Donkey Skin

Product DescriptionJacques Demy?s ode to the classic fairy tale by 17th Century author Charles Perrault (Cinderella) comes to life with breathtaking brilliance. Digitally restored and re-mastered under the supervision of Agnès Varda (The Gleaners and I), this epic tale overflows with dazzling color, elaborate and an enchanting score by Academy Award®-winning composer Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). Catherine Deneuve (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Indochine) stars as a Princess whose father, the King (Jean Marais), seeks her hand in marriage after promising his dying wife to only wed a woman more beautiful than she. Listening to her godmother, the Fairy of Lilacs (Delphine Seyrig), the frightened Princess flees to a neighboring farm and hides as a scullery maid, while wearing the skin of her father?s prized donkey as a disguise. A visiting Prince passes by, and an unlikely romance is born. Donkey Skin reunites Catherine Deneuve with Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand, yet it's quite unlikeThe Umbrellas of Cherbourg orThe Young Girls of Rochefort. Those 1960s musicals were set in some semblance of the modern world, butDonkey Skin, based on a fable by Charles Perrault, takes place in a fantastical fairyland, located somewhere betweenThe Wizard of Oz andLa Belle et la Bête. Jean Marais, Jean Cocteau?s Beast, is even the king of the kingdom. Alas, he's just lost his queen (Deneuve), whose dying wish is that he marry a woman more beautiful than she. Deranged by loss, he decides on his daughter (Deneuve again). She's horrified--her fairy godmother (Delphine Seyrig), as well, so she devises a plan for the princess to flee, hidden by a donkey skin. Strange by any standards,Donkey Skin is one of the more al musicals to emerge from the 1970s.--Kathleen C. Fennessy

Jacques Demy takes his unique and musical vision to the world of fairy tales in this fantastical film. Based on a story by Charles Perrault, DONKEY SKIN takes place in an amorphous medieval kingdom of a king (Jean Marais), his queen, and their beautiful daughter, the princess (Catherine Deneuve). When the queen dies, the king takes an oath that he will only marry a woman more beautiful than she. U