MovieChat Forums > La piel que habito (2011) Discussion > How many sensitive issues did this movie...

How many sensitive issues did this movie really touch in your opinion?


If you were to count it? And by that I mean both objectively, and subjectively, including ones that may have ALWAYS been that and ones that may have ESPECIALLY become that or became VISIBLY as that in our 21st Century digital age? "The Skin I Live In" (2011), by Pedro Almodovar and starring Antonio Banderas?

Including rape and sexual abuse (even if some audiences DID question if that scene was it, and its not to be chalked down to "r-e culture" but perhaps the way that scene was filmed etc although many also agreed it was it), to the theme of vengeance on the perpetrator, to turning the male against his will into a woman and to be used as various kinds of guinea pig in medical research and vengeance? The existence of a crazy brother who also happens to be a rapist? Questionable medical ethics? Mental illness? Revenge? Murder and death? Kidnapping and forced imprisonment?

Transsexuality and also forcefully changing ones gender? Family loss? Suicide? Painful memories etc?

Granted at least ONE of those topics (and I am not judging, but just take a look at both the reviews here and elsewhere, including negative ones) is no doubt considered arguably THE most sensitive one, and I don't think that in today's day and age you have to be a genius with an IQ of above 130 to guess which one it is, although it helps (as certain folks here still ARGUE about it, making it also the subject of inevitable controversy, but it could also have been "attempted rape" and some kind of neglect but OK if filmmaker says it was it then it was it) to be at least "fairly intelligent". But it does have OTHER topics to it, sensitive issues, in what is essentially a thriller/horror/drama film with elements of science fiction or at least exaggerated science to it.

But anyways, all this talk aside, and it is a FILM we're discussing after all, how many sensitive issues and themes does this movie have in your opinion? I counted at least 6, you? Thank you.

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I didn't count them but to me the movie only has this novelty to it because of this forced gender change twist.

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I am not sure if that is in itself "novelty" but anyways...

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I don't know any other movie with this production quality and the detail that goes into the change. I'm not saying the movie is bad but without the gender stuff it wouldn't be as controversial or shoking to many people.

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agreed. i didnt care at all about most of it. kinda interesting swap, but just felt like a vehicle to get freaky like that.

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2 123-Guy, OK, maybe you didn't but the question is...

Did you think the movie touched more than its own share of particularly sensitive issues that, in today's day and age at least, are looked at differently AND more emotionally than your standard share of conflicts including those that involve or end in confrontation and murder?

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And with one particular ISSUE here, obviously its the r-worded deed (but some argue if that even WAS it, and even IF it wasn't, SPOILERS, Vicente still acted foolishly and insensitively in that scene towards Norma, but many state it WAS as it - ALSO, even though viewers are basing it in terms of what they see, that scene may have been IMPLIED as well, remember the film " The Shipping News" (2001)? In that scene, it WAS rape, but... It wasn't fully shown, it was IMPLIED.), it is indeed, any way you cut it, THE most sensitive matter.

Like, notice how on this board, it gets THE most responses to (I rarely if ever hear similar talks that way about 'murder' or have anyone state 'murder culture', for instance, and no I am not saying it "has" to be that way or that I overall "disagree"), THE most arguments about, THE most references to and ALSO...

Yeah, I get it, even if he thought it was it and that he of course was right to feel bereaved and even to exact some justice, but in THIS movie, it gets THE most in terms of VENGEANCE for. AND, IN CASE YOU OR ANYONE THOUGHT IT WASN'T THE MOST TOUCHED UPON ISSUE...

The film even makes STRONG REFERENCES towards THIS subject to inform and remind us once again, how in this area, you have women who experience and suffer it globally, so there was even the theme of world-wide sexual abuse against women as well dealt with as a SUBJECT in THIS movie, via the sci-fi-ed victimization of SPOILERS - Vicente.

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