The Skin

Naples, 1943. The Germans have pulled out and the Americans are in. Curzio Malaparte is an Italian officer, now serving as liaison between the occupying forces and the Italians. There is no food in the city, no work, no money. The only thing left to sell is people themselves. Malaparte takes the American general around, tries to explain, cannot explain. The film presents the liberation not as a celebration but as a city selling itself. That is where its title comes from: what is left is the skin. Liliana Cavani directs; two hours and eleven minutes, adapted from Curzio Malaparte's book of the same name, with Marcello Mastroianni as Malaparte, Burt Lancaster as the American general and Claudia Cardinale in the cast. It competed at Cannes in 1981.