Donkey Skin - Film Starring Catherine Deneuve

Jacques Demy's Adaptation of Charles Perrault's Peau D'Ane

Jul 23, 2009

Jacques Demy directs Catherine Deneuve in an adaptation of the Charles Perrault fairytale story Donkey Skin.

Charles Perrault wrote some of the most famous fairytales, from ‘Cinderella’ to ‘Little Red Riding Hood,’ though the tale of Donkey Skin has never attained the same popularity. This may have something to do with it being a story about a Princess running away from a marriage proposal from her own father. Jacques Demy adapts ‘Donkey Skin’ with a knowing adult sensibility turning it into a witty and surreal musical.

Jacques Demy Reunites with Catherine Deneuve and Michel Legrand

Jacques Demy had already collaborated with the luminous Catherine Deneuve twice before in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and alongside her equally beautiful sister Francoise Dorleac in The Young Girls of the Rochefort (1967). Both these films were musicals scored by Michel Legrand and the composer also provides songs for Donkey Skin.

Demy Inspired by Jean Cocteau

Demy casts Jean Marais as The King who asks for his daughter’s hand in marriage after his dying Queen (Deneuve) makes him promise he will only marry a woman who can match her beauty. Marais starred in Jean Cocteau’s films Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orphée (1950) and his presence is a nod towards a director who mastered the art of putting myths and fairytales on film. Like Cocteau, Demy uses camera tricks and visual sleight of hand to suggest an otherness that is far more effective than modern CGI.

The Princess Becomes ‘Donkey Skin’

Shocked by her father’s proposal The Princess (Denueve again) consults her Godmother the Lilac Fairy who tells her such a union is impossible. Acting as an agony aunt with supernatural powers, the Lilac Fairy (Delphine Seyrig) instructs The Princess to ask for the impossible, such as a dress the colour of the weather. Unfortunately The King is more than capable of providing such a gift.

The Princess is forced to flee into the next kingdom wearing the skin of a donkey as a disguise and finds work as a skivvy in a small village. She lives alone in a shack in the forest, shunned by the locals and mocked for her appearance. A handsome Prince travelling through the forest sees her without her donkey skin disguise and amuses the villagers by asking who the stunner living in the wooden shack is.

Demy brings considerable style to Donkey Skin filling the screen with visually lavish colours and beautiful designs. Particularly impressive is the Queen’s glass coffin and a sequence where Catherine Deneuve runs through a village where everybody stands frozen in time. Deneuve manages to remain beautiful, even when dressed in a full-length donkey costume, Michel Legrand’s music is charming, though there is nothing that stays with you unlike ‘I Will Wait For You’ from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Fans of grown up fairytales such as The Company of Wolves (Neil Jordan 1984) and The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner 1987) should find plenty to enjoy here.

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