Under the Skin is Jonathan Glazer's adaptation of Michel Faber's novel of the same name. It stars Scarlett Johansson as an extraterrestrial who takes the form of a young woman and drives around Scotland, picking up hitchhikers. Many of the men she interacts with were actually non-actors who were unaware they were being filmed. The film uses a mix of surreal, dreamlike imagery and realistic scenes to portray the alien's experience on Earth. It received polarized reactions from critics for its radical difference from other films and the way it forces viewers to reconsider how they see the world.

1. THE INTERNATIONAL FILM MAGAZINE
APRIL 2014 VOLUME 24 ISSUE 4
£4.50
04
9770037480090
RICHARD AYOADE ON ‘THE DOUBLE’ DAVID MACKENZIE’S ‘STARRED UP’
‘A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM’ THE S&S INTERVIEW: JEREMY THOMAS
UNEARTHLY STRANGER: SCARLETT JOHANSSON IN
UNDER THE SKINMADE IN BRITAIN SPECIAL

3. 22 | Sight&Sound | April 2014
UNEARTHLY
STRANGER
Jonathan Glazer’s extraordinary adaptation
of Michel Faber’s novel ‘Under the Skin’ is a
collision between the surreal and the very real,
as an extraterrestrial Scarlett Johansson tours
the Scottish countryside in search of prey
By Jonathan Romney
A MAN OBSESSED
Jonathan Glazer (below)
spent nine years working
on Under the Skin, his
adaptation of the 2000 novel
by Michel Faber, starring
Scarlett Johansson, right
What would a truly alien cinema be like? We can all think
offilmmakerswhosestructuresofimaginationsofunda-
mentally diverge from recognisable norms that they
seem virtually extraterrestrial. And there have been nu-
merousattemptstoimaginehowanalienmightexperi-
ence our world, whether it’s literally an evocation of ex-
traterrestrialexperience(TheManWhoFelltoEarth,1976;
Liquid Sky, Slava Tsukerman’s 1982 essay in subculture-
chic sci-fi) or depictions of radically alien, or alienated,
worldviews pertaining to existence as, say, a vampire
(Jarmusch’s recent Only Lovers Left Alive) or a schizo-
phrenic(LodgeKerrigan’sClean,Shaven,1993).
Cinema’s latest attempt to imagine itself into
suchaviewpointisUndertheSkin,thethirdfeature
PHOTOGRAPHYBYFABRIZIOMALTESE

4. April 2014 | Sight&Sound | 23

5. 24 | Sight&Sound | April 2014
JONATHAN GLAZERUNDER THE SKIN
by British director Jonathan Glazer – and a leap
intoseriouslyexperimentalterritoryfollowinghis
relativelyconventionalSexyBeast(2000)andBirth(2004).
Thepremise:anextraterrestrialtakestheformofayoung
woman (Scarlett Johansson) and drives round Scotland,
exploringthemysteriesofexistenceonearthinbetween
sessions of the work she’s here to do, which involves
pickingupunsuspectingmeninhervan.
The film is based on the 2000 novel by Michel Faber,
butit’sbynomeansastraightadaptation.Faber’sbookis
blackcomedy:itsprotagonistisafemaleextraterrestrial
namedIsserley,posted to earthtocapturehumanmales
forconsumptiononherhomeworldasdeluxecharcute-
rie. Born a furry quadruped, Isserley has been surgically
transformed, to her enduring horror, into a two-legged,
hairless thing that stands upright. Worse still, she has
hadtwostrangebulb-likeappendagestransplantedonto
her front – irresistible lures, apparently, for the male
hitchhikersshepicksup.Amongotherthings,thebook
isaSwiftiansatireaboutthecallousnessoffactoryfarm-
ing,playingwithprovocativehumouronthecategories
of ‘human’ (applied to the aliens) and ‘animal’ (to the
earthlings, or ‘vodsels’). It also muses wryly on solitude,
howitistobeawomanamongmen,notionsofugliness
and beauty, the problem of finding job satisfaction, and
thebeautyoftheScottishcountryside.
