"Under the Skin" is a 2013 film directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Scarlett Johansson. In the film, Johansson plays a seductive alien who arrives on Earth with the goal of luring lonely men and leading them to a mysterious destination.
The setting of the events takes place in Scotland.
The film focuses on the exploration of identity, loneliness and human connection as we follow this alien on his mission.
As he interacts with humans, he begins to question his purpose and experience humanity in an unexpected way.
"Under the Skin" is known for its unique visual style and minimalist approach, making it an intriguing and, for some, enigmatic cinematic experience.
The film has been praised for its haunting atmosphere and captivating performance by Johansson.
The film has quite a few improvised moments that were incorporated into the film. To achieve this effect, Scarlett Johansson walked the streets of Scotland in her role and engaged in conversations with real people, many of whom were unaware they were being filmed for a movie.
The film offers a unique and provocative cinematic experience that continues to intrigue and generate discussion among viewers and critics.
The film received some recognition at film festivals, such as the Venice Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion. It was also nominated for several BAFTA awards, including Best Production Design and Best Original Score.
›CineTV Contest #63 - Scarlett Johansson's Favorite Movie: Under the Skin.@nbarrios671119d
We are used to seeing films in which the predator is man, but in the 2010 film Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer) the roles are reversed to present us with a dark science fiction film. The film lacks an attractive aesthetic, is not cheerful and presents a plot that transpires coldness and darkness as well as a silence that often manages to disturb the viewer.
I must confess that I approached the film to see the full nudity of its protagonist Scarlett Johanssen, as if this was the main attraction of the film, but I find something else. This is a film that plays with the role of beauty in a society of appearances.
In the film, a lonely and attractive woman (Scarlett Johansson) goes from one place to another through the icy streets of Scotland in a van, her goal is to conquer men, have sex with them and drag them to a terrible destiny. Johansson, is an alien with human skin that attracts lonely men or social outcasts, in order to feed or feed something through the suction of their blood. That is why I call her a predator looking for her prey.
Each victim is dragged to a house where, after the alien's seduction, they sink into a black and viscous liquid, where they sink and remain in a limbo where they die absorbed, their skin remaining floating in a horrifying darkness. Sex, here, is a nightmare.
In the course of the film we see how she advances and goes deeper into society, and through observation, internalizes very human patterns such as consumerism, everyday conversations, and even feelings.
There is a scene on a beach with a busy sea, a mother with her husband, a baby and a dog. The canine gets deep enough into the foamy sea to be unable to return to dry land on its own, the wife, in desperation, goes to his aid, and the husband runs after her. The baby, emits a faint cry. The alien's indifference to the tragedy is shocking.
The protagonist will try to connect with the world around her, plagiarize habits and learn little by little. Everything happens very slowly and in certainly disturbing circumstances.
While wandering through a forest, the woman encounters a woodcutter and takes refuge in a cabin, the woodcutter tries to molest her. She runs into the forest, but is caught and the woodcutter tears off her skin, revealing a black, featureless body. When the woman sheds her skin, the man douses her with fuel and burns her alive.
The actress is presented to us in a coat, a black wig and a kilo of makeup looks like a caricature of herself; her face is impassive, she is a being who does not flinch at what she sees. Her presence is disturbing and she utters only a handful of sentences in the entire film. Scarlett Johansson embodies a character that recognizes complexities in different human attitudes, it seems that little by little she is becoming aware of what it is to be human.
With this performance Scarlett Johansson proves that she is not only a blockbuster actress, she holds the film by herself. She shows us the vision of our world through the eyes of an alien who sees us as full of contradictions, insecure, basic, and disorganized. Her performance is very sober and more than fulfills her subtle metamorphosis, showing curiosity for the way of life she doesn't understand.
Mica Levi is in charge of the musical section, contributing melodies that, for the most part, are totally ambient or chaotic, but that combine excellently with the action.
I really like this actress in dramatic roles like in 2019's Story of a Marriage for which she was nominated for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival, for a very superb performance. In 2003's Lost in Translation she stands out as a misunderstood young woman and in the tragicomic Jojo Rabbit she is the mother who hides a Jewish girl in the attic of her house in Nazi Germany during World War II.
As for action movies, she shines as Lucy in the 2014 film of the same name directed by Luc Besson. In Her a 2013 comedy-drama she manages to make me fall in love with her voice alone.
I think Marvel failed to fully exploit her potential as the Black Widow both in the Avengers films and in her own film.
She has proven to be a very versatile actress acting in comedies, dramas and science fiction, in addition to possessing a spectacular beauty.
