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DONKEY SKIN (1970)
Directed & Written by: Jacques Demy.
Produced by: Mag Bodard.
Director of Photography: Ghislain Cloquet.
Edited by: Anne-Marie Cotret.
Music by: Michel Legrand.
Released by: Koch Lorber.
Language: French with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: France. 100 min. Not Rated.
With: Catherine Deneuve, Jean Marais, Jacques Perrin & Delphine Seyrig.

Jacques Demy's musical and fanciful adaptation of Charles Perrault's fairy tale is a picture book come to life. A king (Jean Marais, a different kind of brute here than in Beauty and the Beast) promises his dying queen (Catherine Deneuve) to remarry only a woman more beautiful than she. Because the state needs a male heir, the King's men look far and wide for a new wife. The only eligible woman, however, already lives under the King's roof - his daughter (also played by Deneuve, the epitome of a beautiful, blond princess if there ever was one). Wanting to obey her father, yet confused by his proposal, she calls upon her sophisticated and vain fairy godmother (Delphine Seyrig) in an enchanted forest. Her guardian admonishes, "Don't cry child, it will make you ugly." With her magical assistance, the princess escapes from her father's castle, disguised as a scullery maid wearing a smelly donkey skin. Ostracized by nearby villagers, she lives alone in a shack soon to be discovered by a charming prince (Jacques Perrin).

Michel Legrand's score swoons, but without the depth and variation of his wistful arrangement for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. This film is also nowhere near as romantic or emotionally captivating. But it is much lighter on its feet than Legrand/Demy's The Young Girls of Rochefort. In her third musical collaboration with Demy, (after Umbrellas and Young Girls), Deneuve coasts on her beauty, which is really all the role has to offer. The real stars are the eye-popping sets, costumes (both are trippy, mod medieval chic), and cinematography. The crisp colors jump out of the screen in this newly restored print. The film's look and special effects (especially a frog-spitting old hag) would certainly hold the attention of young girls, despite a pace that is much more leisurely than contemporary films. They will also be drawn in by the romantic fantasy as the young prince goes on the search for a beautiful bride. Parents, though, might bristle because of the emphasis on physical beauty. Kent Turner
December 22, 2004