Glazer, who worked on Under the Skin for some nine
years, collaborated with three screenwriters in succes-
sion, and says that the first draft was much closer to the
novel. The final version, written with Walter Campbell,
pares Faber’s story to its starkest essence: divesting Is-
serley of her name; replacing the other aliens with a
mysterious associate on a motorbike; and replacing the
elaborately grisly processing plant with imagery that is
considerably more enigmatic and dreamlike. The result
isaspare,distinctlychilly,poeticvision.
The film’s utter strangeness derives partly from its
audacious juxtaposition of two registers – the surreal
and the very concrete real. In its nightmare mode, the
film creates some hauntingly mysterious and largely
unexplained images. The alien is sometimes seen in
spaces of pure black or white, of indeterminate dimen-
sion. One such space contains the film’s most startling
visual conceit, a dark reflecting surface that behaves as
a solid floor to the alien but as a viscous pool to unwit-
tinghumans,whosinkintoit:beneaththesurface,men
hangsuspendedasifinaspicuntiltheirbodiesimplode,
their skins floating like discarded shrink wraps. Then
there’stheeerilybeautifulopeningsequence,analmost
abstract play of expanding circular shapes that evokes
either planets coming into alignment or the opening of
an alien eye (it’s hard to shake off the idea that the film
beginsbystaringatus).
The film’s other register is everyday realism: much
of the time, we seem to be watching an attractive but
altogether unexceptional-seeming young woman driv-
ing a van around Scotland, picking up male hitchhikers
andflirtingwiththem.Whenshe’snotatthewheel,she
visits shopping malls, buys lipstick, strays into a night-
club, explores the Scottish countryside. She’s barely
noticed by the crowds that she moves through – and
certainly not recognised as Scarlett Johansson by any of
themenshepicksup.Forthealien’sprospectivevictims
are for the most part not actors but unsuspecting non-
professionals who were approached by Johansson and
who chatted with her without realising that she, and
they,wereactorsinanimproviseddramathatwasbeing
secretlyfilmedbyGlazer.
All of this gives the film a vivid quasi-documentary
dimension,anelementofsurveillancecinema–oreven
of ‘stunt’ cinema (Scott Foundas’s thumbs-downVariety
reviewcompareditto“afeature-lengthCandidCamera”).
UndertheSkinmightbeconsideredadocumentaryabout
the making of Under the Skin, and about the mechanics
ofseduction.It’sfascinatingtoobservethedifferentreac-
tionsofthesevariousworking-classScottishmentothis
alluring woman with her exaggeratedly seduc-
tive English ‘posh-bird’ accent and come-hither
It’s fascinating
to observe the
different reactions
of these working-
class Scottish men
to this alluring
woman with
her exaggerated
‘posh-bird’ accent
CAPTAIN SCARLETT
In Under the Skin Johansson
was secretly filmed chatting
to unsuspecting non-
professionals, who had no
idea until later that they
were going to appear in
a movie

6. AkeyelementofUndertheSkinis
itsscorebyyoungBritishcomposer
MicaLevi.She’screatedanunnerving
soundscapethatrepresentsastrainof
moderncompositionalmostentirely
absentinmainstreamcinema(arare
recentexceptionbeingMartinScorsese’s
ShutterIsland,withitsuseofPenderecki,
SchnittkeandCage,echoingthesimilarly
modernistsoundtrackofTheShining).
Leviisherselfsomethingofanalien
interloperintheworldoffilmmusic.Trained
incompositionattheGuildhallSchoolof
Music,shemadehernamebothDJ-ingand
withhergroupMicachuandtheShapes,their
twoalbumsJewelleryandNevermixingthe
angularityandabrasivenessoflate-70spost-
punkwithanexuberantpopenergy.Butit
wasthemodernclassicalexperimentationof
theirChoppedandScrewed,recordedlivewith
theLondonSinfonietta,thatoffersatasterof
theradicalstrangenessofLevi’sfilmscore.
