Donkey Skin

Director: Jaques Demy, Jaques Demy, Jaques Demy

1970 / 91min / DCP

While many of Demy’s movies feel like enchanted fables, with Donkey Skin he first explored the possibilities of the filmed fairy tale, adapting Charles Perrault’s 17th-century favorite into this shimmering semi-satirical pageant of particolored costuming, wonderfully eccentric production design, and original songs by Michel Legrand. Following the death of his queen (Catherine Deneuve), a grieving king (Jean Marais) announces he’ll take his own daughter (Deneuve, again) as a bride, leaving the poor girl to escape impending incest with the help of Fairy Godmother Delphine Seyrig and the eponymous enchanted pelt. A unique, irresistible mixture of pure fantasy and anarchic anarchism.