Once upon a time ...

DONKEY SKIN - PEAU D'ANE, 1970: Jacques Demy's ode to the classic fairy tale by 17th century author Charles Perrault comes to life with breathtaking brilliance. Digitally restored and remastered by Agnes Varda (Demy's wife) this epic tale overflows with dazzling elaborate costumes and an enchanting score by Academy Award-winning composer Michel Legrand.

Catherine Deneuve stars as a princess whose father The King wants to marry her after promising his dying wife (also Denueve) only to wed a woman more beautiful that she. Listening to her godmother, The Lilac Fairy, the frightened princess flees to a neighbourhood farm and hides as a scullery maid, while wearing the skin of her father's prize donkey as a disguise. A visiting prince passes by and of course falls for the princess. 

Ahead of its time and strikingly modern in its design, this warts and all fairytale is perhaps the Demy film most ready for discovery. - So goes the blurb for this delightful fairy tale.

Having already seen Demy's other fairy tale THE PIED PIPER from 1972 with its British cast, his 1970 Perrault tale is also endless delight to see again now. The shots of Deneuve wearing the donkey skin gliding through the forest and mixing with the other villagers are like something from a dream. The King is Jean Marais (ORPHEE), and the prince Jacques Perrin, who had teamed with Deneuve several times before. Micheline Presle (who starred in BLIND DATE, Joseph Losey label) is the prince's mother, and best of all Delphine Seyrig (right) is a total delight as the vampish fairy godmother. The sets and costumes are constantly delighful, particularly those dresses the princess asks the King for: the dress the colour of the weather, and of the moon, and of the sun (this brings back a childhood memory, I must have read these stories as a child) - finally she asks for the skin of the donkey who defecates gold and coins and jewels, and the besotted father gives it to her, before she runs away.  Its deliciously funny and inventive when all the princesses and maids in the kingdom queue up to try on the ring that Donkey Skin put in the cake for the prince to find - and when her father and the Lilac Fairy turn up by helicopter for their wedding.The large cast and those marvellous costumes which constantly delight must mean this was an expensive production. It was also scripted by Demy and lensed by Ghislain Cloquet.

Demy with Marais and Deneuve

I particularly like Demy's first two, those stunning black and white films LOLA and BAY OF ANGELS, and then his two musicals: THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG in 1964 and LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT in '67. PEAU D'ANE was his first on his return to France after making the disappointing MODEL SHOP in Los Angeles in ther late '60s. The dvd also has the trailer for his next: THE SLIGHTLY PREGNANT MAN with Mastroianni and Deneuve and looking so very early '70s. We now need to seek out those later Demy films like UN CHAMBRE EN VILLE ...More on Demy (1931  - 1990) at Demy label. 

Some more Deneuve titles shortly: INDOCHINE, Truffaut's THE LAST METRO, two by Andre Techine: MY FAVOURITE SEASON and HOTEL AMERICA, and I may re-look at THE HUNGER too ! and of course I loved her in Ozon's POTICHE recently (Deneuve, Ozon labels), didn't care much for A CHRISTMAS TALE though ...

Potiche

POTICHE. The perfect treat for recuperating from an operation! I knew this would be ideal for sharing with visiting friends. Francois Ozon’s candy-coloured soufflé is a delicious comedy set in provincial France in 1977 – the clothes, hairstyles, fabrics etc are all spot on. We begin with Suzanne Pujol (Catherine Deneuve) out jogging in her track suit, cooing to the wildlife and jotting down her poems. Her sexist pig of a husband treats her like a trophy wife and is having trouble at the umbrella factory began by Suzanne’s father. The workers are striking for better pay and conditions while the husband Frabrice Lucini does everything wrong and treats his mistress Nadege (Karin Viard) shabbily too. The upshot is the workers kidnap him and Suzanne takes his place at the factory when he is too ill to continue.



She of course soon sorts everything out with the workers, production is up but it is too good to last. The major Babin (Gerard Depardieu) has helped her and it turns out they have a history going back to when they were young. They become close again as they battle not only the scheming husband but also her daughter who plots against her over control of the factory. Suzanne turns out to be quite formidable as she then runs to become a MP – Deneuve is wonderful here as the woman who realises she has turned a blind eye to her husband’s infidelity and oafish treatment of her for too long.