Jonathan Romney: Why do you think
Jonathan Glazer was interested in
what you could bring to the film?
Mica Levi: Ithinkhewantedanovice–
someonewhodidn’tknowhowtowritefilm
scores.Hedidn’twantthescoretomanipulate
theaudienceunnecessarily.Iwastoldtowrite
awayfromthepictureatthebeginning.Itwas
greatworkingwithsomeonewhoisn’ttalking
toyouspecificallyinmusicallanguage
–Jonisamazingatdescribingthings.
JR: The film has a very precise and
complex sound design. How did the
music work in tandem with that?
ML: JohnnieBurn[thesounddesigner]wanted
ittobereallycohesiveandhomogeneous,
thesoundandthemusic.Weweresending
updatedversionsofwherewewereatallthe
timeandtryingtokeepeachotherintheloop,
toallowspaceforeachthing.Therewasone
bitthatwecouldn’tquiteget,towardstheend,
andJohnnieraisedonethinginthesound–it
wasazip–anditmadesuchadifferenceto
thedramaoftheshot.Icouldn’tbelieveit.
JR:You make very material use of the
sound of instruments – for example, you
really highlight the scrape of the strings.
ML: That’sdefinitelytrue.Alotofit’s
microtonal–andIlikethat,itsoundslike
unison.Itsoundsmoreuncontrolledbecause
itsoundslikealotofpeopleplaying,instead
ofjustone.Insteadofthe12toneswe’re
usedto,it’swaveringinbetweenthem,
and[using]theclashesthattheycreate–
whichcansoundoutoftune,butcanbe
moreexpressivebecauseit’snotprecise
andaccurate.Tomeitsoundscomforting.
It’smeanttosounduncomfortable,butI
findsomethingquitehumanaboutit.
JR: There’s a very striking three-note theme
that recurs.At the start it sounds sexual
and slinky, like a film noir femme fatale
theme – but by the end, it’s decaying and
suggests the character’s inner torment.
ML: Sheusesthattheme–it’shertool.
Atthebeginning,it’slikefake–it’sher
perfume,it’sthewayshereelsinthese
guyswithatune.Thenitdeteriorates,it
becomessadder.Wecalleditthe‘capture’
melody.Thenthere’sthismajortriad,a
warmchord,andthat’sher‘human’or‘love’
feeling.Andthere’sthisdarkerminortriad
oftrilledstringsthatrecursthroughout.
JR: There’s also a strange‘beehive’effect – a
buzzing that suggests a hive mind. Hearing
it, you make that science-fiction connection
– you think about what world she’s from.
ML: Yeah,that’sexactlyit.Wewere
talkingaboutthedarkatthebeginning,
andcreationandhowthatallworks
–andthisalienlanguage.
JR:You seem to use quite a restricted
palette. How many musicians were there?
ML: Itwaswrittenelectronically,soitwas
easytoseewhatthesoundworldwould
belike.ItusesalotofMIDIstrings,fake
sounds.Ilikethe‘foreverness’ofit–you
canholdthischordanditgoesonuntilyou
liftyourhand.It’ssomethingeternaland
programmed.It’samixtureofthatandreal
strings,fluteandpercussion.Iworkedwith
maybe12musicians.IfIwastoperformit,I’d
probablydoubletheamountofstrings–and
I’dprobablyhavesynthplayingalongsideit.
JR: How does the score relate to
your training in composition?
ML: Alotofthethingsinthisfilmrelate
towatchingDisneyfilmswhenIwas
young.Ihadaphaseofwritingfake
Romanticmusicjustbeforedoingthis…
[Studyingcomposition]Iwasexposedto
alotof70smusic–Xenakis,Stockhausen,
thenCage,Nono,Ligeti,Varèse…
JR: Do you admire any film composers?
