François Truffaut’s uncanonical melodrama about a criminal ménage à trois.
Well-known writer and intellectual Pierre Lachenay runs a literary journal and lives in Paris with his wife and daughter. During a business trip he falls in love with stewardess Nicole and, sensing that she feels the same, begins to meet her in secret.
François Truffaut’s drama unfolds as the tragic story of a ménage à trois. Pierre and Franca’s marriage is in crisis and his relationship with the young Nicole seems easy and problem-free. Soon this sense of ease is replaced by a pervasive anxiety. The writer has to hide from his colleagues and acquaintances, lie, and conceal his lover. During one trip, Pierre is forced to spend the evening pretending he does not know Nicole. He watches unhappily as a stranger harasses her in the street but cannot risk his reputation and protect the girl. The tense atmosphere and the vague sense of a dénouement is embodied on the screen by Pierre, who behaves like a criminal expecting to be caught. Visually, The Soft Skin is more like a thriller or a detective story than a melodrama. Cinematographer Raoul Coutard, who earlier shot Godard’s new wave masterpiece Breathless, places the characters in a space of contrasting lighting with long shots focused on their faces, accenting their worries and disappointments.
This tragic love affair is Pierre’s downfall, but for Nicole and Franca it is a moment of liberation. The young woman refuses to play the role of a secret lover and rejects the form of relationship forced upon her. The deceived wife boldly defends her own honor and has the last word.
The Soft Skin premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1964 in the main competition.
The film will be shown in French, English, and Portuguese with Russian subtitles.
The Soft Skin
Director François Truffaut
France, 1964, 113 min.
16+