It is all amusingly worked out, the disco scene is pure 1977 and a nice send-up of the SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER era. Amusing too is the way the son Laurent (Jeremie Rennier) progressively gets gayer as he starts designing at the factory. Whatever one feels about Deneuve and Depardieu they are to all extent and purposes the faces of French Cinema now and they deliver a lot of fun here. Ozon scores a popular hit in his varied movie-making career (its as deliciously camp as 8 FEMMES) and it is good to see Deneuve – with all the associations of her past movies (there are fleeting moments here that suggest UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG and THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT) – enjoying a fun movie here. Extensive extras on the dvd include an extended making-of (it was a lot of fun on the set), wardrobe tests etc.

Coming soon: a veritable feast of Deneuve - reviews of Demy's PEAU D'ANE (DONKEY SKIN), INDOCHINE, 2 by Techine MY FAVOURITE SEASON and HOTEL AMERICA, A CHRISTMAS TALE, and maybe PLACE VENDOME and THIEVES!

Francois, Charlotte et Melvil sur la plage

A brace of sombre films by Francois Ozon, featuring the beach and meditations on mortality....
UNDER THE SAND (SOUS LE SABLE) When her husband goes missing at the beach, a female professor begins to mentally disintegrate as her denial of his disappearance becomes delusional, as the brief synopsis puts it. This 2000 French film by Francois Ozon is notable for a stunning performance from Charlotte Rampling as Marie who has to adjust her life after her husband presumably drowns. She goes into denial and continues as though he is still there but gradually it all becomes too much. As she cannot accept his death she cannot access his funds and her friends, including a nicely mature Alexandra Stewart worry about her. What are her motives for getting involved with another man (Jacques Nolot) whom she is toying with? We see the husband (Bruno Cremer) as she imagines he is there with her – but tellingly at the beach we also see his expression before he goes into the sea.



His aged mother taunts Marie that her son has faked his death to get away from her as he was bored, or even committed suicide. Finally, a body is found – will Marie be able to accept that is her husband or does she continue in denial? Is it in fact her husband? There is that powerful scene at the morgue. The overweight husband does seem older and tired and weary in the early scenes as the couple head to their holiday home. It is splendidly directed by Ozon who focuses tightly on his star, but one does begin to get exasperated by Marie's behaviour by the end. It is a meditation on aging, loss, mourning, which would seem the domain of a more senior filmmaker [Ozon was 35 when directing this], but he has accomplished a thoughtful, serious, and compelling movie that we can all identify with, even if we do not share the extent of Marie's mourning process.

TIME TO LEAVE (LE TEMPS QUI RESTE) – Nice that Ozon’s new film POTICHE with Deneuve and Depardieu is an international hit. I had been putting off watching this, his 2005 more sombre drama as I imagined it might be too harrowing. Romain (Melvil Poupaud) a gay fashion photographer (who seems to have it all) is given a death sentence by his doctor – he has terminal cancer. He becomes reclusive as he begins to give up the world and people close to him, alienating himself from his lover, sister and parents. The only person he tells is his grand-mother (Jeanne Moreau, marvellous as ever) as she will be dead soon too. It is not harrowing at all but rather affecting at times, and also nicely compact at 75 minutes. Improbably, he is asked to impregnate a waitress he chats to whose sterile husband he quite fancies, which he at first refuses, but later all three get together.


Poupaud must have seriously lost weight by the final scene at the beach as the solitary man enjoys himself, with visions of his childhood past – one shocking moment has him throwing his ringing phone into a trashcan as he leaves the world behind him. The film’s pared down style is similar to his previous UNDER THE SAND and is a meditation on what it means to find out you only have a short time left to live. Melvil Poupaud carries the film beautifully and gives a performance that is both affecting and un-selfpitying, morphing from a fit, athletic young man to an emaciated invalid. It is indeed affecting as the sun goes down and people start to leave the beach... Francois Ozon continues to be one of the more interesting (and openly gay) directors around. I must return to that boxset of his earlier films: 8 FEMMES, 5 X 2 and SWIMMING POOL with Rampling again, and I also must watch that BFI dvd of his earlier shorts, REGARDE LA MER. It is good to see POTICHE is popular, one wonders what he will deliver next?
Soon: a new Andre Techine boxset, Assayas' SUMMER HOURS, several Catherine Deneuve and Belmondo titles and back to Chabrol and Melville, and summer repeats of Demy and Varda, and finally Truffaut's FINALLY SUNDAY, and Charlotte again HEADING SOUTH.