ML: Ioftenfindfilmscoresabitpandering
–theysoundlikeafilmscore.ButI
watchedJamesBondwhileIwasworking
onthefilmandIcouldn’tgetmyhead
outofwhatthemusicwasdoing.
AWAY FROM
THE PICTURE
Inspired by her modern classical
experiment ‘Chopped and Screwed’,
it took Jonathan Glazer barely ten
seconds to choose Mica Levi as the
composer of ‘Under the Skin’
By Jonathan Romney
Mica Levi:‘A lot of the things in this film relate to watching Disney films when I was young’
GETTYIMAGES(1)
Jonathan wanted a novice –
someone who didn’t know how
to write film scores. He didn’t
want the score to manipulate
the audience unnecessarily
April 2014 | Sight&Sound | 25

7. 26 | Sight&Sound | April 2014
JONATHAN GLAZERUNDER THE SKIN
conversation. Some seem ready to rise to the bait,
some don’t seem to notice the come-on, others re-
treat into their shell, but all in all, the real-life men are
as oblivious to Johansson’s imposture as their fictional
counterpartsaretothepredatoryalien’sploy.
A curious lesson of the film is this: take a Hollywood
star out of her conventional habitat, the artificial firma-
mentofmoviesetsandredcarpets,andchancesare,she’ll
beunrecognisable.Johanssonoftenprojectsacartoonish
hyper-sexuality (see Don Jon, or her recent Sodastream
ad). But detached from all the elements that identify
her as ‘Scarlett Johansson’ the movie siren, she becomes
simply a woman in a cheap-looking furry jacket and
slightlyscraggydarkhairwho,likeotherwomen,hasto
don a mask if she’s to play the overt seductress. This is
made evident when the alien tries on lipstick in a shop,
butherbeingisallmake-up:she’swearingadisguise,the
borrowedhumanbodysheoccupies.
The theme of beauty and ugliness, inner and exter-
nal being, is pushed further when the alien picks up a
man with a disfigured face. She apparently recognises
that he looks different from other humans, and adjusts
hercome-onlinesaccordingly:“Whenwasthelasttime
you had a girlfriend?... You have very nice hands.” It’s an
acutely uncomfortable scene to watch, partly because
oftheman’sdiscomfort,partly becausethewoman is so
manifestly unaware of the usual social responses to the
way he looks. But it’s likely that viewers will also mis-
read the situation: many will assume, as I did, that the
man’s appearance was created through prosthetics or
CGI,whereasinfactheisanactornamedAdamPearson,
whose disfigurement is the result of a condition called
neurofibromatosis. He lends his own appearance to the
film in a way that invites us to reappraise our attitudes
to surface appearance, especially since we know by this
point in the film about the true nature of the alien –
aboutwhat’sunderherperfectskin.
From the start, Under the Skin is a film about the eye
andperception.ToinvoketheBritishpoeticschoolofthe
70s/80s, it’s an example of ‘Martianism’, allowing us to
seeafamiliarworldasprofoundlystrange:Glazer’salien
encountersseveralaspectsofearthculturethatshefinds
inexplicable(aTVclipofTommyCooper)orliterallyin-
digestible (Black Forest gateau). This is a film that looks,
feels and sounds radically different – in which words
playadrasticallyrestrictedpart,andwithaneeriesound
design accompanying Mica Levi’s unnerving score. In-
evitably,UndertheSkinhasmetwithpolarisedreactions:
initial dismissals from critics in Telluride, then intense
enthusiasm from British critics in Venice. That’s only to
beexpected:afilmsoaudacious,sodifferentdowntothe
molecular level, leaves a lot to the viewer’s perception.
What Under the Skin finally is is a matter of what meets
the eye – and as the film shows from the very start, not
alleyesworkalike.
