[critical] UNDER THE SKIN

U

nder the skin accompanied by a young blonde woman (Scarlett Johanson) apparently blank of any social interaction, of which nothing is known. It invariably seeks to seduce the men, all types of men. It does not seem to know the social codes of traditional, and not knowing really who she is… Will, disappearances, strange kills…

The reaction to the discovery of the first images, is ambivalent, we really don’t know what sauce it will be eaten, a bit of surprise, apprehension… This movie has a strong identity, which materializes in all initial plans.

The opening scene immediately sends the room in a mechanical universe, futuristic, strange. We find ourselves immersed in a body at the centre of a device of the workings of modern connecting the interior of a body for an eye.. the camera comes out of the pupil by movement of hindsight, we are now the “in front of the skin…”

the film can now begin, and accompany Scarlett in her strange journey, in Scotland, more exactly…

I was surprised compared to the Pitch that I had read, which announced that instead of a movie extra-terrestrial. With the benefit of hindsight, I see it as rather a psychological drama… Far from the SF or conventional films. Don’t expect aliens or a thriller suspense ”effective” as usual, it is nothing…

It is a film that you can assimilate an experience, both at the level of the staging, the tone dealt with, and the choice of narration.

At the start, the viewer’s brain starts boiling. A game of questioning within snaps into place, in parallel to the film, which unfolds, and let us peacefully take the time to consider solutions, to our assumptions, we build a path mind.

Who is this woman ? What is its mission? Or will she take us? The reception is in the brain, Jonathan Glazer has chosen, by mounting, to allow time for digestion and the anticipation of about. He trusted us…

And it’s been a good crazy to feel free to think, to judge (in the broad sense). It is partly for this reason that I believe that it is a film that is risky, that must be seen. For the experience it provides.

The director gives us a set of keys, with a representation of the strict, factual, related to situations of seduction, interactions Men/Women. However, we never took the hand to help us grasp the essence ; he lets us choose.

The information is of a neutrality of anxiety, navigating between tragic situations, murders, or frustrations, with a point of view Johansonnien and a camera that comes back to Scarlett, inexorably… to the point of obsession. Several themes are discussed through the various meetings and the different reaction of the protagonists : manipulation, seduction, kindness, spontaneity, the loneliness of contemporary, the animality of human relationships, injustice, the quest, the love, or rather the absence of love, the mechanical side and impulses of human relationships… the Humanity…

”This is a film for the curious, sensitive… A film that is frozen or in a specific scenario, or in dialogues using fine needles, or in formats pre-established.”

This is a film for the curious, sensitive… A film that is frozen or in a specific scenario, or in dialogues using fine needles, or in formats pre-established.

Attention, undertone : it’s a movie-thought out, structured and very thorough…

It is built in a mathematical way. With an introduction marked an end conclusive, and in the midst of all this, a set of chapters that coincide with the meetings of the male random fact our Heroine.

Added to this is the mirror scene, a major element of the film, which marks a change for the character, from which Scarlett is humanized. In any case, it does so, but soon finds himself being pushed to their limits : she tries to eat, make love, sleep, but without success…

There is also a prominent use of symbolism aesthetics in scenes of physical union ; those who ask questions. Is this that the sexual act is a killing mental/physical or sublimated?

And then many of the keys oppressive plans of the animals mass, subject : ants, dogs, to announce the contacts Man/Woman, may be to remember that we are nothing other than machines-organized beings of impulses…

in short we can say that the development of UNDER THE SKIN follows a logical personal own to Jonathan Glazer, and that the evolution of the set is controlled, with the account drips. The trend is largely a misanthrope, hopeless, and pessimistic…

To Conclude :

Each step ends with a batch of questions, and results in a lot of assumptions… all of this is served by a photo remarkable, a soundtrack of malignancy (Mica Levi), and landscapes of great beauty.

To nitpick I notice small lengths on the end, but very largely offset by the ubiquity and accuracy of the buxom Scarlett Johansson, on which the film relies perhaps a little too much…

It is a film that it is necessary to understand, elucidate, and I think that the whole point of’ UNDER THE SKIN’ lies in the search for its second reading. It will be necessary to accept to be active during the viewing, to leave a real pleasure… A must see, obviously.

CASTING
Original title : Under The Skin

Achievement : Jonathan Glazer

Screenplay : Jonathan Glazer/Walter Campbell

Main actors : Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay.

Country of origin : Uk

Released : JUNE 25, 2014

Duration : 1h47mn

Distributor : MK2 / Diaphana Distribution

Synopsis : A Young woman arrives on Earth to seduce men before making them disappear
TRAILER

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