I would like to talk in a next opportunity about a very good actress and at the same time beautiful woman: Emily Blunt. She has turned out a lot in film and television roles.
This is my participation in the CineTV Contest #63 - Scarlett Johansson's Favorite Movie Link Here . A pleasure to write for the community, greetings and good luck to the other participants.
Compared with science fiction, the biggest flaw (or advantage) of science fiction films is that they need to use solid images to show things that do not exist in reality.
In October 2016, author Michel Faber’s novel "Under the Skin" was published by China Friendship Publishing House, and domestic readers finally had the privilege of seeing the original work of this work. This book is Faber’s first work. It was shortlisted for the Whitberry Award after publication. It was filmed by British director Johathan Glazer in 2013 and was released in the UK in March 2014. It was shortlisted for the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. With the British Film Academy Awards.
The film "Under the Skin" starring Scarlett Johansson is classified as a science fiction thriller. Jonathan Glazer interprets the novel in a surrealist way. Although the audience has received mixed reviews after the premiere, his partner responded with "very good, just like punk".
The original novel is not limited to genre literature of science fiction and thriller, but integrates suspense, thriller, science fiction, fantasy and many other elements, and the content is rich and diverse. Faber used meticulous brushstrokes to portray the most profound social reality, but he puts on the coat of science fiction, allowing readers to observe and understand the human world from the perspective of a female alien, and peel her away layer by layer. The camouflaged skin goes deep into the character's inner world, exploring unknown alien creatures. Although the plot of the novel is not brilliant, but the content is both literary and entertaining. The irony and social thinking in the novel are even more obvious to the readers. It will not feel dull and tedious to read. On the contrary, touching pain points can be found everywhere.
In contrast, in addition to Scarlett Johansson's naked appearance in the film "Under the Skin" as a gimmick, it is mostly about the single narrative style, the obscure language of the lens, the dull plot, and the incomprehensibility. At the beginning of the film, the unnamed heroine played by Scarlett Johansson (referred to by Yseli below) captures a woman, carries her home, then changes into her clothes and drives a truck on the road. She drove on the streets of Scottish cities, constantly chatting up with strange men, searching for suitable prey.
In the original work, the author portrays Ysery as a weird woman covered in scars due to transformation, with an exaggerated breast, wearing thick glasses and outdated clothing from the 70s. She drove alone on the A9 highway in the Scottish Highlands every day, choosing a strong male "prey", and taking him back to her residence after anesthesia for treatment by her companion. The movie has deleted and changed many original content that used to explain the survival background of the female alien Iseli and her companions, leaving only her and the man riding a motorcycle, and did not even clearly explain their respective tasks and purposes, which greatly weakened the performance of the theme space.
Compared with science fiction, the biggest flaw (or advantage) of science fiction films is that they need to use solid images to show things that do not exist in reality. The film abandons the old-fashioned image of the heroine in the original work, and emphasizes the human characteristics with Scarlett Johansson's figure and the "beauty" of the facial features. She uses her appearance to predict the identity and background of the hitchhiker. The plot is also reduced to nothing. Deeply strike up a conversation. The lack of a large number of psychological activities also weakened the expressive power of the film, but the director took advantage of this to make up for the shortcomings from the visual and auditory symbolism.
The unconventional "home" similar to the "animal farm" in the novel is replaced by an ordinary and small house in the film. Ysery takes the selected man home, and the scene directly transforms into a different space with a pure black background. During the seduction process, the man also follows Ysery, who has taken off his clothes, and gradually walks into the black mirror. The liquid "lake" was imprisoned and peeled, and Ysery completed her hunting mission.
The blue-screen shooting technique when digesting the prey in the film is full of futuristic sense, coupled with the soundtrack full of typical modernism and expressionism, the picture is extremely tense, and the cruel killing is interpreted as a ritualistic physical elimination. The tense string music is full of discordant drums, which perfectly interprets the extreme anxiety and selflessness in contemporary society and people in society, dull and ruthless, chaotic and disorderly.
The biggest difference between the film and the original is that the director firmly nailed the focus on the word "skin", and the purpose of "hunting" by Yseli and her companions seems to be to get the "appearance" of human beings. In the novel, on the contrary, they are in captivity to fatten up the strong human beings they obtain, and then kill them to make luxury-grade "meat steaks" and transport them to the home planet. In the film, Yseli and her companion on a motorcycle are more contemporary in appearance than the characters in the novel, and more ruthless in their hearts. This can be seen from her hunting process and the killing of seaside men in the first half of the film.
