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(More customer reviews)When this film was released in 1964 it bombed commercially and was critically panned in every quarter, even booed at the Cannes Film Festival. Retrospective overviews and a more enlightened appreciation of Truffaut's entire body of work as a unit has done some good in enhancing its reputation, although not enough.
Truffaut was still being justly commended for his beautiful masterpiece JULES ET JIM when LA PEAU DUCE premiered, and the derision it met with can be attributed to the unfounded notion that a director cannot follow one "tour de force" with another. Reluctance and wariness greeted the film's sombre tone and downbeat ending. LA PEAU DUCE was not allowed to breathe, and therefore not allowed to intoxicate and energize its audience. Ultimately what its detractors failed to realize was that great artists do not make bad art.
The film concerns writer Pierre (Jean Desailly) and his infatuation with air stewardess Nicole (Francoise Dorleac) whom he meets on a matter of fact flight from Paris to Lisbon. Fascinated, the Balzac aficionado leaves his sensually lovely wife (Nelly Benedetti) and daughter (played to our delight by little Sabine of JULES ET JIM) in order to commit himself totally to Nicole, only to meet with unforeseen ruin.
The role of Pierre is a somewhat unsympathetic one and, although played superbly by Desailly, he would later claim that it thwarted his career. As in all of Truffaut's films, it is the complete rebuttal of machismo that serves to humanize our male protagonist - unable to consult with his common sense when touched by the Soft Skin - and also to reinforce the potent femininity of our heroine; she who lives her life from one moment to the next, engaging her most endearing whims impulsively and without the consideration of consequence.
The film's greatest performance is that of Francoise Dorleac. The sister of Catherine Deneuve, she shares with her sibling the most striking and intelligent beauty ever to grace the cinema. But where Deneuve's icy sensuality make her the perfect anti-heroine of Bunuel's BELLE DE JOUR and Truffaut's own MISSISSIPPI MERMAID (another stroke of genius from Truffaut that is sorely underrated), Dorleac's allure is one of warmth and exuberance. She smiles with her whole body, joyously and completely unaffected. This film is one of only three worthy showcases of the flair of this great enigma. She is most beautifully photographed in Polanski's ingenious CUL DE SAC, where she is visceral, fearless and elegant; and in Jacques Demy's gorgeous and effervescent LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT, the world's most beautiful sisters share the screen for what surely would not have been the only time, had not Dorleac's life been tragically cut short before her prime.
Indeed, one of Truffaut's key cinematic virtues was in directing actresses, women with whom he almost always fell in love, just as we fall in love in front of the screen. His mantra, evoking that of Jean Renoir, was that the actor take total precedence over the character. Women who are formidable, beautiful and enigmatic do not need to invoke these charms through performance. Thus in JULES ET JIM Catherine is Jeanne Moreau; in SUCH A GORGEOUS KID LIKE ME Camille is Bernadette Lafont; and in LA PEAU DUCE Nicole is Francoise Dorleac.
There is not a single shot in this film that is showy, affected or unnecessary. It is directed with such concise brilliance and tact - and by such a young man - that it can only be marvelled at. Witness Desailly's curious observation of Dorleac's feet as she changes footwear; His removal of her stockings while she sleeps (a scene relived by Truffaut with Belmondo and Deneuve in MISSISSIPPI MERMAID); And the succinct and callous manner in which the camera follows a telephone conversation - evidence of Truffaut's skilfulness in using seemingly inane components to create cinematic mastery and beauty.
You should see this film, not once but many times. It is subtle, understated and completely beautiful.
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