Jonathan Romney: Your adaptation radically pares down
the original book.What was the logic of that?
Jonathan Glazer: There was something inside the book
that I was very connected to. The first drafts were much
morefaithfulandillustrative.Itwasagoodadaptation–I
justrealisedIdidn’twanttomakethebookatthatpoint.
I was looking for the thing in the book that I was inter-
ested in, and it became clear with time that it was the
perspective–her,thelens–thatspoketome.Itwasn’ttill
Iworkedwiththethirdwriter,WalterCampbellthatwe
foundthatpointofviewandthatlanguage.
JR: There’s very little dialogue in the film, and when there
is dialogue, the woman’s language is part of her disguise.
You’re denying us everything we normally associate with
character – we don’t know who she is when she’s not per-
forming. She doesn’t even have a name.
JG:Thecloserwegottofindingawayofcrediblymaking
a film about an alien, the more committed we were to
that position. Why would you have a name? Who’s
going to call her by that name? Once you’ve said you’re
goingtomakeafilmaboutanalien,thenyou’regoingto
makeafilmaboutanalien.
JR:You’reworkingintwodifferentmodesinonefilm–elab-
orate dreamlike sequences and extreme naturalism.
JG: That clash seemed to be where it happened, the
buzz of it – putting that real world cheek by jowl with
the surreal dream spaces. The dream space then takes
on so much more of its own reality because of what’s
preceded it. When pitching the film, the term ‘science
fiction’ comes up. The artifice of all that stuff – space-
ships and weapons and helmets and lights – is some-
thing that I love to watch in films, but it didn’t feel like
it had a place here.
JR: The opening sequence is very abstract, but it suggests
the idea of an eye coming into being – of an adjustment in
her vision, which is also inviting the viewer to adjust to a
different way of seeing the world.
JG:That’swhatitis.Inearlydrafts,wehadthecreationof
herbodyandhertonguedockingintohermouth,images
whereyousawmuchmoreofherconstruction,andeven
her training. It became one scene – it became distilled
into the most important image, which is the construc-
tionofhereye.Hereyeisjustawindow–it’samethodof
ON THE TILES
Scarlett Johansson
encounters Scottish
clubbers in Under the Skin.
Below: Nicole Kidman in
Birth (2004); Ben Kingsley
and Ray Winstone in Sexy
Beast (2000)
BFINATIONALARCHIVE(2)

8. April 2014 | Sight&Sound | 27
looking,a telescope.When thethingcomes upthetube
and it lights up, you realise that you’ve been looking at
the construction of an iris. But you’ve also been privy to
the fact that there’s nothing human whatsoever about
it, that it’s a masquerade, and that what’s inside it is the
oppositeofus.It’slikemathsmeetingmeat.
JR: Did you hesitate about whether to reveal her real body
at the end?
JG:Absolutely.Butthereasonwediditwas,Idon’tfeellike
thatistherealbody.Itwasn’tlike,here’salizardinasuit.To
meitwasthenextlayer–Idon’tthinkyoufeellikeyou’ve
seenthealien,you’veseentheinside.Wehadalineinthe
screenplaywhichwasadescriptionofthatmoment:“The
inside looking at the outside, the outside looking at the
inside.”Theclosestyouseeofthealieninthisfilm,asfar
asI’mconcerned,isanentirelyblackscreen.
JR: One of the film’s themes is the human body and its
limitations, and what it is to be trapped – as she is on an
unfamiliar planet,as we are in being human.Related to that
is the man with the disfigured face.
JG: The body-soul thing, that paradox – the pleasure of
consciousnessandlifeandbeinginabody,andalsohow
troubling it is and mystifying – is key in the film. That
man has an appearance that doesn’t trouble her; she’s
aware of it in that she can see it, but she has no judge-
ment, because she’s not interested in him. He misreads
that as warmth, I suppose, a different kind of lack of
judgement. She’s interested in what’s inside the skin for
adifferentreason–theskin,toher,isnothingmorethan
a plastic bag. It throws beauty into focus, as well – his
beautyandherlackofit.It’saturningpoint,thatscene.