Yiseli gradually developed sympathy in her contact with humans, became aware of her body, and began to have new thoughts. She tried human food, took the initiative to go home with human men, watched TV, went out to play, kissed, and even wanted to try real human sex. However, at the critical moment, she was surprised to find that her body structure did not have this function at all. She has given up her identity as a hunter, but she is unable to integrate into normal human society. The theme of identity in the novel is revealed here.
At the end of the film, Yseli fled the man's home and found a small house in the forest. However, "the tree desires to be quiet but the wind does not stop", the language of the lens here is a good hint of her future destiny. She was chased by the loggers and attempted to rape her until her "skin" was torn, and the loggers ran away in panic. Yseli took off her skin to reveal the true face of the alien. However, she never had the chance to return to the identity of the hunter, and could only be destroyed.
Although this film is still too dull and boring for most moviegoers, in this continuous visual hypnosis, we followed Yiseli through the soul-problem again and again, and all we saw were Is it real? What is hidden under the surface? There is the most real social reality in the fictitious world. Whether it is the original or the film, many issues such as identity, human nature, class, snobbery, compassion, lust and precept are worthy of repeated consideration. So, is "Under the Skin" really ugly? Not at all.
Se trata de una adaptación de la novela de Michel Faber que lleva el mismo nombre, publicada en español por Editorial Anagrama en el año 2002. Lanzada en el año 2013, la película está dirigida por Jonathan Glazer y protagonizada por Scarlett Johansson.
Es una historia de ciencia ficción, con una pizca de terror, que en pocas palabras puede definirse como una película "rara". No hay muchas explicaciones de lo que sucede (no sucede mucho, en realidad) pero sí permite hacer profundas reflexiones respecto a la naturaleza humana.
La primera escena muestra lo que parece representar un planeta, o una nave espacial, y se escucha una voz que parece ir aprendiendo letras, luego sonidos, y finalmente palabras. Tras mostrar el título de la película, aparece Scarlett Johanson removiendo la ropa de un cádaver (¿estaba realmente muerta la chica?) para usarla ella.
Johansson es una alienígena, disfrazada de humano, que comienza a cazar hombres solos a quienes seduce y luego captura, pero ¿dónde los encierra?¿en otra dimensión? ¿dentro de sí misma? ¿en una nave, en otro planeta? ¿se alimenta de ellos? Nada de esto es explicado. Ni siquiera ¿por qué los caza? ¿a qué vino a nuestro planeta? ¿se trata de una invasión, de un experimento? ¿cómo se introducen en el cuerpo humano?
Sabemos que no es la única (vemos a un motociclista que la visita con frecuencia que es otro extraterrestre) pero no sabemos si hay muchos más. En una escena vemos el cuerpo de una de las infortunadas presas que literalmente es absorbido por algo y sólo vemos flotar su piel en una especie de masa líquida, vacía de órganos o huesos ¿es así como obtienen la piel humana que luego visten?
La trama es bastante lenta y la película está llena de silencios y secuencias sin mucho ruido de ambiente, así que por momentos puede parecer aburrida. Pero si se presta atención al trasfondo de las escenas se pueden ir desprendiendo algunas cosas interesantes.
A pesar de ser una depredadora, conforme va pasando el tiempo y comienza a interactuar con otras personas y a observar la conducta humana, algo en ella cambia. Unas mujeres que van a una fiesta, la convidan; un hombre le regala una rosa en un semáforo; poco a poco, al ver la gente en la calle y tras un hecho crucial en la película, abandona su cacería y se le ve un tanto confundida con sus ¿sentimientos?
En la primera parte de la cinta, la vemos indolente ante la muerte de una mujer que muere ahogada; pero en la segunda parte la vemos verse a sí misma, contemplar su cuerpo, incluso la vemos intentar comer un pastel de chocolate, casi tener sexo con un hombre al que no hace ningún daño y hasta la vemos soñar ¿los extraterrestres sueñan? ¿representa el soñar una actividad puramente humana? ¿por qué el cambio? ¿se está humanizando? ¿ha comenzado a valorar algo presente en nuestra existencia humana, palpable a través de la piel que viste?
Un detalle que ha podido pasar por alto a muchos es que, al inicio de la película, ella entra en una tienda y compra ropa, incluyendo un abrigo de pieles: es una piel (el abrigo) sobre otra piel (la ropa) sobre otra piel (la humana) para proteger su verdadero ser. En la última parte, la pérdida de estas dos pieles van reflejando su exposición, su desnudamiento, la revelación de quién es.
Y entonces, para dar mayor crudeza al mensaje, esta alienígena ex cazadora de hombres, acaba siendo perseguida por un humano lascivo que desea violarla. En el forcejeo, le rasga la piel y huye aterrado, sólo para volver un instante después y quemarla hasta morir.
