| The Reflecting Skin | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Philip Ridley |
| Produced by | Dominic Anciano |
| Written by | Philip Ridley |
| Starring | Viggo Mortensen Lindsay Duncan |
| Music by | Nick Bicât |
| Cinematography | Dick Pope |
| Distributed by | BBC Miramax Films |
| Release date(s) | 9 September 1990 |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
The Reflecting Skin is a 1990 film about a young child growing up in rural Idaho in the 1950s. It was directed by Philip Ridley, and features Viggo Mortensen and Lindsay Duncan.
Contents |
Young Seth Dove becomes obsessed with the idea of vampires and soon attaches his fixation onto a woman named Dolphin Blue. After his father’s suicide, Seth’s brother comes home from World War II and begins an affair with Dolphin, leaving Seth to become completely infatuated with the notion of his brother’s danger. Along with this, Seth finds himself at the mercy of an unstable mother along with a group of men, who plague the small children of Seth’s continually shrinking small town.
The film weaves elements of the grotesque, vampirism, child sexual abuse, and religious zealotry throughout its narrative about the perceptions and fantasies of an impressionable pre-adolescent boy and his friends.
At the 1990 Locarno International Film Festival, Ridley won three awards, C.I.C.A.E. Award, the FIPRESCI Prize, and Silver Leopard. At the 1990 "Sitges" Catalonian International Film Festival, Lindsay Duncan won the Best Actress award and Dick Pope the award for Best Cinematography. At the 1990 Stockholm Film Festival, Ridley received the FIPRESCI Prize.
The film places the majority of its action outdoors around the dilapidated farms and in the wheat fields of Idaho shot in idyllic sunlight which belies the dark secrets of the characters and plot. The story is told in an objective, somewhat absurdist style, which recalls David Lynch by way of Days of Heaven.
The film has not been released on DVD or Blu-Ray in either the US or the UK; however, an English-friendly DVD is available from Japan, and the German Blu-Ray has an English audio track (but questionable picture quality).