JR:Theideaofshootingclandestinely–whendidthatcome
in and what was the logic?
JG: Ihada realreluctancetocastthefilm with someone
well known, but I knew we had to. Scarlett and I had
chatted over the years about this project, we were orbit-
ing each other for three or four years before we finally
agreed to do it. The idea of surveillance, of shooting in
disguise, I think came from a kind of a joke – let’s put
a mask on her. Shooting the way we did went hand in
handwiththenarrative.
JR: There’s something appropriate about the idea of a Hol-
lywood star suddenly placed on Sauchiehall St and being
an alien.
JG:Completely.Thefirstcoupleofweeksofprep,Scarlett
hadtolearntospeakwithanEnglishaccent.Well,that’s
an equivalent to the story right there – the same as driv-
ingontheleft-handside,shehadtolearnthattoo.Inthe
scene with the eye, you hear her voice, all the phonetics
she’s going through – that’s because I sat in a room and
listened to her doing her voice exercise. I realised that
waspartofthefilmaswell.
JR: Where were the cameras hidden?
JG: There were ten cameras. Sometimes we shot with
two, but most of the van scenes were shot with eight.
They were built specially for this film, because they
didn’t exist. Shopping malls, nightclubs, restaurant… In
the nightclub there’s a cameraman with a camera stick-
ingoutofhissleeveonthefloor,followingheraround.
JR: How did you select the people you shot?
JG: By being in the van and saying to Scarlett, “Turn left
here, turn right, what about that guy?” I’m in the back
with a microphone, she’s got an earpiece, all the wires
lead from these eight hidden cameras into the back –
eightlittlemini-screens,Icanseealltheangles.Thefilm
is writing itself at that point. She’d pull over and try and
getsomeone’sattention;you’dfilmtheperson,andafter-
wardsaPAwouldgoandtellthemwhatwe’dbeendoing,
andcanwehavehisconsent?
JR: How did people react?
JG: Jaw on the floor, but most people gave their con-
sent. Some didn’t – there were some fantastic scenes we
couldn’t use. That was another benefit of shooting in
Glasgow. I don’t think you could have shot that film in
London.Firstofall,you’dhaveSWATteams–you’dfind
yourself with a laser light at your forehead in ten min-
utes, because we had guys walking around with ruck-
sackswithwiresstickingoutofthem.
JR: Scarlett Johansson is normally very recognisable, and
heavily identified with sexuality, in a way that becomes
weird here.These men don’t know that it’s Johansson flirt-
ing with them.
JG: You see very different reactions. Some guys are
flirting with her, meeting her gaze, and some are abso-
lutely terrified by her. You see men as they are in those
moments. What I like about her sexuality in this film –
particularlyinthemirrorscene,whereshe’scompletely
naked–isthatshe’salmostde-eroticisedherownimage.
She’sreclaimedherimage.
JR: How did you choose Mica Levi to write the score?
JG:Micaisanextraordinarytalent.I’dneverheardofher.
My music producer Peter Raeburn suggested her along-
side some other composers, but my instinct a while ago
was that it would be a new person, someone unknown
tous.Heplayedme[heralbum]ChoppedandScrewed,and
about ten, 15 seconds in, I’d made my mind up. What I
heard in the music was another universe – a different
soundscape…
i
Under the Skin is released in the UK
on 14 March and is reviewed on page 89
Some guys are
flirting with
her, meeting her
gaze, and some
are absolutely
terrified by her.
