Directed by Jacques Demy • 1970 • France
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Marais, Delphine Seyrig
In this lovingly crafted, wildly eccentric adaptation of a classic French fairy tale, Jacques Demy casts Catherine Deneuve as a princess who must go into hiding as a scullery maid in order to fend off an unwanted marriage proposal—from her own father, the king (Jean Marais). A topsy-turvy riches-to-rags fable with songs by Michel Legrand, DONKEY SKIN creates a tactile fantasy world that’s perched on the border between the earnest and the satiric, and features Delphine Seyrig in a delicious supporting role as a fashionable fairy godmother.
Up Next in The Essential Jacques Demy
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A Slightly Pregnant Man
Directed by Jacques Demy • 1973 • France
Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Micheline PresleFeeling out of sorts, Marco (Marcello Mastroianni), an Italian driving instructor living in Paris, pays a visit to the doctor, who promptly diagnoses him as . . . four months pregnant. It’...
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Une chambre en ville
Directed by Jacques Demy • 1982 • France
Starring Dominique Sanda, Michel Piccoli, Richard BerryIn this musical melodrama set against the backdrop of a workers’ strike in Nantes, Dominique Sanda plays a young woman who wishes to leave her brutish husband (Michel Piccoli) for an earthy steelwork...
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Jacquot de Nantes
Directed by Agnès Varda • 1991 • France
Starring Philippe Maron, Édouard Joubeaud, Laurent MonnierAgnès Varda’s tender evocation of the childhood of her husband, Jacques Demy—a dream project that she realized for him when he became too ill to direct it himself—is a wonder-filled portrait of the...
