The split screen used in the opening sequence of Dans Ma Peau seems to set the scene for a film with a detachment and alienation at its centre. Marina de Van writes, directs and stars in this genuinely unnerving film about the controversial subject of self harm.
De Van plays Esther, a seemingly normal, successful, happy woman who, at the beginning of the film, falls and cuts her leg at a party. It isn't until some time later that she actually notices the cut. She is not alerted by the pain of it (which she oddly doesn't feel) but when she notices blood spatter on the carpet. When she finally sees the wound her entire leg is bloodied by the extensive gash.
After a visit to the doctor, who stitches up the wound, he tells Esther that she may need cosmetic surgery to hide the scar. The following day and for no apparent reason, she removes the bandages and begins to pick at the wound. Over the next few days things begin to spiral out of control with Esther becoming more and more addicted to the wound. She then begins to mutilate herself, as if trying to recreate the initial injury and seems to get pleasure from the act. Esther then cuts more and deeper and by the end of the film the self inflicted violence reaches disturbing new heights. All the help that Esther is offered by friends and family is pushed away, and only the perverse joy she gets from the act of self mutilation becomes all she is interested in.
Dans Ma Peau is very different to the average mainstream horror, with no ghosts or physco killers lurking in the dark, it simply shows of one woman's slow descent into madness. For it to work it must rely heavily on the performance of Marina de Van, which I have to say she delivers in some style. Her performance of Esther is both tragic and very touching with good support coming from the rest of the cast. De Vans direction is also first rate and the voyeuristic approach to Esther's disease is handled beautifully.
My problem with the film however is that it comes across at times somewhat pretentious, as it we are watching some bizarre performance art, but credit to Marina de Van for creating something quite unique if at times extremely hard to watch.
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