Peau neuve (1999)
Directed by Emilie Deleuze

Film Review

Peau neuve marks a promising directoral debut for Emilie Deleuze.  It is a compelling work which treats the familiar themes of middle-aged angst and male friendship with great subtlety and humanity.  The film's impact and charm stems from the believability of its characters and their situations, which is in turn down to some exemplary acting (the two male leads Samuel le Bihan and Marcial Di Fonzo Bo are perfectly cast).  The sober near-documentary style also serves to heighten the sense of realism and enforces the film's dramatic impact without being too brutal.

One of the film's more obvious shortcomings is that too much emphasis is given to situations (particularly the bulldozing training) and not enough to the characters.  At times, the audience may be forgiven for thinking they are watching a documentary about bulldozers, rather than a social realist drama about human beings.  Despite this, the film does have some touches of brilliance, suggesting that Emilie Deleuze may well be a director to watch out for.

Most strikingly, the film manages to capture - with great insight and sensitivity - the fragility and strength of human relationships.  An obvious interpretation of Alain's attraction for Manu is that it is homosexual in nature, but there is nothing in the film to convince us of that.  What we see is the death of one relationship (Alain's marriage) and the birth of another (a close male friendship).  By exercising great restraint and not showing us too much, Peau neuve appears to say a great deal about male bonding and the need for individuals to adapt and change in the course of their lives - like a snake, shedding one skin to grow another, more resilient than the first. Deleuze followed this promising debut feature with a number of other equally idiosyncratic films, including Mister V. (2003) and a few television movies.

Film Synopsis

Alain seems to be a perfectly settled thirty-year-old.  He has a well-paid job as a computer games tester that he enjoys and is happily married, with a four-year-old daughter.  Everything seems to have turned out well for him, and yet Alain suddenly wakes up one day and realises that there is something missing from his life.  Without a moment's thought, he resigns from his job and moves to Corrèze so that he can enrol on a course to learn how to operate a bulldozer.  This requires Alain to live apart from his family for some time, and this will inevitably stretch the fault lines that are beginning to appear in his marriage.

In the course of a gruelling training programme, Alain strikes up a close friendship with a younger daydreamer named Manu who looks and behaves more like a child than an adult.  As he feels ever more distanced from his wife and daughter, Alain turns increasingly to his new friend for moral and emotional support.  When he is joined by his wife Pascale the latter cannot help noticing the gulf that has opened up between them.  It is starting to look as if their marriage is all but over.  Just what is happening to Alain...?