Donkey Skin
Director: Jacques Demy
Year Released: 1970
Rating: 1.0
Musical "fairy tale" by Demy - working from a story by Charles Perrault - has a recently widowed king (Jean Marais) seeking out the most beautiful princess in the land to wed ... and that just happens to be his own daughter (Catherine Deneuve) who (with the help of a fairy) convinces ol' pervy Dad to have his prized gold-shitting donkey skinned for her so she can wear its hide and sneak off to the woods. Not only is the setup goofy and creepy, but Demy struggles to make this 'adventure' fun or involving: there are musical numbers and colorful sets and painted horses, but there's a coldness to the production that makes this feel mirthless and distant. In my opinion, Deneuve, Demy and Michel Legrand teamed up for one - and only one - musical masterpiece, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and the magic of that film was never duplicated.
