The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito) (2011)
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes, Jan Cornet, Blanca Suárez
Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
Rating: 
Who are we? What creates our sense of self, and does it lie any deeper than, well, the skin we live in? These are some of questions raised in the latest film from Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar – albeit in an utterly bonkers way.
Dr Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas, actually doing some proper acting for the first time in ages) is a brilliant plastic surgeon who lives in a lavish mansion with his fierce housekeeper Marilia (Marisa Paredes) and (as you do) his medical test case, Vera (Elena Anaya). Following the death of his wife, hideously disfigured by a fire, Dr Robert has, through illegal means, invented a new kind of skin that can withstand burns – and Vera is his guinea pig. But who is she, and where has she come from? Therein lies the mystery.
Rich with images of beauty, metamorphosis and disguise, this is an intriguing film that draws you in with fascinated horror, yet also keeps you at arms' length with a stylised, clinical approach that reminded me of David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers, another film about medical geniuses on the verge of a nervous breakdown. And, unlike Georges Franju's classic 1960s tale of a brilliant, experimental skin surgeon, Les Yeux Sans Visage, it's hard to feel much sympathy for either the tortured, torturing doctor or his unfortunate victim.
However, none of this stops The Skin I Live In from being an entertaining film: the plot is fast-paced, albeit pretty preposterous, peppered with occasional outbursts of fairly brutal violence and featuring great performances from the cast. Strong, sexy and strange, it's very, very Spanish...