Day 130: The Skin I Live In

Plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) is a genius in his field, and after his wife was horrifically burned in a car crash, he attempts to create skin that is impervious to damage. Do not read ahead, there are going to be so many spoilers and really, you just have to watch this beauty of a film.

The sequence in which we are presented with the story is perfect. We see Robert with his patient, Vera (Elena Anaya), and we are shown how strong her skin is now (he burns her and yet she doesn't feel it and her skin is undamaged). She is kept in a locked room and she only sees Robert, interaction with anyone else takes place over an intercom and her food is delivered by a dumb waiter. She has covered the wall in writing, marking the days of her stay like a prisoner. And that definitely seems to be what she is. When Robert comes to see her she says they should be together and it would seem like she has Stockholm Syndrome, but that is not necessarily true upon seeing the rest of the film. We are shown years before, he saved his wife despite her extensive injuries but when she saw a reflection of herself she jumped from a window and died in front of her young daughter, Norma (Blanca Suárez). She suffers psychological issues, presumably from this event, and is cared for in a psychiatric ward. Her doctor assumes that she is well enough to go outside and so she accompanies her father to a party. However, at the party she is raped and her psychological trauma worsens, leading her to kill herself in the same manner as her mother.

The man who raped her, Vicente (Jan Cornet), is kidnapped by Robert and kept in his basement for a long time. Robert comes to him, shaves his facial hair, drugs him and takes him to the operating theatre he has in his house where Vicente undergoes sex reassignment surgery and his name is changed to Vera. I am unsure of the correct pronouns to use here (I know I used female pronouns earlier but that's only because the facts of the story are obviously not clear from the beginning) but since ‘Vera’ did not choose to have the operation and seemed horrified at the changes, I will use male pronouns (if that’s wrong I am happy to change them). Breasts develop and his voice becomes more feminine, and with Robert’s skin project, he becomes ‘perfect’. The face, because his face was all remodelled, resembles that of Robert’s late wife and this seems to have quite the psychological hold over him. After his brother breaks in and rapes Vera, Robert kills him and becomes intimate with Vera, calling him ‘my love.’ He promises to stay with him and Robert promises not to keep him locked in a room anymore but when the opportunity comes, he kills Robert and returns to his mother.

At the beginning of the film, Robert is giving a lecture on facial reconstruction of burn victims and he says that our face identifies us, it is essentially who we are. It’s never clearer how much he believes this than when he looks at Vera and only sees his wife. He doesn’t see that Vera was the man who raped his daughter, it’s as if who Vera is doesn’t matter, it’s who he looks like that does. For a plastic surgeon to put so much emphasis on the external aspects of a person isn’t necessarily surprising but what is surprising is the importance of who this person actually is and that it has little impact on Robert. What he sees is someone who looks just like the woman he loved and that is all he sees. I think that’s fascinating. Do we really put so much importance on how people look? If, for instance, you woke up and your mother had a different face, would that impact on how you felt about her? What about your partner? Or your child?

When I was younger I experienced something similar to what is known as ‘The Capgras Delusion’. I say something similar because the experience was only really with my father and it only lasted when I was younger, it doesn’t happen now. People with the Capgras Delusion believe that someone close to them has been replaced by an imposter who looks exactly identical to the person they are meant to be. It is frightening and I’m thankful it only lasted for a little time. I only mention it because it seems relevant to the ideas thrown up by the film. The person I thought was an imposter looked just like my father and yet I felt that it wasn’t him. There wasn’t a connection between what he looked like and who he was. In the film, the connection between who Vera looked like and who Vera actually was was lost. And instead who Vera was became entwined with who he looked like. Faces are important to how we operate in our lives and this film explores the extremes of that importance.

What an amazing film. Antonio Banderas was wonderful in this character, he managed to give off the appearance of someone calm and composed while all the while he’s going through some serious psychological issues. The film was beautifully shot and each scene was subtle and powerful.

10/10