The Skin I Live In Analysis

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Body and Captivity in The Skin I Live In Almodóvar’s “The Skin I Live In” is the one different and outstanding thriller film which surprises the audience by the narration, which is interweaving of past and present and the unexpected ending. The highlighted point of this film is “body,” and “captivity.” Almodóvar uses the theory “Docile Bodies” written by Michel Foucault’s to presenting the theme of body manipulation, and provides cinematic techniques to present and reinforce the theme of captivity of this film. “Docile Bodies” is one chapter of Foucault’s work Discipline and Punish. In this chapter, Foucault talks about the body being disciplined. He gets the idea of the docile body when he was reading “a particular historical moment in eighteen …show more content…

Moreover, Foucault uses soldiers as a representation of a docile body to shows the process of discipline body— the four techniques of disciplinary: cellular, organic, genetic, and combination (Michel Foucault Docile Bodies). Link to the film, Almodóvar put this idea in his main character Robert. Robert uses the four techniques to manipulate and discipline …show more content…

Standing in the red spot is as a confirmation that Vicente or Vera completely captivated and victimized; his whole body is fully changed not only sex or face. The red spot is a symbol of “target” or “victim;” and red can symbolize love, passion, and sexuality which present all along the film. Additionally, Almodóvar uses high angle to lower Vera that reinforce her victim position. He also uses long shot allowing the audiences to observe the setting and the props in this scene. If you watch this scene and think carefully, you will see that the props: carpet, sofas, tables, and hanging lights are geometry: circle, triangle, and square. Geometry is concerned with size, shape and figure. Related to Vera, she has been put in the shape by Robert. Similarly, the floor is carpeted by black and white square velvet. A velvet has a soft and beautiful texture; however, the velvet can stand for darkness and deepness as well. In my interpretation, the black square velvet is like the skin that Robert patches on Vera’s body as well as the black suit which she wears, it has visible stiches. In this scene, Almodóvar adds non-diegetic sound. He chooses the songUna Patada en los Huevos by Alberto Iglesias to increase excitement of this chase scene. The sound of a violin not only creates excitement but also raises a tension between two

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