The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

The Soft Skin
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And I think it’s all of those things, and I think that’s what makes it so
great. I think Truffaut, from what I understand, he wanted to make something
that was quite modern. In its own way it’s as modern as Alphaville because
it’s set in a very real Paris, but one that is filled with the cold, everyday
things that make up life. You know, the elevator just outside the door, and
the bars and the cars and the pushbuttons of the machines that take us to
and from the people that we love or have lost love for. I like that juxtaposed
with a man who’s quite chilly, who’s far more a man driven by his mind than
by his heart, who suddenly has that fall in such a remarkable way. I think it’s
a great performance by Jean Desailly.
I have a gift, the latest Truffaut biography; it’s a few years old now. And
I can remember reading about the film because at that point I’d seen it and
liked it, and it appeared that he was unhappy ultimately with his choice of
the lead male character.
And I couldn’t disagree more. I think it’s such a strong piece of acting. If
you approach it from the way that I do, that it really is about this man’s indecisiveness
that brings him down, and the impassivity of this intellectual mind
trying to become emotional. So I think Desailly does a wonderfully incisive,
to-the-point performance. The fact that it is so chilling is what makes it so
heartbreaking. He wants to be this great intellectual, and all of a sudden he’s
just this scared kid.
In his letters, there was a lot of turmoil in Truffaut’s life at this time.
He wrote of Desailly, “He doesn’t like the film, or the character or
the story or me.” At the time, Truffaut had announced that he was
breaking up with his wife, and there was some reading that this was
a self-portrait.
LaBute: It very well may be, because you look at the tale and think it’s so
marvelously acute, and he does seem to understand. And there’s a fairness
there, for all parties concerned, which I think someone who hasn’t gone
through that wouldn’t portray. Even though he could carry a film like The
Man Who Loved Women—which is essentially the story of a man filled with
great love or a cad—it depends on how you read it.
But because it’s a small number of people that he’s dealing with, I think
he’s able to give them nearly enough time. I think the wife (Nelly Benedetti),