Catherine Deneuve needed little convincing to play a “punk fairy godmother” in Léa Domenach’s “Peau d’Homme” (“A Man’s Skin“) the Venice-premiering medieval musical that reunites the famed French actor and up-and-coming director three years after “Bernadette.”
“A punk fairy godmother — first of all, that idea alone would have been enough,” Deneuve told Variety in a phone interview alongside Domenach a few days before the Lido premiere. “I thought the script, the characters, the situations — it was like a musical, and I really liked that. It’s very original and it’s fun.”
Set in the 15th century, “A Man’s Skin” follows Blanche, a young woman who is given a magical “man’s skin” that allows her to become Léonard and discover freedoms, power and sexuality largely denied to her as a woman.
“A Man’s Skin” is adapted from Hubert and Zanzim’s graphic novel of the same name. Producers Antoine Rein and Fabrice Goldstein at Karé Productions acquired the rights and brought the project to Domenach, who co-wrote the adaptation with Clemence Dargent. Alain Attal’s Trésor Films, one of France’s top producers, then joined Rein and Goldstein. Playtime is handling international sales, while Diaphana Distribution will release the film in France. The film is closing Venice’s Giornate degli Autori out of competition.
Domenach said she was drawn to the project but wanted to make it more playful. “The comic book is great, but I thought it had a somewhat tame side to it,” Domenach said. “I told the producers: ‘I’m adapting the comic book because I like the underlying message, but I’ll turn it into a comedy to bring it to life.’”
“I really wanted to create a sort of bubble of joy to address some pretty serious issues — religious fanaticism, homophobia, sexism — which are, after all, fundamental issues, and even the drought; the kingdom is suffering from a drought,” she continued. “We see what’s happening today. Everything has to resonate a bit with our times, but in a lighthearted way so that it reaches as many people as possible, too.”
Some of the characters in the film are directly inspired by real-life politicians. Tancrède, played by Eddy de Pretto, is a religious zealot whom Domenach openly describes as a Trump-like figure.
“That’s just part of the comedy. The parallels have to be explicit to make people laugh; otherwise, we miss our mark a bit. I think Tancrède is Trump — but he represents all those political figures who are initially seen as buffoons and who, over time, come to be taken seriously.”
“There are plenty of them,” she said. “There’s Trump, but not just him. There’s the Argentine president, there’s Jordan Bardella. There was a time when there was Berlusconi. Berlusconi was someone no one took seriously, and yet he governed Italy. It’s Trump today, but there have been others in the past, and there will be others tomorrow.”
When Bardella’s name came up, Deneuve interjected: “He’s grotesque!” Bardella is the 30-year-old deputy of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party which is currently leading polls in the 2027 presidential election. And when Domenach said there would likely be more such figures in the future, Deneuve shot back: “I hope not!”
That political undercurrent dovetails with the film’s feminism that Domenach sees as a direct continuation of “Bernadette,” in which Deneuve played the wife of former French President Jacques Chirac, a fierce and opinionated first lady. The movie (whose English title is “The President’s Wife”) had a healthy run at the French box office, scoring nearly 900K admissions, sold to major territories around the world and earned a Cesar nomination for best first film.
“There’s a kind of continuity. It’s funny — even when you think about the two characters, Bernadette and Blanche. What I find interesting is that these two women were never really destined to step out of their comfort zones, take control, or forge ahead. They were raised to lead somewhat ‘perfect’ lives, and then, all of a sudden, they break the mold, much to our delight, in a way,“ she said.
“They share a bit of that in common. And, indeed, both films are very feminist and proudly so,” she continued.
Domenach said one of the most significant departures from the graphic novel was shifting the center of gravity toward the female characters. “In the comic book, the main character is a man, it’s Léonard. But with the adaptation, we really wanted the women to truly take up all the space they need.”
She said she deliberately brought together women from different generations and with different relationships to feminism.
Deneuve herself resisted the idea of being easily categorized. “I really like women, but I’m not a die-hard feminist,” she admitted.
For Domenach, that difference is precisely what makes the film’s perspective more compelling.
“That doesn’t stop us from having a debate, working together, and finding common ground on fundamental issues,” she said, “such as sexism, or what a man can do versus what a woman can do.”
The filmmaker said the movie’s themes feel especially relevant in a moment when progress on gender and LGBTQ rights appears uneven.
“On the issue of gender, things are moving forward, but at the same time, more and more people are voting for the far right. Nationalism is on the rise. Things are becoming more radical on both sides,” she said.
