Pedro Almodovar's "The Skin I Live In" is creepy, stylish and provocative, a horror story and a psychological thriller and a twisted examination of identity, sexuality, revenge and the abuse of power.
The prolific Spanish director, who is celebrating the 25th year of his production company El Deseo and serving as the guest artistic director of this year's AFI Fest, came to TheWrap Screening Series on Tuesday night to present his film, which is loosely based on the novel "Mygale" ("Tarantula") by Thierry Jonquet.
The film features Antonio Banderas as a brilliant doctor experimenting with artificial skin on a young woman who appears to be a prisoner of sorts in his home; the identity of the woman, and the details of what Banderas' character is up to, are unveiled in twists and turns over the course of the film, which is austere by Almodovar's standards and thoroughly unsettling by anybody's standards.
Before doing a Q&A session in front of the audience at the Landmark, Almodovar (and his translator, Carla Marcantonio) spent a few minutes in the theater's green room talking about the themes of his film, his reunion with Banderas after 21 years, and why the Spanish Academy rarely picks his films to be the country's official Oscar submissions in the foreign-language category.
TheWrap Screening Series continues on Wednesday with a screening of "Warrior" and on Thursday with "Midnight in Paris."
