This is at once ravishing, enchanting and sumptuous, a fairytale told the way fairy tales should be told with a cast of heavy-hitters led by Catherine Deneuve and featuring Jean Marais, Micheline Presle, Jaques Perrin and Delphine Seyrig. To those who only know him as the top-and-tale narrator of both Cinema Paradiso and Les Choristes Perrin will be a revelation as a handsome leading man, a genuine Prince Charming as called for. As a lyricist Demy made a great director but one can't have everything and banal lyrics are a small price to pay for a gem like this which cleverly contrasts the fabulist setting of the castle - looking strangely like the one in Les Visiteurs du soir - with the Breughel-like crowds in the second kingdom where Deneuve finds work as a scullion. One to own on DVD.
Review of Donkey Skin