“There are also many young gay people getting beaten up on the street,” she continued. “It feels like things are moving forward in some ways, but in other ways, it feels like we’re taking a big step backward. I feel like we’re making gains in some areas and losing ground in others.”
While it tackles serious topics, “A Man’s Skin” is also unapologetically lighthearted. Music and dancing run throughout the film, something Deneuve said immediately appealed to her. She’s played in several iconic musicals throughout her career, notably Jacques Demy’s films , from “The Young Girls of Rochefort” to “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” and “Pean d’âne,” but also in Francois Ozon’s “8 Women” and several films directed by Christophe Honoré, notably “Beloved.”
“It’s wonderful when you get the chance to sing in a movie. I mean, when a movie is a musical, there’s something else added to the script beyond the songs. It’s a whole other world when it’s a musical. It really is a whole other world. I really enjoyed it.”
Deneuve said has a long personal relationship with singing that goes well beyond her screen work. “I’ve always sung — in my daily life, with my family, in the car, with my sisters and my father,” she said. “There were always songs and poems — ones I still remember from when I was a child. It’s incredible, actually.”
She recalled one particularly memorable taxi ride, while laughing. “One day, I took a taxi, and when we arrived at our destination, the driver said to me, ‘Only Italian construction workers sing in cars these days.’”
The film also carries echoes of “Peau d’Âne,” as hinted by its French title, and Domenach said that was intentional.
“Since the comic book’s title itself was already a tribute — ‘Peau d’Homme,’ ‘Peau d’Âne’ — I wanted there to be little nods to it,” Domenach said. “It was the first movie I ever saw in a theater.”
Deneuve said she still had fond memories of Demy’s film. “For those who loved ‘Peau d’Âne,’ it’s remained something a little bit magical,” Deneuve said. “I understand very well the idea of revisiting an element from the film in relation to the music, in relation to a song.”
In spite of its high concept and topnotch cast – which also includes Karin Viard, Stefan Crepon and Laurent Stocker — Domenach said “A Man’s Skin” proved difficult to finance.
Her longtime producers Antoine Rein and Fabrice Goldstein, who were behind “Bernadette,” were eventually joined by Alain Attal, whose credits include some of France’s biggest hits, from Gilles Lellouche’s “Beating Hearts” to Guillaume Canet’s “Little White Lies.”
Domenach said the film was initially supposed to be released in France by Warner which had handled “Bernadette” but the distributor has since scaled back on distributing French movies locally.
“So finding a new distributor, and also taking on such an ambitious project involving singing, dancing, and a period film — all while tackling such serious subjects — was a huge gamble,” she continued. “It was very complicated.”
Domenach said the hurdle to finance “A Man’s Skin” reflected how tough the market has become to finance “mid-range films.”
“It’s one of the few countries where you can still make original projects like this, but unfortunately, more and more often on a shoestring budget,” Domenach said of France. “Today, either we manage to make these very big, very expensive films, or it has to be an arthouse film budgeted under €3 million. But I’m part of the mid-range film scene, and that’s very complicated.”
Deneuve jumped in, saying “Mid-range films are the ones that have suffered the most.” The actor revealed that she had recently experienced that difficulty herself.
“I completely agree with her because, personally, I know I had a project that was supposed to happen around the end of the year, but it didn’t come together financially,” she said. “There are a lot of projects that aren’t getting off the ground anymore, and these are the so-called middle-of-the-road films.”
When asked whether attaching her name to a movie was still a decisive factor in getting it made, she pushed back on the idea. “Life in the film industry isn’t like that anymore. You know, I’m very aware of that. For me, it’s no surprise.”
Now, the film arrives in Venice, where Deneuve said she feels particularly at home. She was famously married to Marcello Mastroianni with whom she had a daughter, Chiara Mastroianni, who is also an actor.
“I have mostly good memories,” she said of Italy. “Plus, I’m lucky — I speak Italian fluently. So it’s true that you feel like you’re in a foreign land because Italy is really very different, but even so, I don’t feel out of place since I understand everything and everyone.”
The Venice Film Festival itself has a particular place in Deneuve’s career. She won the Volpi Cup there for “Place Vendôme” in 1998 and returned in 2022 to receive the festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
Deneuve arrives on the Lido this year after another characteristically busy stretch. Earlier this year she was back in Cannes competition with Marie Kreutzer’s “Gentle Monster,” opposite Léa Seydoux, after also appearing in Asghar Farhadi’s ensemble drama “Parallel Tales.” She also has Stéphane Demoustier’s “Forty Love” coming up, while “A Man’s Skin” is due to open in France in January 2027.