You see men
as they are in
those moments

9. REVIEWS
April 2014 | Sight&Sound | 89
Reviewed by Sam Wigley
PeoplewhosawBirth(2004),
andsawbeyondasurface
farfetchednesstoitssublime
undertowoffeeling,knew
tobeexcitedaboutthenext
JonathanGlazermovie.Thewaitends,nearly
adecadelater,withanotherbirthofsorts:a
Kubrickianpre-titlesequencethatbeginswith
apinprickoflightinthemiddleofdarkness,
thenstellardazzle,circulareclipses–and
finallythewarm-huedirisofaneyeball.
Thenwe’resuddenlyrushingthroughdepth
andlightsasifentering2001’sStarGate,butthe
lightsbegintolooklikethoseofpassingcarsand
werealisewe’rewithabikerspeedingalongone
ofplanetEarth’smotorways.MichelFaber’s2000
sourcenoveldelayedrevealingitsenigmatic
protagonist’sextraterrestrialoriginsbut–withthe
secretalreadyoutintheether–thisotherworldly
openingmakesitapparentfromthestart.Besides,
whatelsebutherperspectiveoftotalotherness
couldexplainwhytheurbanScotlandofshopping
centres,nightclubsandcarparksappearshere,
eventous,soforeignandincomputable?
Thisunnamedpredator(calledIsserleyinthe
bookandplayedwithglassyallurebyScarlett
Johansson)isnotanaïflikethealienvisitors
inTheManWhoFelltoEarth(1976)orJohn
Carpenter’swonderful,underratedStarman
(1984),whosefirstsmallstepsforalienkindare
definedbychildlikewonderandbefuddlement.
UndertheSkin’s‘heroine’knowshowtodrive
acarandturnasentence,andseemstointuit
thepotencyofredlipstickasshekerb-crawls
theScottishcitypickingupmentolureto
strangeinkyfatesinvastblackrooms.
Fromherdrivingseat,weseeagritty,social-
realistBritain:familiarhigh-streetshops,ordinary
faces,shabbyroadsides.Thefirstsectionof
Glazer’sfilmplayslikeanoneiricnorthern-climes
recastingofAbbasKiarostami’s10(2002),in
whichanIranianwomandriver’sconversations
withsuccessivepassengerscumulativelytake
thetemperatureofanation.Thechipperlad,
thecocksurecharmer,thedeformedlonely-
heart–inUndertheSkin,eachtakeshisturnin
thepassengerseat,entrancedbythisshockof
ScarlettinGlasgow,beguiledbyheringratiating
smile.Hertenderflirtationflattersoneafter
theother,sothatlongingcloudstheirability
tospotaprayingmantisabouttostrike.
Nothinginourkitchen-sinktraditionprepares
usfortheformidablescenesinwhichthese
unwittingpassers-byfollowthealienfemme
fataleintoherlair,feelingthesiren’spullas
theyshedtheirclothesbitbybitinaTardis-like
cavernofendlessblackness.Astonishingmusic
byMicachu’sMicaLevi–ominousdeathdrums
andshriekingstrings–scorestheseabstracted
dancesoferoticdoom,asthevictimsobliviously
wadeintolethal,liquiddepthslikeinsects
succumbingtothefinalstickinessofaVenusfly
trapwhilehappilydrunkonthesweetscent.
Inthenovel,thesekillingsarecarriedout
asakindofinterplanetarymeatfarming;here,
Glazerandco-screenwriterWalterCampbell
stripawayexplanation,keepingthevictims’
exactfatesobscure.Wefeelonlythechillofthe
killer’sremorselessness.It’sahostilevantage
pointfromwhichtoviewthemillandthrong
ofcontemporaryGlasgow,andthenarrowgaze
ofUndertheSkinistaintedwithcynicism,even
disgust.Menaredefinedbytheirconcupiscence;
goodSamaritansaremotivatedbyself-interest;
eventhewilderness,wherethefilmescapesforits
finalact,concealsdepravity.WhileGravity(2013)
wasahymntohumanendeavourandresilience,
UndertheSkinfeelsascoldandhardasonyx.
