The Skin (La pelle)

The Skin (La pelle in the original Italian) is a 1981 Italian-French co-production directed by Liliana Cavani. Released in France as La Peau and in Germany as Die Haut, it was filmed in Italian, runs 131 minutes and is classed as both a drama and a war film. The picture was first shown at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, where it was among the Palme d'Or contenders, and it opened in West Germany on 27 August 1981.

The story follows the 1949 novel of the same name by the Italian writer and journalist Curzio Malaparte, a book with a strongly autobiographical side that portrays Italy in the war years. Marcello Mastroianni, Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, Ken Marshall and Carlo Giuffré take the leading roles. Others in the cast include Cristina Donadio, Peppe Barra, Jacques Sernas, Jeanne Valérie, Anna Maria Ackermann, Linda Moretti and Tomas Arana.

Cavani and Robert Katz wrote the screenplay from Malaparte's text, and Malaparte himself receives a writing credit. Renzo Rossellini produced the film and Lalo Schifrin composed its score.