Donkey Skin

Isn’t Netflix amazing? You rent yourself a few films, do a few word searches, and they come up with all kinds of random recommendations. One of my latest? Peau D’Ane an odd, pshychedelic French fairy tale filmed in 1970 with cast that includes Jean Marais and Catherine Deneuve.

Take Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – the original with the orange Oompa Loompas (except they’re blue here,) add in a touch of Jeunet, an immense Electra complex, and swather it all in a layer of Cinderella…and you will arrive at Peau D’Ane. This film is weird, wonderful, and overripe with massive costumes.

A lovely queen dies, leaving behind a distraught king who promised he would only re-marry a princess more beautiful than she. Unfortunately, the only woman worthy enough to fit this bill is their daughter, the princess. Enter Freud. Believe it or not, the king is so generous with new gowns and what-not (and isn't that all a princess really wants?) that the princess actually believes herself in love with him. Enter Electra. As with all these kind of stories, there is a moral center, which lies within the Lilac Fairy Godmother. She knows that girls simply “don’t fall in love with their daddies.” She devises that the only way the poor princess can escape her lustful father is by disguising herself in a donkey skin, or “peau d’ane”…

Although it’s a little hazy, somehow the princess figures out that she wants Prince Charmant instead, and lets him know this by…baking a cake?

Well, that’s par for the course. Totally worth the rental too…