CINE OF THE TIMES PRESENTS

UNDER THE SKIN (2013) INCL. PRE-SHOW

In the next programme in our Cine of the Times series, film critic Hugo Emmerzael and media scholar Dan Hassler-Forest turn to Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin — a sci-fi horror film that stunned audiences in 2013 and which continues to take on new layers of resonance over a decade later.

In this loose adaptation of Michel Faber’s novel, director Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest) used hidden cameras to stage confrontations between an extraterrestrial predator roving the streets around Glasgow and the men she gives a ride in her truck. By casting sex symbol Scarlett Johansson in the role of the hunter, Glazer provocatively inverts traditional gender hierarchies and stereotypes, while her unsettling encounter with deformed actor Adam Pearson and her own anatomically incomplete human body leave the viewer with questions about disability as represented on screen.

The screening opens with an extended introduction from Hugo and Dan, with a variety of films clips and extensive context that will deepen your appreciation of the film. They’ll continue the conversation in a special supplementary episode of LAB111’s Celebrating Cinema podcast, recorded to accompany the screening.

About the speakers:

Hugo Emmerzael is an Amsterdam-based film critic and curator, editor at Filmkrant and Deputy Digital Editor of the Locarno Pardo.

Dan Hassler-Forest is a media studies professor at Utrecht University whose work examines popular culture through a political lens.