writer and literary magazine editor Pierre Lachenay gets on a flight to attend a conference. On the plane,Lachenay is unable to take his eyes off beautiful air hostess Nicole. Thinking of her when he later checks into a hotel and sets off for the conference, Lachenay is surprised to spot Nicole in the hotel lobby. Getting hold of her hotel room and phone number (!) Lachenay and Nicole begin to have an affair,that Lachenay hopes will remain confidentially yours.
View on the film:
Planned as a quick 4 week production as the rights to Fahrenheit 451 were sorted,but ending up as a flop at the box office,and causing its maker to distance himself from the French New Wave (FNW) style,co-writer/(with Jean Louis-Richard) directing auteur François Truffaut presents a swansong to this era in his credits,which gathers all the themes built up across the works. Shooting scenes in his own apartment,Truffaut & cinematographer Raoul Coutard build upon their tracking shots in Shoot the Piano player with delicate extended tracking shots round the Lachenay household, circling in on the declining state of their marriage.
Done after he had written his book on Hitchcock, Truffaut prominently uses Georges Delerue simmering score to give Nicole and Pierre's affair an atmosphere of unavoidable doom,with Truffaut continuing to use silhouettes for the most romantic scenes,and "on the streets" walk & talks revealing a disconnection between Pierre and Nicole understanding what they each desire in the relationship.Inspired by newspaper stories,tales from pals and events in their own lives,the screenplay by Truffaut and Richards trims the loved-up state of Jules and Jim for a fractured melancholy romance. Smartly making Pierre's daughter Sabine and his wife Franca (played by a wonderful Nelly Benedetti,who plants Franca's seeds of doubt in a no-nonsense way) be vocal over what Pierre is leaving behind,the writers give Pierre's love for Nicole a brittleness,where Pierre's dream of running off on the road with a young lover is hit by the reality of family life and their jobs.
Firing up a photo finish,the writers subtly shift the point of view from the Nicole and Pierre's loving state to Franca delivering her verdict from the sight she sees in the breakdown of her marriage.Coming from the "Classic" era of French cinema, Jean Desailly gives an excellent performance as Pierre, whose meek, middle-management manners are blended by Desailly with a burning wish to capture the sparks in a new relationship. Possibly being the most beautiful air hostess there has ever been, Françoise Dorléac gives an exquisite performance as Nicole,who shares Pierre's wishful state of the romance,but is given a feisty edge by Dorléac,which flowers at the touch of the soft skin.