Um...this is about as weird as a musical gets. First, the credits: Directed by Jacques Demy (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort) and starring Catherine Deneuve (you may have heard of her), Jean Marais (Orpheus, Beauty and the Beast), Jacques Perrin (he was Deneuve's unsuspecting soulmate in The Young Girls of Rochefort), and Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad).
Next, the story: Donkey Skin begins with a beautiful king, his beautiful queen, their beautiful daughter, and a prosperous kingdom. The kingdom is prosperous because of a magic donkey that shits gold. Really. The queen falls ill, and on her deathbed makes the king promise that he will only marry a woman more beautiful and "mieux faite" than her. He goes a little crazy from grief, and after rejecting many neighboring princesses, realizes his daughter fits the bill! He asks her to marry him, and she gets rather confused because she doesn't know if marrying her father fits under the category of filial devotion.
Luckily, her fairy godmother (played deliciously campy by Seyrig) steps in and advises her that this is not the case, and that she needs to get the hell out of there. After a few failed schemes, the princess flees the country, disguised in the skin of said magic donkey. She takes a job as a scullery maid in a nearby land, a prince falls madly in love with her, and the rest is evident.
Fucked up fairy tale aside, the magic of this movie is in the details. It is, in many ways, an homage to the cinematic tricks and styles of Jean Cocteau (perhaps one of the reasons why Marais did this film), as well as Cocteau's preoccupation with archetypes and fairy tales. The film is full of whimsical sets, rich sets, slow motion, reverse motion, and retro Méliès-style jump cuts. There are several anachronistic jokes, as well as references to other strange fairy tales penned by Charles Perrault.
Most importantly: this is a musical! Cocteau, if he had lived longer, might have graced us with a musical. We'll never know. But Demy does his best to rectify that with a catchy, eery score by Michel Legrand (he did several other Demy films, as well as pretty much everything else under the sun).
Lastly, the critique: Though this movie was entertaining and certainly original, it wasn't nearly as luminous or emotionally resonant as the Cocteau films it honors. Nor is it even up to par with other Demy films. I was genuinely amused by the satirical moments, but what I love about Cocteau's fantasies is the depth of absorption I experience, even in the most clichéd of tales, like Beauty and the Beast. Cocteau understands archetypes so well, and the proto-emotions that still ring true from fairy tales. Demy might have plumbed a lot more depth in this story than the facile Freudian jokes that are easily divined. There also were not nearly enough musical numbers...I believe there were only three or four, and several were reprises. Perhaps Demy was working on a tighter budget than in the 60s?
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