The Soft Skin

When successful academic Pierre (Jean Desailly) catches a glimpse of Nicole (Françoise Dorléac), a beautiful young air stewardess, his life changes forever. Setting out on a whirlwind affair of lust and secrecy, his comfortable, bourgeois family life will be thrown into disarray. As communication breaks down and morals disintegrate he finds himself caught in a trap with only one, tragically inevitable way out.

One of Truffaut's more underrated films (often unfairly viewed in the shadow of The 400 Blows and Jules et Jim), The Soft Skin is nevertheless one of his true gems. Wearing its Hitchcockian influences on its sleeve, it combines deft, suspenseful editing with beguiling, dreamlike imagery and vivid realism to depict an astounding vision of masculinity in crisis. Featuring one of the most shocking, memorable final scenes in film history it is an undeniable masterpiece and one of Truffaut's finest works.