Just perfect...

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Fantastic!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

"In My Skin" "In My Skin" is exactly the the way a film should be made. French Extremism is brought front and center in this film Written/Directed and Starring Marina de Van as the beautiful "Ester", a young women who descends into an abyss of psychiatric darkness of self mutilation/self cannibalism/autosarcophagy. Her boyfriend "Vincent" (Laurent Lucas, Calvaire) and friend "Sandrine" ( Lea Drucker) deal with the frustration of trying to help, to no avail! "In My Skin" is a horribly beautiful film with just the right amount of extremism to landscape the austerity of "Esters" ailment to a frightening reality."Ester" is a young women who attends a networking mixer with her friend and colleague "Sandrine". Wanting to get a breath of fresh air, "Ester" ventures out of the house in darkness. Hard to see, "Ester" falls, after picking herself back up, she ventures back inside and up stairs to the bathroom, where she notices a lot of blood on the carpet. She realizes that this trail of blood leads back to her! She looks at her pant leg, it's terribly torn. "Ester" lifts the tattered pant leg, only to reveal a ghastly tear in her flesh. Amazed at the fact she felt no pain, she leave she leaves the party and goes for a drink with her friends before visiting the hospital.Now infatuated with her new laceration, "Ester" spirals down the path of self mutilation, with a side of denial, shame and obsessive compulsion."In My Skin" is a sad film. This women is so overcome by her mental illness, it becomes hard to watch. Not for the scenes of the graphic images, but for the fact that their is no explanation for her behavior. I liked de Van's direction here. I could see how this could be perceived as poor development, but on the contrary, this is real life and we don't know if she was abused emotionally or sexually to end up this way. This is a direct reflection of the horrors of real life. You could have a friend, loved one or colleague that you think is perfectly normal to only find out that after hours they are tormented by demons. Somethings in life are just unexplained, we would never know unless we walked in their shoes. "IMS" is a haunting portrayal of succumbing to demons that haunt the vast majority.The imagination that is Marina de Van is unparalleled, a real sentiment to her writing ability, then somehow she turns it into real life on the big screen, this speaks volumes for her talent as a director. Her portrayal of "Ester" was so good, I felt for her on every slash.Laurent Lucas' supporting role was at times a bit much and overacted(like many of his scenes in Calvaire). Gladly he leaves it all to de Van to run with, and that is exactly what she does. Don't forget the mutilations she produces on her self with every sharp instrument she can find in arms reach. These scenes are all in full view for you to wriggle about in your seat. "IMS" is so good it can not be missed. It's so real...it's scary! BruceVain BruceVain's Blog

Stunning film from writer/director Marina de Van. The film is bathed in atmosphere from the opening scenes as the viewer sees straight away this isn't going to be an average type film. The comparisons to David Cronenberg are very reasonable, and to some lesser degree Dario Argento. It's not all visual though, the story and acting really enveloped me. I had seen her work in Francoiz Ozon's SEE THE SEA as an actress, and I should have known this woman would have more great work under her belt to come. It's not a film for conservative film goers, but ambitious viewers should give it a look!!

SPOILER This film, while fascinating and beautifully made, seems little more than a glorification of self-mutilation. Other users have called it self-love or masturbation, and they mean it in a positive way. But inflicting pain on oneself, mutilating oneself, is not self-love. Masturbation is a wonderful way of making your body feel good. Cutting off pieces of your own flesh and eating them doesn't make your body feel good and shouldn't be glorified or reviewed positively.So if I've spoiled the movie for you, I must say I'm glad. You don't need to watch this film. You need to do something good for yourself and for your body and leave this movie on the shelf.

This is a movie made with the confidence of one who knows exactly what she is trying to communicate. The problem is that what is being communicated is so far beyond the norm that it is not going to be easily grasped. Esther is a highly intelligent young woman. The main thread of the story begins when she accidentally injures herself. Through the injury she begins to see her herself as merely meat, an object. Meat can not suffer, has no emotions, has no ambitions, is immune to the pressures and pettiness of everyday life. She finds this release increasingly more fascinating and attractive. This is not something she can communicate to anyone around her so she explores it in secret attempting to finally exist as a mere object devoid of all humanity. Her loneliness adds a cutting edge of sadness to the story. If she found the right person to share her thoughts with we may have ended up with an equally bizarre love story.I found it difficult to watch this movie all the way through without a break. Some of my friends have not even managed to watch it past the first twenty minutes. If you do manage to sit through this movie, I am pretty sure that not only will you thereafter remember it vividly, you will also find it hard to stop talking about it.