Under the Skin (1997 film)

Under the Skin
Theatrical release poster
Directed byCarine Adler
Written byCarine Adler
StarringSamantha Morton
Claire Rushbrook
Matthew Delamere
Rita Tushingham
Stuart Townsend
CinematographyBarry Ackroyd
Edited byEwa J. Lind
Music byIlona Sekacz
Distributed byBritish Film Institute
Release dates
  • 21 August 1997 (1997-08-21) (EIFF)
  • 28 November 1997 (1997-11-28) (United Kingdom)
Running time
79 minutes[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1 million (estimated)[2]
Box office$140,254[3]

Under the Skin is a 1997 British drama film written and directed by Carine Adler and starring Samantha Morton and Claire Rushbrook. It tells the story of two sisters coping with the sudden death of their mother. While one sister, Rose, manages to get on with her life, younger sister Iris goes down a self-destructive path in which she loses herself in one-night-stands and anonymous sexual encounters.

Adler based her ideas for the script on forensic psychiatrist Estela V. Welldon's book Mother, Madonna, Whore, which argues that whereas men tend to externalize their grieving processes through anger, women internalize them via paths which can incorporate such extreme reactions as self-harm and promiscuity.[4]

Morton was widely praised for her performance and the film won top critics’ prizes at various film festivals, including the award for Best British Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

  1. ^ "Under The Skin (18)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Variety was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Under the Skin (1997)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Irish was invoked but never defined (see the help page).