Shocking beauty

Under the Skin  by Jonathan Glazer     ★★★★★

Mesmerized. That's how I felt, watching Under the Skin: a strange, highly original science fiction film from 2013 by the British director Jonathan Glazer (known for his crime thriller Sexy Beast and the family drama Birth). 

From the onset, starting with the galactic opening shots, which suggest that extraterrestrial forces arrive on Earth, I got the feeling that I was witnessing something special. Something of a dark, fragile depth, rarely seen in an industry that's preoccupied with box-office returns.

Mysterious and seductive

Scarlett Johansson.

Under the Skin follows a mysterious woman, played with glacial superiority by Scarlett Johansson, who drives in a van through Scotland and lures solitary men into a trap, while maintaining her cold, dispassionate composure. An equally mysterious motorcyclist helps her to conceal the evidence. What are they doing? What is that strange black goo in which their victims disappear? What is this methodical duo up to? Are they extracting an energy source or life force? And how does the strange seductress react when she notices essential things that make humans human, such as humor, self-sacrifice, compassion, musicality, hunger, fear, lust and love? Is she starting to feel something...?

Experimental

Glazer alternates bleak, quasi documentary shots on the streets of Glasgow with poetic and often hauntingly beautiful imagery. One of the most lyrical shots is a dissolve between a sleeping Johansson and a spruce forest that's swaying in the wind. The experimental imagery in Under the Skin comes very close to undiluted video art and reminded me of the visual magic in Stanley Kubrick's science fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. The fascinating soundscapes in Under the Skin (by Mica Levi aka Micachu) are reminiscent of the eerie music of György Ligeti in Kubrick's horror thriller The Shining and enhance the ominous atmosphere in Under the Skin all the way to its tragic ending.

The scenes in the van were shot with a hidden camera. The men who get into the van with Johansson were unsuspecting passers-by. Only after the scenes were already shot, they got informed that they were taking part in a movie. This contributed to spontaneous, naturalistic interactions. And Johansson herself, with that 'alien', erotic look of hers, was perfectly cast as the mysterious woman. Through her eyes, we watch the touching stupidity, vulnerablity, ugliness and beauty of mankind with wonder and compassion.

What a relief that Glazer had the courage to explain nothing and leave it to the imagination of the viewer to explore the meaning of what's hidden under the skin of this equally sensitive and disturbing film. It's hard to find a more striking example of cinema as genuine art. Both cruel and sad, chilling and tender, Under the Skin is a masterpiece of rare, shocking beauty.

JN.

Under the Skin - UK/USA/Switzerland - 2013.

Cast: Scarlett Johansson.

Genre: science fiction / thriller / existential drama