The Reflecting Skin

Canada, United Kingdom

1990

96 Min

Color

1.85:1

English

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

|

PROD Dominic Anciano, Ray Burdis

CAST Viggo Mortensen, Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy Cooper, Sheila Moore, Duncan Fraser

SOUND Alan Knight, Aad Wirtz

Locarno (Competition): Silver Leopard, FIPRESCI Prize, C.I.C.A.E. Award, Cannes (Semaine de la critique), Edinburgh, San Francisco, Toronto, Stockholm (Absolute film!)

Synopsis

A young boy tries to cope with rural life circa 1950s and his fantasies become a way to interpret events. After his father tells him stories of vampires, he becomes convinced that the widow up the road is a vampire, and tries to find ways of discouraging his brother from seeing her. He must deal with an abusive mother, a father with a charge of molestation, a band of youths creating havoc, and an unforgiving environment in general. —IMDb

Director

Philip Ridley

Philip was born in the East End of London where he still lives and works. He studied painting at St Martin’s School of Art and has exhibited widely throughout Europe. As a novelist his credits include Crocodilia (1988), In The Eyes Of Mr. Fury (Penguin, 1989), Flamingoes In Orbit (Hamish Hamilton, 1990) and three novels for children; Mercedes Ice (Collins, 1989), Dakota Of The White Flats (Collins, 1989) and Krindlekrax (Jonathan Cape, 1991) which won the Smarties Prize for Children’s Fiction and won the W.H. Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award, a new award judged by children.

His plays for BBC Radio are October Scars The Skin, The Aquarium Of Coincidences and Shambolic Rainbow.

His first stage play, the award-winning ‘The Pitchfork Disney’, was premiered at the Bush Theatre, London in 1991, directed by Matthew Lloyd. The Pitchfork Disney received its New York premiere in April 1999. Other stage plays include ‘Ghost From A Perfect Place’ (Hampstead Theatre, 1994) and ‘Vincent… read more

Philip was born in the East End of London where he still lives and works. He studied painting at St Martin’s School of Art and has exhibited widely throughout Europe. As a novelist his credits include Crocodilia (1988), In The Eyes Of Mr. Fury (Penguin, 1989), Flamingoes In Orbit (Hamish Hamilton, 1990) and three novels for children; Mercedes Ice (Collins, 1989), Dakota Of The White Flats (Collins, 1989) and Krindlekrax (Jonathan Cape, 1991) which won the Smarties Prize for Children’s Fiction and won the W.H. Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award, a new award judged by children.

His plays for BBC Radio are October Scars The Skin, The Aquarium Of Coincidences and Shambolic Rainbow.

His first stage play, the award-winning ‘The Pitchfork Disney’, was premiered at the Bush Theatre, London in 1991, directed by Matthew Lloyd. The Pitchfork Disney received its New York premiere in April 1999. Other stage plays include ‘Ghost From A Perfect Place’ (Hampstead Theatre, 1994) and ‘Vincent River’ (Hampstead Theatre, 2000).

In May 1992 his second stage play, ‘The Fastest Clock In The Universe’, opened at Hampstead Theatre, playing to both critical acclaim and box office success, and went on to win the 1992 Evening Standard Most Promising Newcomer Award, one of the 1992 Time Out Theatre Awards, the prestigious Meyer Whitworth Award for New Theatre Writing, 1992 and the 1992 Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright. It received its US premiere in New York in 1998.

His two short films – Visiting Mr. Beak (1987) and The Universe Of Dermot Finn (1988) – were soon followed by his highly acclaimed screenplay for The Krays (1990) and his feature film debut as both writer and director, the highly controversial The Reflecting Skin (1990), which won eleven international awards, was voted one of the Best Ten Films of 1991 by the L.A. Times and prompted Rolling Stone to describe him as “a visionary”. In 1991 he was awarded the Most Promising Newcomer to British Film at the Evening Standard Film Awards. His third feature, The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995) – written and directed by Philip – was released in 1996. —IMDb

read less