Year: 1970
Director: Jacques Demy
Country: France
Language: French
As a child, Jacques Demy used to stage fairy-tales like Cinderella and Donkey Skin in his homemade puppet theater. His interest in the Brothers Grimm and other writers would remain throughout his life and seep into his film career. In the 50's he wrote a script for a projected film about a Sleeping Beauty, but it never came to fruition. His most celebrated films would have allusions to the splendid and magical. It wouldn't be until 1970 that Demy would make his first full fledged fairy-tale film adaptation.
A king and queen live happily until her sudden death. The king decides to marry his lovely daughter. (Catherine Deneuve) She's willing, but the Lily Fairy serves as a social conscience, intent on thwarting incest. The princess escapes her father's clutches wearing the skin of the king's prized donkey.
Not particularly well-known to Anglophone readers, perhaps because of its problematic subject matter, Donkey Skin is a rather interesting story that is improved by Jacques Demy's touch of La Nouvelle Vague. While great director greatly admired the early adaptations of Disney Studios, he was careful to not be as conservative as the house of mouse. For one, Demy gives the princess a tremendous amount of agency within the story. She is fully in control of her destiny and her desires are stronger than that of the men. She is not a passive female who is simply waiting for her prince.
Demy does a wonderful job of both celebrating and undermining fairy-tale tradition. He challenges sexual taboos by having one of the characters claim that incestuous desire is not wrong for "moral" reasons, but rather reasons of legislature. Keeping in tune with tradition, he saturates the screen with colors and the operetta-like features. Many scenes are pleasantly interrupted by singing and joyously dancing.
It is quite weird to see a helicopter in this film, but the absurdity in Donkey Skin is what helps make the film such a pleasant and unique experience. It's quite an entrancing, absorbing picture that feels far more innovative, endearing, imaginative and mature than anything Disney has made in the last 50 years. To call this picture "great" is an understatement, it's a masterclass of film-making.
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