In My Skin (2003)

Synopsis: After suffering some deep gashes to her leg from an accidental fall, Esther (Marina de Van), a young business writer, becomes preoccupied with her body and skin, especially her wounds. At first she merely caresses her arms, pinches her excess skin, or traces the cuts on her legs, but it isn't... After suffering some deep gashes to her leg from an accidental fall, Esther (Marina de Van), a young business writer, becomes preoccupied with her body and skin, especially her wounds. At first she merely caresses her arms, pinches her excess skin, or traces the cuts on her legs, but it isn't long before she is incising wounds directly and aggressively into her own body. Her boyfriend (Laurent Lucas) becomes understandably concerned and angry, but his inability to empathize alienates Esther, and she seeks reclusion to explore her newfound practice. With increased urgency, she turns an unapologetic knife or razor upon her own skin, alternately gorging on the vampiric ecstasy or the brutally masochistic annihilation of her own flesh and blood. The film stays ominously quiet as to what and why this is happening--social, professional, biological pressures all seem relevant but somehow insufficient explanations--and Esther is too indifferent to question her new predilections, too servile to them. While deeply influenced by the work of David Cronenberg (THE FLY, NAKED LUNCH, CRASH), the film is more reliant on feminist and avant garde performance art from the sixties and seventies, namely the work of Marina Abramovic, Ana Mendieta, Carolee Schneemann, and Hermann Nitsch. Intensely graphic, IN MY SKIN examines the body as a boundary and as a battleground for the worlds it stands in between. [More]