the nightmare of childhood

a clip right before Dolphin Blue’s death… a continuation of the previous post.  notice that she is in white, and everyone else is in black.

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the REFLECTING skin

I’d like to take a moment to comment on the title.  What is The Reflecting Skin?  Why “reflecting”?  Taken literally, the reflecting skin could represent the silver skin on the baby in the photo from Vietnam.  However, I am doubting that small part of the movie would account for its name.  There are other discussions that the reflecting skin represents the dichotomy between good and evil- and how our selves reflect one or the other.  Or, perhaps this has to do with the black and white themes in the film.  Dolphin blue is almost always in black.  When she is found dead, she is wearing white.  This scene actually reminded me of the finale in Cruel Intentions, where Ryan Phillippe is dressed in solid black, and Reese Witherspoonis in clad white.  At any rate, I believe that it is definitely not clear as to why Ridley used this title. 

a review that sums it all up

The Reflecting Skin

Directed by: Philip Ridley

RS: Not Rated Average User Rating: 3.5 of 4 Stars

It’s not your average vampire movie; this one’s got aspirations. Philip Ridley, the British painter-illustrator-novelist who turned screenwriter with the mesmerizing 1990 gangster film The Krays, debuts as a director with a perversely alluring work he describes as “Blue Velvet with children.” Ridley’s script revolves around Seth Dove (a superb Jeremy Cooper), an eight-year-old growing up in the Fifties on the Idaho prairie (the film was shot in Canada). Seth’s mother, Ruth (Sheila Moore), is strict with him, doting only on her older son, Cameron (Viggo Mortensen), a soldier on an atomic-testing mission in the Pacific. Ruth barely tolerates her husband, Luke (Duncan Fraser), a mechanic shamed by a past scandal in which the local sheriff found him and an underage boy “in full embrace.”Luke reads pulp novels, one with a cover illustration of a woman vampire that the impressionable Seth thinks is their English neighbor, Dolphin Blue (the smashing Lindsay Duncan). Dolphin’s been a recluse since her husband’s suicide. But when Seth and his pals — Eben (Codie Lucas Wilbee) and Kim (Evan Hall) — play a nasty trick on Dolphin, Ruth forces Seth to apologize. Dolphin’s house, filled with whaling gear, fascinates Seth. Later, he watches her masturbate.

Seth’s sexual fears are soon heightened by violence. Eben is found drowned. When Luke is accused, he torches himself. Then Kim is murdered. Seth has seen four men driving around in a black Caddy, but he suspects only Dolphin, who has now taken up with his brother, home for their father’s funeral. Some of this arty Freudian posturing about a boy’s head-on collision with sex, sin and death is ponderous. But 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.

PETER TRAVERS

Read the article from Rolling Stone online here

i’m seeing stars

This fall I watched the TV series Rome.  I plowed through the eposides through my Netflix subscription.  Now, after watching The Reflecting Skin again, I am suprised to see Lindsay Duncan (aka Servilia of the Junii) as Dolphin Blue.  I hadn’t remembered that she was in this movie.  Ah, and don’t forget Lindsay’s Under the Tuscan Sun performance.  This was actually my favorite part of hers.  If you haven’t seen Tuscan, I would highly recommend it…Of course, I was also suprised to see Viggo Mortensen (aka Aragorn from LOTR).  Actually, the last I saw of Viggo was in Eastern Promises.  I did like this film, however it was a little violent.  I seem to remember Viggo in a naked steam room fight scene.  Too far?  Perhaps. At any rate, it was fun to connect the RefSk with other films I have seen lately.  Lindsay didnt seem to age, and Viggo looks like a pup in this movie!

the trailer

If you watch the theatrical trailer for The Reflecting Skin, you’ll see four words flash across the screen: childhood, innocence, angels, vampires.  Having seen the film before I saw the trailer, I would have never chosen these four words to describe the movie.  After spending some time with the film, I might have chosen: gasoline, vietnam, love, death.

I still don’t understand why the RS decided to add vampires into the mix.  Why does Dolphin Blue have to be a vampire?  Sure, she wears black… and sunglasses out in the sun.  Dolphin also says that she is 200 years old.  Still, I’ll say that it does give the film an added “what the…”  And, lets face it, that’s why we love The Reflecting Skin, right?