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'{{Infobox film | name = The Skin I Live In | image = Theskinilivein-poster.png | alt = | caption = Teaser poster | director = [[Pedro Almodóvar]] | producer = [[Agustín Almodóvar]]<br />Pedro Almodóvar | screenplay = Pedro Almodóvar | based on = {{Based on|''Tarantula''|[[Thierry Jonquet]]}} | starring = [[Antonio Banderas]]<br />[[Elena Anaya]] | music = [[Alberto Iglesias]] | cinematography = [[José Luis Alcaine]] | editing = [[José Salcedo]] | studio = [[El Deseo]] | distributor = El Deseo | released = {{Film date|2011|5|19|[[2011 Cannes Film Festival|Cannes Film Festival]]|2011|9|2|Spain|df=y}} | runtime = 117 minutes | country = {{Film Spain}} | language = Spanish | budget = €10 million | gross = }} '''''The Skin I Live In''''' ({{lang-es|'''La piel que habito'''}}) is a 2011 Spanish film directed by [[Pedro Almodóvar]], starring [[Antonio Banderas]] and [[Elena Anaya]]. It is loosely based on the novel ''Tarantula'' by [[Thierry Jonquet]]. The film was the first collaboration in 21 years between Almodóvar and his former regular cast member Banderas. It premiered in competition at the [[2011 Cannes Film Festival]]. ==Plot== Based on [[Thierry Jonquet]]'s novel ''Tarantula'', ''The Skin I Live In'' tells the story of a surgeon who tries to create a new human skin.<ref name=filming>{{Cite web|last=Ríos Pérez|first=Sergio|date=2010-08-23|url=http://cineuropa.org/newsdetail.aspx?lang=en&documentID=149460|title=Shooting starts on Almodóvar's ''The Skin I Live In''|work=Cineuropa|accessdate=2010-12-09}}</ref> Almodóvar describes the film as "a horror story without screams or frights".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ríos Pérez|first=Sergio|date=2010-05-05|url=http://cineuropa.org/newsdetail.aspx?documentID=145048|title=Álmodovar, Bayona make 'ambitious, high-quality European films from Spain'|work=Cineuropa|accessdate=2010-12-09}}</ref> The accomplished surgeon Robert Ledgard succeeds to cultivate a skin which can withstand any kind of assault; such a skin would have been able to save his wife, who was burned in a car crash twelve years earlier. To his help, Ledgard has an accomplice, Marilia, and a human guinea pig.<ref name=ceprofile>{{Cite web|url=http://cineuropa.org/film.aspx?documentID=201437|title=Film profile: The Skin I Live In|work=Cineuropa|accessdate=2011-05-22}}</ref> ==Cast== * [[Antonio Banderas]] as Robert Ledgard * [[Elena Anaya]] as Vera * [[Marisa Paredes]] as Marilia * Jan Cornet as Vicente * Roberto Álamo as Zeca * Blanca Suárez as Norma * [[Eduard Fernández]] as Fulgencio ==Production== [[Pedro Almodóvar]] read [[Thierry Jonquet]]'s novel ''Tarantula'' about ten years before the finished film was released. What attracted him in the novel was "the magnitude of Doctor Ledgard's vendetta".<ref name=pc>{{Cite web|last=Suárez López|first=Gonzalo|date=2011-05-19|url=http://cineuropa.org/interview.aspx?lang=en&documentID=203802|title=Interview with Pedro Almodóvar|work=Cineuropa|accessdate=2011-05-22}}</ref> This became the core of the film adaptation, which over time moved further and further from the original plot of the novel. Almodóvar was openly inspired by the thriller films of [[Fritz Lang]] and [[Georges Franju]]'s ''[[Eyes Without a Face]]'' when he wrote the screenplay.<ref name=pc /> The director first announced the film project in 2002. He originally envisioned [[Antonio Banderas]] and [[Penélope Cruz]] in the film's two leading roles, but eventually settled on Banderas and [[Elena Anaya]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pablos|first=Emiliano de|date=2010-06-09|url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118020381?refCatId=4031|title=Almodovar adds Anaya to 'La piel'|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|accessdate=2010-12-09}}</ref> ''The Skin I Live In'' was the first film Almodóvar and Banderas made together in 21 years, after having been regular collaborators in the 1980s. The film was produced through [[El Deseo]] for a budget of ten million euros.<ref name=filming /> Principal photography started on 23 August 2010 and ended almost four months later.<ref name=filming /><ref name=wrap>{{Cite web|last=Ríos Pérez|first=Sergio|date=2011-01-10|url=http://cineuropa.org/newsdetail.aspx?lang=en&documentID=194198|title=Almodóvar wraps shooting on 'intense drama' ''The Skin I Live In''|work=Cineuropa|accessdate=2011-01-10}}</ref> Filming locations included [[Santiago de Compostela]], Madrid and a country house outside [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]].<ref name=filming /> ==Release== The film premiered on 19 May in competition at the [[2011 Cannes Film Festival]].<ref name="Cannes">{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.fr/assets/File/Web/HORAIRES%202011/Horaire%20internet.pdf|title=Horaires 2011|language=French|work=festival-cannes.com|publisher=[[Cannes Film Festival]]|accessdate=2011-05-22}}</ref> Due to changes in the industry of film distribution, El Deseo decided to abandon their previous release strategy for Almodóvar's works. The films had in the past usually been released in Spanish theatres in the spring and internationally during the last quarter of the year. ''The Skin I Live In'' will however be released worldwide in the autumn. The Spanish release date is set to 2 September 2011.<ref name=wrap /> The film will be released in a limited North American release on 18 November the same year through [[Sony Pictures Classics]].<ref>http://www.sonyclassics.com/theskinilivein/</ref> The British premiere is also set to 18 November 2011.<ref name=ceprofile /> ===Reception=== Kirk Honeycutt wrote in ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'': "Along with such usual Almodóvar obsessions as betrayal, anxiety, loneliness, sexual identity and death, the Spanish director has added a science-fiction element that verges on horror. But like many lab experiments, this melodramatic hybrid makes for an unstable fusion. Only someone as talented as Almodóvar could have mixed such elements without blowing up an entire movie." Honeycut continued: "The film's design, costumes and music, especially [[Alberto Iglesias]]' music, present a lushly beautiful setting, which is nonetheless a prison and house of horror. Almodóvar pumps his movie full of deadly earnestness and heady emotions."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Honeycutt|first=Kirk|date=2011-05-19|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/skin-i-live-la-piel-190230|title=The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito): Cannes 2011 Review|work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|accessdate=2011-05-22}}</ref> ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * {{Official website|http://www.sonyclassics.com/theskinilivein}} at [[Sony Pictures Classics]] * {{IMDb title|1189073}} {{Footer Films Pedro Almodóvar}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Skin I Live In, The}} [[Category:2011 films]] [[Category:Films based on French novels]] [[Category:Films directed by Pedro Almodóvar]] [[Category:Films set in Spain]] [[Category:Films shot in Madrid]] [[Category:Films shot in Spain]] [[Category:Spanish films]] [[Category:Spanish-language films]] [[es:La piel que habito]] [[fr:La piel que habito]] [[ru:Кожа, в которой я живу]] [[uk:Шкіра, в якій я живу]]'