The Eternal Triangle At Its Most Eternal

Francois Truffaut directed this simple tale of revenge and adultery which features an exceptional musical score by Georges Delerue. The story concerns a love affair between successful literary magazine editor Pierre Lachenay (Jean Desailly) and alluring airline stewardess, Nicole Chomette (Francoise Dorleac). They meet on a flight to Lisbon, where Pierre is scheduled to deliver a lecture. When he returns to Paris, they continue their affair, but find it is difficult to set up their clandestine trysts, so Pierre arranges a lecture trip to Riems, where they can be together. In Riems however, Pierre finds it difficult to keep the affair a secret from his lecture sponsors. Upon his return to Paris, his wife Franca (Nelly Benedetti), suspicious her husband is having an affair, quarrels with Pierre, who leaves her and asks Nicole to marry him. Nicole refuses his proposition and Pierre attempts to reconcile with his wife. But Nelly, with a gun in her bag, is en route to surprise Pierre at his favorite restaurant for a final confrontation

The Soft Skin (French: La peau douce) is a 1964 French romantic drama film directed by François Truffaut and starring Jean Desailly, Françoise Dorléac, and Nelly Benedetti. Written by Truffaut and Jean-Louis Richard, the film is about a successful married publisher and lecturer who meets a beautiful air hostess with whom he has a love affair.[1] The film was shot on location in Paris, Reims, and Lisbon, and several scenes were filmed at Paris-Orly Airport.[2] At the 1964 Cannes Film Festival, the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or.[3][4] Despite Truffaut's recent success with Jules and Jim and The 400 Blows, The Soft Skin did not do well at the box office

In his review in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther called the film "a curiously crude and hackneyed drama."[7] Crowther goes on to write:
Some of the sequences are searing, especially those that have to do with the trip to Reims and the furtiveness of the fellow to hide his liaison from the people for whom he has come to speak. The atmosphere of air travel, of French provincial hotels and of literary lionizing are crisply created by Mr. Truffaut. But what his picture has to tell us—and the extent to which it is able to move—is no more than was provided by, let's say, Back Street, with Charles Boyer and Margaret Sullivan, years ago.[7]
In his review in Slant Magazine, Glenn Heath Jr. called the film "a mesmerizing morality play detailing the machinations of adultery and their deadly consequences."[8]
On the review aggregator web site Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 91% positive rating among critics based on 22 review

Despite receiving very mixed reviews upon release, La Peau douce is considered by some Truffaut specialists to be one of his strongest efforts[citation needed]. Truffaut's own life followed the same path as Lachenay's when the director left his wife for Françoise Dorléac. For the expectant audience, this film was a contrast to the kinetic joie de vivre of Jules et Jim, and may have been perceived as overly serious for a director who had tended towards lighter films up to that point

Release Date: October 12, 1964


Distrib: Cinema V