The Skin I Live In (2011) on Netflix
On his secluded estate, plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard keeps a young woman named Vera captive, with his servant Marilia's help. He tests on her a synthetic skin that resists burns.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.6/10182,344 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
Trailer
Plot summary
Robert Ledgard, a plastic surgeon, cultivates an artificial skin that withstands burns and insect bites and calls it Gal after his late wife. At a medical symposium he presents it as tested on athymic mice, but he also admits to transgenic experiments, and the chairman forbids him to continue the research. He keeps a young woman named Vera captive on his secluded estate, where his servant Marilia assists him, and goes on with the illegal experiments. Marilia's estranged son Zeca turns up after committing a robbery and asks her to hide him for a few days. On the security cameras he mistakes Vera for Ledgard's dead wife, Gal.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Skin I Live In (2011)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Pedro Almodóvar announced the project in 2002 with Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas in mind for the two leading roles, but he eventually cast Banderas and Elena Anaya, so Cruz's part went to Anaya.
- The Skin I Live In was the first film Pedro Almodóvar and Antonio Banderas made together in 21 years, after the two had been regular collaborators in the 1980s.
- Pedro Almodóvar read Thierry Jonquet's novel Tarantula about ten years before the film premiered, drawn to the magnitude of Doctor Ledgard's vendetta, and the adaptation drifted further and further from the novel's original plot.
