Tough love... The Soft Skin (La Peau douce) (1964), BFI Blu-ray, out now!

Another gift from the BFI’s François Truffaut season and a film that only gradually attained the respect that a 91% Rotten Toms score might indicate. Maybe it suffered in comparison with The 400 Blows and Jules et Jim, maybe it was too subtle, a three-hander between a husband, his wife and his lover and maybe some felt the ending was too melodramatic. That conclusion was, however, based on a real event and in wanting to create a film about adultery, the director was looking to show how that moment could happen when three ordinary people are caught up in emotions beyond their control, or, at least, their willingness to control.

 

Another actuality had been Truffaut’s witnessing of a couple kissing so passionately in the back of a taxi that their teeth clashed, that’s not the kiss of a married couple he reasoned (parle pour toi mon ami) and he added it to his “moments” in a script written at speed holed up in one of the posher hotels in Cannes with Jean-Louis Richard. Richard is interviewed on the commentary and is great value in terms of the motivations for making the film, the process and the three remarkable performances. Truffaut was fascinated by Hitchcock, and the latter’s influence is felt in certain aspects of the film, with the Frenchman building up tension and almost freezing time as he does when literary critic Pierre Lachenay (Jean Desailly) meets air hostess Nicole (Françoise Dorléac) in the hotel lift… the tension is palpable, the desire almost too painfully obvious, Nicole almost hiding behind her shopping parcels, flattered by the attentions of the famous man.

 

Elevator discomfort: Françoise Dorléac and Jean Desailly

Richard is full of praise for the extraordinary Dorléac, someone he’d known since she was a teenager, she was only 21 now but so confident and assured as a performer, extrovert and daring in a way her sister, Catherine Denueve, wasn’t. Françoise had just made the action-comedy, That Man from Rio (1964) with Jean-Paul Belmondo, and easily inhabits the complexities of her role as someone who is still discovering themselves. It’s likely that Truffaut was as fascinated with the actor as his camera is and this adds to the portrayal of her attraction and Jean’s willingness to risk everything in pursuit.

 

According to Richard, Jean Desailly was unhappy with the film and felt it killed off his career as he was never again cast as a leading man. He was 43 at the time and perhaps, as Richard suggests, viewed his character too harshly especially as Truffault’s overall direction – especially the editing in the film – took his meaning beyond his performance. That said, we don’t entirely dislike any of the characters, it’s possible to feel sympathy for all three and that’s as intended. Yes, Pierre’s a cheat who “goofs” as Nicole says, but he’s also lost and in crisis before he even meets her and he, may, given time, get over his mid-life wandering eye and calm down to count his blessings.

 

Pierre watches as Nicole dances...

Pierre may feel that his is missing a teeth-clashing relationship with a beautiful young woman but he’s overlooking his successful career, his daughter Sabine (Sabine Haudepin), his apartment in the fashionable 16th arrondissement – Truffault’s own – and most especially his wife Franca played by Nelly Benedetti. Benedetti comes more and more to the fore as the story progresses and is a force to be reckoned with as her character at first suspects and then begins to find out the full extent of her husband’s betrayal. Benedetti, on a point of trivia, was also Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, Raquel Welch and a host of others, dubbing their films into French.

 

We find Pierre and Franca in a rush at the start of the film as the former is about to miss his plane for a conference in Lisbon at which he is to deliver a paper on Balzac and Money. Pierre comes through the door, down the hall and to their sunken living room as he will many times in the film, Truffaut’s home surprisingly perfect for illustrating the depth or family comforts, kitchen diner with a screen that can be pulled up as required, all mod cons.

Nelly Benedetti long-suffers

Pierre is driven by their friend to the airport with lots of those quick cuts setting the action in time and space. He makes it just as they’re about to close the gates and is the last person on the plane, welcomed by a very pretty stewardess as he breathlessly takes his seat. During the flight he notices the girl more and more, sneaking repeated peaks and fascinated by seeing her change from flat shoes to high heels behind the curtain. How much of this creepy male gazing was a reflection of the director’s own situation/his interest in Dorléac is open to conjecture but Pierre is a jowly middle-aged man desiring a woman half his age. There are two occasions in the film when women are harassed by men in the street, it’s unlikely Truffault was unaware of the power relationships.

 

In Lisbon Pierre keeps on seeing Nicole and they are staying at the same hotel. The meet in the lift and he helps her pick up her shopping… Once back in his room he gathers his courage and phones her on the pretext of apologising for not helping more, he tries to arrange a drink and, after calling back, she agrees. They meet the next evening and perhaps start struck, amused by his wealth of knowledge, Nicole allows him into her room.

 

As with Jules et Jim, darkness shrouds deep connections

So begins their affair, with slightly comic attempts by Pierre to spend time with Nicole as he introduces a screening of a documentary about André Gide at a conference in Reims. The locals try to wine and dine him as he tries to escape to join with Nicole. Finally, they escape to a rural guest house but he has spent too long away and on his return, Franca is not only suspicious but beside herself… This is too much emotion for Pierre to deal with and he needs to find out what he wants to do before it is too late.

 

It's a deceptive story with nuanced characters and a prosaic “reality” that hides the indecision of all three characters. It’s subtler than Jules at Jim as it lacks that film’s dynamic interactions, again based on actuality, but it still hits hard as each of us try and keep our eyes on the road driving on to the next appointment.

  

Pierre and Sabine in Truffault's sunken living room

The film is presented in High Definition from a new 2k restoration and comes with a full basket of extras including a 24-page booklet with two fascinating essays: Truffaut’s mirror by Catherine Wheatley and A certain tendency: Truffaut as film critic by Kieron McCormack, plus:

 

Feature commentary by La Peau douce co-writer Jean-Louis Richard, with contributions from film critic and journalist Serge Toubiana (2002)

 

Between Masters at War: Truffaut and the Lessons of Alfred Hitchcock and Roberto Rossellini (2022, 18 mins): film academic Pasquale Iannone considers how the work of Truffaut was influenced by two great directors

 

Paris Through the Lens (1900-1910, 9 mins): precious glimpses of the sprawling city Truffaut loved from the BFI National Archive

 

Old Portugal at the Ocean’s Edge (1896, 1 min): mesmerising early film fragments, shot near Lisbon long before it provided the setting for illicit love in La Peau douce

 

Original theatrical trailer

The Soft Skin is released on 30th May and you can order it now from the BFI Shop online or in person!