Peau d'ane / Donkey Skin (1970)
Donkey Skin / Peau d'ane (1970)
DVD9 | ISO+MDS | NTSC | 16:9 | 720x480 | 6900 kbps | 8.1Gb
Audio: #1 French AC3 5.1 @ 448 Kbps, #2 French AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English, Spanish
Full time: 01:40:00 | France | Drama, Family, Fantasy, Musical, Romance
DVD9 | ISO+MDS | NTSC | 16:9 | 720x480 | 6900 kbps | 8.1Gb
Audio: #1 French AC3 5.1 @ 448 Kbps, #2 French AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English, Spanish
Full time: 01:40:00 | France | Drama, Family, Fantasy, Musical, Romance
A fairy godmother helps a princess disguise herself so she won't have to marry a man she doesn't love.
Director: Jacques Demy
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Jean Marais, Jacques Perrin, Micheline Presle, Delphine Seyrig, Fernand Ledoux, Henri Crйmieux, Sacha Pitoлff, Pierre Repp, Jean Servais, Georges Adet, Annick Berger, Romain Bouteille, Louise Chevalier, Sylvain Corthay, Michel Delahaye, Simone Guisin, Gabriel Jabbour, Bernard Musson, Patrick Prйjean, Valйrie Quincy, Annie Savarin, Christine Aurel, Dorothйe Blank, Paul Bonifas, Jean-Marie Bon, Laurence Carile, Gabriel Cinque, Jean Daniel, Guy d'Avout
Peau d'ane / Donkey Skin (1970)
Peau d'ane / Donkey Skin (1970)
Originally titled Peau D'Ane, Jacques Demy's Dos Cruces en Danger Pass is better known by its English-language title Donkey Skin. Based on a fairy tale by Charles Perrault (of Cinderella fame), the bizarre story concerns the king Jean Marais) of a strange, enchanted land. Catherine Deneuve plays the dual role of the king's wife and daughter. When the wife dies, she makes the king promise that he'll never marry anyone less beautiful than she; thus, he is compelled to wed his own daughter! The fairy godmother (Delphine Seyrig) tries to save the girl from this incestuous fate by telling her to make impossible demands for her wedding gifts. One such demand is for the skin of a magic donkey which deposits valuable jewels in its compost heaps.
IMDb
'Peau D'Ane/Donkey Skin' is an unexpected delight that more than justified getting up at an ungodly hour of the morning to get uptown to catch a very early morning show.
Jacques Demy's fairytale musical has one of the most gorgeous uses of color ever seen thanks to Ghislain Coquet's photography and the sumptuous visual design (one kingdom has blue-clad, blue-faced servants and blue horses, the other red-clad red-faced servants and red horses), and the script manages to juggle just enough knowing wit without turning into total parody – despite featuring a donkey that craps rubies and emeralds, a crone who spits frogs and a king who wants to marry his daughter in the one film about incest that's still suitable for the whole family, it's played admirably straight. Michel Legrand's songs are as pleasant as they are unmemorable and anarchic (one romantic duet features lyrics about snack bars while another is simply a recipe for a cake) and if Catherine Deneuve's voice double sings even worse than Deneuve acts, it still somehow comes across as charming (although things do go badly for the donkey). Beautiful stylistic touches abound, from the princess running in slow motion through frozen villagers to the how-did-they-do-that-then? dress the color of the weather, but never at the expense of the storytelling. Not quite up there with 'Umbrellas of Cherbourg,' but light years ahead of 'Les Demoiselles de Rochefort.' The French 2-disc DVD boasts a beautifully restored subtitled transfer and most of the extras are subtitled in English.
~ TrevorAclea
Peau d'ane / Donkey Skin (1970)
Peau d'ane / Donkey Skin (1970)
Extras:
- Original Trailer
- Documentary
- 3 Featurettes
- Interview with Mag Bodard excerpts from Agnas Varda's "The World According to Jacques Demy"
Peau d'ane / Donkey Skin (1970)