Ella no puede defenderse, acaba sintiéndose tan humana que se siente ofendida, débil, y justo antes de morir, contempla el rostro de la piel que vistió con una expresión de ¿tristeza? ¿arrepentimiento? ¿compasión? la cazadora acaba siendo cazada de forma inmisericorde por su presa, cuya naturaleza humana había comenzado a ¿compartir? ¿a entender? ¿a envidiar? ¿a imitar? ¿a sentir como propia? Esta fémina, llegada de otro planeta, aprendió acerca de humanidad y cuando intentó ser humana acabó siendo mejor que nosotros mismos quienes sólo le ofrecimos una cruel hoguera como última morada.
Las escenas surrealistas y los desnudos serios, exentos de cualquier contenido erótico o pornográfico, combinados con el manejo de la evolución psicológica y emocional del personaje principal, hacen que la cinta sea rescatable, a pesar de tener poca acción y mucho silencio. Es cierto que casi no cuenta nada, pero lo poco que cuenta plantea preguntas filosóficas importantes ¿qué es lo que nos hace humanos? Mi puntuación para esta película es de 6/10 puntos.
It's an adaptation of the novel by Michel Faber that bears the same name. Launched in 2013, the film is directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Scarlett Johansson.
It's a science fiction story, with a hint of terror, which in a few words can be defined as a "rare" movie. There are not many explanations of what happens (not much happens, really) but it leaves room for deep reflections on human nature.
The first scene shows what seems to represent a planet, or a spaceship, and a voice is heard that seems to be learning letters, then sounds, and finally words. After showing the title of the movie, Scarlett Johanson appears removing the clothes of a corpse (was the girl really dead?) to wear it.
Johansson is an alien, disguised as a human, who begins to hunt single men whom she seduces and then captures them, but where does she enclose them? in another dimension? inside herself? in a ship, in another planet? does she feed on them? None of this is explained, not even why does she hunt them? what did she come to our planet for? is it an invasion, an experiment? how are they introduced into human bodies?
We know that she's not the only one (we see a motorcyclist who visits her frequently, who is also an alien) but we don't know if there are many more. In one scene we see the body of one of the unfortunate prey that is literally absorbed by something and we only see his skin floating in a kind of liquid mass, empty of organs or bones. Is that how they get the human skin that they then wear? The plot is quite slow and the film is full of silences and sequences without much ambient noise, so at times it may seem boring. But if you pay attention to the background of the scenes, some interesting things can be detached.
Despite being a predator, as time passes and she begins to interact with other people and observe human behavior, something changes inside of her. Some women who go to a party, invite her; a man gives him a rose at a traffic light; little by little, when she sees the people in the street and after a crucial event in the film, she abandons her hunt and she seems a little confused with her... emotions?
In the first part of the film, we see her indolent before the death of a woman who dies drowned; but in the second part we see her see herself, contemplate her body, we even see her trying to eat a chocolate cake, almost having sex with a man she doesn't hurt, and we even see her dreaming, do the aliens dream? does dreaming represent a purely human activity? why the change? is she becoming human? has she begun to value something present in our human existence, palpable through the skin she wears?
One detail that could have overlooked many is that at the beginning of the film, she enters a store and buys clothes, including a fur coat: it's a skin (the coat) on another skin (the human) to protect its true being. In the last part, the loss of these two skins reflects their exposure, their stripping, the revelation of who she is.
And then, to make the message deeper, this alien ex-hunter of men, ends up being persecuted by a lascivious man who wants to rape her. In the struggle, he tears her skin and flees in terror, only to return a moment later and burn her to death.
She can't defend herself, ends up feeling so human that she feels offended, weak, and just before dying, contemplates the face of the skin she wore with an expression of... sadness? regret? compassion? the hunter ends up being hunted mercilessly for its prey, whose human nature had begun to... share? to understand? To envy? To imitate? To feel like own? This female, who came from another planet, learned about humanity and when she tried to be human, she ended up being better than ourselves, who offered her a cruel bonfire as her final resting place.
The surreal scenes and serious nudes, free of any erotic or pornographic content, combined with the handling of the psychological and emotional evolution of the main character, make the movie savable, despite having little action and a lot of silence. It's true that it tells almost nothing, but the little it tells raises important philosophical questions: what makes us human? My score for this movie is 6/10 points.
[Source](https://www.xataka.com/cine-y-tv/under-the-skin-impresionante-experiencia-sensorial-ciencia-ficcion-terror-que-llega-a-nuestras-pantallas-siete-anos-tarde)
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