Yetforallitsclinicaldetachment,Glazer’s
filmbecomesitsownobliquetreatiseon
whatitmeanstobeandfeelhuman.Thealien
seductress’sencounterwiththedisfigured
manpresentsherwithapeerintoanabyss
ofloneliness,triggeringconfusingfeelingsof
empathyandmercythatsendherintoatailspin.
Here,forthefirsttime,thereistheglimmerofa
ghostinthemachine:Johansson’sperformance
remainsopaque,allbutunreadable,butwe
sense(orisitonlywishfulprojection?)the
awakeningofaconsciousness–arealisation
thatpeoplearemorethantheskinthey’rein.
Despitetheschematismofthiscommunion
betweenBeautyand‘Beast’,thesavagefinalscenes
intheScottishHighlandsoffernosentimental
hosannas;Glazerretainshisaustererigourtothe
finish.Withanendingthat’sasmatter-of-factas
itismysteriousandprovocative,UndertheSkin
confirmshim–threeterrificfilmsdown–as
oneofBritain’smostexcitingfilmmakers.
Glasgow,the present.Amotorcyclist retrieves a
female body from a ditch,taking it into a van with
an otherworldly interior,where its clothes are given
to an unnamed woman.In her new attire,the woman
(later more explicitly revealed as an alien) drives
around the city picking up a succession of men.Her
seduction ends with the men going back to a house,
where they are killed wandering into quicksand-
like black liquid.Failing to seduce a swimmer at
the beach,she bashes his head in with a rock.
Enticing a disfigured man into her van,she talks
to him about his loneliness.He too is lured to her
lair,but is spared,though he is later tracked down
by the alien’s motorcyclist accomplice.Apparently
unsettled by this encounter,the woman travels out
into the countryside.Her trance-like daze attracts the
attention of a man on the bus,who offers her shelter.
Shocked by the act of sex with the man,she leaves.
In a forest,a logger strikes up a conversation
with her.Later,he molests her while she’s asleep in
a bothy.She flees but he pursues her through the
trees.Catching up with her,he attempts to rape
her but is disconcerted when her skin breaks to
reveal that she’s not human.After he runs away,she
peels off her human flesh to reveal an alien body
beneath.The logger returns and sets fire to the
alien.It burns to nothing as snow begins to fall.
Under the Skin
United Kingdom/USA/Switzerland 2013
Director:Jonathan Glazer
Certificate 15 107m 59s
Produced by
JamesWilson
NickWechsler
Written by
WalterCampbell
JonathanGlazer
Basedonthenovel
byMichelFaber
Director of
Photography
DanielLandin
Editor
PaulWatts
Production Designer
ChrisOddy
Music Composed by
MicaLevi
Production
Sound Mixer
NigelAlbermaniche
Costume Designer
StevenNoble
©SeventhKingdom
Productions
Limited,Channel
FourTelevision
Corporationand
BritishFilmInstitute
Production
Companies
Film4andBFIpresent
inassociation
withSilverReel,
CreativeScotland
andFimNation
Entertainmenta
NickWechsler/JW
Filmsproduction
AJonathan
Glazerfilm
Developedwiththe
assistanceofFilm4
Supportedbythe
NationalLottery
throughCreative
Scotland
Aco-production
withSigmaFilms
Madewiththe
supportofthe
BFIFilmFund
Executive Producers
TessaRoss
RenoAntoniades
WalterCampbell
ClaudiaBluemhuber
IanHutchinson
FlorianDargel
CAST
ScarlettJohansson
Laura
Jeremy McWilliams
LynseyTaylor
Mackay
Dougie McConnell
Kevin McAlinden
D Meade
Andrew Gorman
Joe Szula
Krystof Hadek
RoyArmstrong
Alison Chand
Ben Mills
Dolby Digital
In Colour
[1.85:1]
Distributor
StudiocanalLimited
9,718 ft +8 frames
The woman who fell to Earth: Scarlett Johansson
Credits and Synopsis
See Feature
on page 22