Peau d'âne (1970)
Directed by Jacques Demy

Film Review

Generally, fairy tales and live action cinema are two things which are best kept well apart, the marriage of the two being something which few would ever want to experience whilst stone-cold sober and without the comforting palliative afforded by a kilo of hallucinogenic drugs.  Jacques Demy's 1970 musical fantasy, Peau d'âne, is a rare exception - possibly a one of its kind - and a film that it is hard not to like, in spite of its gaudy sets, generic fairy tale characters, odd subject matter and outrageously kitsch design.

This was Jacques Demy's third musical, after his enormously popular Les parapluies de Cherbourg (1964) and Les demoiselles de Rochefort (1967).  Once again, the director is well-served by actress Catherine Deneuve (who is at her most beautiful in this film) and the great film score composer Michel Legrand.  Whilst less impressive, and (bizarrely) far less well known, than its two predecessors, this third Demy musical manages to be both enchanting (certainly for children) and mildly disturbing (for adults with children).  With incest being its main theme, the film appears to treat a deadly serious subject with apparent gay abandon, which some may find hard to stomach.  Yet all good fairy tales have a darker side, and the story of Peau d'âne is no more sinister than say that of the Pied Piper of Hamelin (the subject of Demy's next film), possibly the most notoriously serial paedophile in history (super-rich mega-star pop singers excluded).

Whilst the score is not Legrand's best, the film boasts some memorable songs, which deserve to be better known than they are.  Likewise, there's a certain genius in the artistic design of the piece which you'd only expect to find in a film by Jean Cocteau, from whose work the film's look and feel is probably inspired.

Whilst Catherine Deneuve's cool ethereal presence dominates this film, there are some notable contributions from her impressive co-stars Jean Marais, Jacques Perrin and Micheline Presle.  Best of all, Delphine Seyrig gets to play a scheming fairy, an inspired piece of casting which allows the actress to give what is almost certainly her most wondrously camp performance ever.

Sugary, unreal, saturated with colour, and with a tendency to push kitsch to its absolute limit (and then a bit further), Peau d'âne is one of those mad oddities of a film that you will either love or hate.  Chances are that you will love it, especially if you have enjoyed Demy's better known films.

Film Synopsis

On her deathbed, the queen of strange and distant land asks her husband, the king, never to marry again anyone less beautiful than she.   In the whole kingdom, only one woman is more beautiful than the dead queen - her young daughter.  In respect of his former wife's wishes, the king asks his daughter to marry him.  Shocked, the princess appeals to a garden fairy to help her.  The fairy tells the princess to set the king a series of impossible challenges to dissuade him from marrying her.  First, the princess asks her father to give her a dress in the colour of time.  The dress is duly provided and the princess tries a harder challenge.  She demands the skin of the magical donkey which excretes jewels instead of the usual brown matter.  The king obliges and the princess acquires an unusual new addition to her wardrobe.  In despair, the princess flees to a nearby farm, wearing the donkey's skin, and offers to work as a skivvy.  Here, she meets a young prince who, on seeing her dressed in her beautiful gown, falls madly in love with her.  The prince becomes ill with love and asks for a cake to be made.  In the cake he finds a ring, which he is certain belongs to the woman he loves...