The Reflecting Skin
An instant cult classic when it premiered to sold out screenings at Cannes in 1990, THE REFLECTING SKIN is a darkly humorous, nightmarish vision of the American dream. Growing up in the 1950s in small-town Idaho, 8-year-old Seth and his friends play a prank on the town recluse, a mysterious English widow named Dolphin Blue (Tony winner Lindsay Duncan). After his father tells him stories of vampires, Seth becomes convinced Dolphin is a vampire, stealing the souls of his neighborhood friends one by one. When his older brother Cameron (Oscar nominee Viggo Mortensen in one of his first starring roles), returns home from military service in the Pacific and takes a liking to Dolphin, Seth feels it's up to him to save Cameron from his friends' fate. With stunning visuals recalling Edward Hopper paintings and its surreal blend of horror and humor, THE REFLECTING SKIN is a "stunningly beautiful...Gothic masterpiece" (The Guardian)!"
Cast
- Viggo Mortensen
- Lindsay Duncan
- Jeremy Cooper
- Sheila Moore
- Duncan Fraser
DVD Features
Angels & Atom Bombs: The Making of The Reflecting Skin featurette
Director's commentary with writer/director Philip Ridley
New essay by film writers Travis Crawford and Heather Hyche.
Sound: 2.0 Stereo
Discs: 1
Blu-ray Features
Angels & Atom Bombs: The Making of The Reflecting Skin featurette
Director's commentary with writer/director Philip Ridley
New essay by film writers Travis Crawford and Heather Hyche.
Sound: 2.0 Stereo
Discs: 1
- "...Ridley is a visionary, and his haunting film, luminously shot by Dick Pope, exerts a hypnotic pull. Through a child’s eyes, Ridley confronts us with our own primal fear of the dark."
- "The Reflecting Skin is a strange, at times wonderful film, one that leaves more questions open than answers. Its palate and performances collide in ways that seem unique decades on. While some of the moments are more risible than perhaps intended, as a complete work it's an astonishing slice of strange cinema. Like me you may shake your head and wonder how the hell this thing got made at the time that it was, but like me you'll be very glad that Ridley and co. managed to bring it all together."
- "Like an irrational but beautiful dream, The Reflecting Skin unfolds with a clarity that's disturbing. It's a true American Gothic, a movie in which breathtakingly blue skies and Van Gogh-gold wheat fields are unlikely witnesses to the horrors confronting eight-year-old Seth Cooper. "
- "An amazing film studded with selfless, luminous performances and shot through with dark humor that risks sheer over-the-top outrageousness at every turn but is so simultaneously inspired and controlled that it gets away with everything."
- "Stunningly beautiful...a Gothic masterpiece."
- ""Mesmerizing...more satisfying than David Lynch's WILD AT HEART." "
- "A stark and startlingly gorgeous film built around dreamlike images, The Reflecting Skin is a singular work, quite unlike any other. ...it’s a masterpiece of fully conceived and realized intent."
Awards & Recognition
Silver Leopard
Locarno Film Festival
FIPRESCI Prize
Locarno Film Festival
C.I.C.A.E. Award
Locarno Film Festival
Best Actress
Sitges Film Festival
Best Cinematography
Sitges Film Festival
FIPRESCI Prize
Stockholm Film Festival
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