Donkey Skin

This charming adaptation of a fairy tale by Charles Perrault has been called Jacques Demy’s “grand synthesis of Cocteau and Minnelli,” graced with wondrous costumes and vivid colors, ingenious trick effects and a stellar cast. The tale involves a beautiful princess (Catherine Deneuve) whose father, the Blue King (Jean Marais), desires to marry her in order to fulfill a deathbed promise to his wife that his next wife be even more beautiful than herself. The princess enlists the aid of the Lilac Fairy (Delphine Seyrig), and together they devise a scheme of imaginative demands designed to thwart even the most ardent suitor.