Catherine Deneuve needed little convincing to play a “punk fairy godmother” in Léa Domenach’s “Peau d’Homme” (“A Man’s Skin“) the Venice-premiering medieval musical that reunites the famed French actor and up-and-coming director three years after “Bernadette.” “A punk fairy godmother — first of all, that idea alone would have been enough,” Deneuve told Variety in a phone interview alongside Domenach a few days before the Lido premiere. It’s very original and it’s fun.” Set in the 15th century, “A Man’s Skin” follows Blanche, a young woman who is given a magical “man’s skin” that allows her to become Léonard and discover freedoms, power and sexuality largely denied to her as a woman. Producers Antoine Rein and Fabrice Goldstein at Karé Productions acquired the rights and brought the project to Domenach, who co-wrote the adaptation with Clemence Dargent.
Alain Attal’s Trésor Films, one of France’s top producers, then joined Rein and Goldstein. Playtime is handling international sales, while Diaphana Distribution will release the film in France. The film is closing Venice’s Giornate degli Autori out of competition.
Domenach said she was drawn to the project but wanted to make it more playful. Everything has to resonate a bit with our times, but in a lighthearted way so that it reaches as many people as possible, too.” Some of the characters in the film are directly inspired by real-life politicians. Tancrède, played by Eddy de Pretto, is a religious zealot whom Domenach openly describes as a Trump-like figure.
The parallels have to be explicit to make people laugh; otherwise, we miss our mark a bit. I think Tancrède is Trump — but he represents all those political figures who are initially seen as buffoons and who, over time, come to be taken seriously.” “There are plenty of them,” she said. There’s the Argentine president, there’s Jordan Bardella.
There was a time when there was Berlusconi. Berlusconi was someone no one took seriously, and yet he governed Italy. It’s Trump today, but there have been others in the past, and there will be others tomorrow.” When Bardella’s name came up, Deneuve interjected: “He’s grotesque!” Bardella is the 30-year-old deputy of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party which is currently leading polls in the 2027 presidential election.
And when Domenach said there would likely be more such figures in the future, Deneuve shot back: “I hope not!” That political undercurrent dovetails with the film’s feminism that Domenach sees as a direct continuation of “Bernadette,” in which Deneuve played the wife of former French President Jacques Chirac, a fierce and opinionated first lady. The movie (whose English title is “The President’s Wife”) had a healthy run at the French box office, scoring nearly 900K admissions, sold to major territories around the world and earned a Cesar nomination for best first film. It’s funny — even when you think about the two characters, Bernadette and Blanche.
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