The Skin of Sorrow (French: La Peau de chagrin) is a 2010 French television drama film directed by Alain Berliner. It is set in 1832 and follows a 22-year-old man whose wishes are granted through a magic piece of shagreen skin, but each wish brings him closer to an early death. It is based on the novel La Peau de chagrin by Honoré de Balzac.
PLOT
Raphaël de Valentin, a young aristocrat ruined by debt and disappointment, wanders through Paris convinced his life is over. After losing his last coins in a gambling house and seeing no path forward as either a writer or a gentleman, he decides to throw himself into the Seine. On his way, he steps into a strange antique shop filled with curiosities from every corner of the world. The elderly antiquarian who owns the shop shows him a piece of shagreen — a small, rough, exotic-looking skin covered with mysterious inscriptions. The man explains that the skin grants any wish its owner desires, but with an irreversible cost: every fulfilled wish makes the skin shrink. As the skin shrinks, so does the owner’s life force. When the skin disappears, the owner dies.
Raphaël, already convinced he has nothing to lose, takes the talisman. In a moment of despair, he wishes for a life of wealth and pleasure. He leaves the shop and discovers that his fate has changed instantly: he inherits an enormous fortune from a distant relative and becomes a sensation in upper-class society. His sudden success brings luxury, influence, and comfort — everything he once dreamed of. Each desire he expresses, even casually, becomes reality. And every time it happens, the skin becomes smaller.
At first, Raphaël ignores the danger. He indulges in social banquets, extravagant purchases, and the admiration of Parisian elites. But as the skin continues to shrink, he starts noticing changes in his own body. His energy fades, his nerves weaken, and doctors can neither explain nor cure his decline. Terrified of losing more life, he tries to stop wanting anything at all. He isolates himself, attempts to live without desires, and surrounds himself with strict rules to avoid the slightest wish. But the world around him keeps forcing emotions and reactions out of him, and the skin shrinks even from involuntary impulses.
During this torment, Raphaël reconnects with Pauline, a woman who had loved him sincerely when he was poor and unknown. Her affection awakens in him a desire for genuine happiness — the one thing he wished he could have without paying for it. But because every wish accelerates his death, he tries to distance himself from her. Pauline, devastated and confused, continues to care for him, unaware of the supernatural curse killing him from the inside.
Raphaël’s retreat becomes obsessive. He locks himself away, terrified of speaking, feeling, or even thinking. The skin, now reduced to the size of a leaf, becomes a physical reminder that every human impulse is fatal to him. As his health collapses entirely, he tries desperately to destroy the talisman — attempting to cut it, burn it, crush it — but the skin remains indestructible. His very fear of dying becomes a desire to live, and that desire shrinks the skin further.
In the end, Raphaël succumbs to the curse. The final contraction of the skin coincides with his last breath. Pauline arrives too late, finding him lifeless, surrounded by the talisman that granted everything he wanted and consumed him for it. The tragedy closes with the silent message that unchecked desire — even for love, comfort, or success — devours the very life it promises to enrich.
Rating: 10 Stars
