UNDER THE SKIN
Jonathan Glazer | 2013 | UK/USA | 1h48m | Presented in the original English audio with English subtitles
UNDER THE SKIN takes the familiar idea of an alien observing humanity and strips away almost everything you’d normally expect from science fiction.
Scarlett Johansson plays an unnamed woman driving through Glasgow, approaching solitary men and drawing them back to an isolated house. At first, the pattern seems clear. Then the film begins to shift. Her encounters become less mechanical when her curiosity is aroused, and the distance between observer and observed begins to collapse.
Jonathan Glazer built much of the film around real locations and hidden-camera encounters with members of the public, many of whom didn’t initially know they were appearing in a feature film. That decision gives the Glasgow sequences a documentary texture that sits uneasily beside the film’s abstract interiors and unnerving visual effects. Johansson’s performance is deliberately restrained, relying on observation, gesture and tiny changes in behaviour as her character begins to register the world around her differently.
Before moving into feature films, Glazer built his reputation directing commercials and music videos, including Radiohead’s STREET SPIRIT and KARMA POLICE and the celebrated Guinness SURFER advertisement. That background in highly controlled visual storytelling is still visible in UNDER THE SKIN, where image, sound and movement often carry more information than dialogue.
And speaking of sound, Mica Levi’s score is central to the experience. Strings bend and repeat in patterns that feel seductive one moment and threatening the next, giving the film a physical, almost visceral tension.
UNDER THE SKIN was divisive on release, but its reputation has grown considerably. It’s now widely regarded as one of the defining science fiction films of the 2010s, less interested in explaining its mythology than in looking at human behaviour from the outside. Desire, loneliness, violence and vulnerability all become unfamiliar when seen through a character who is only beginning to understand them.
18:30 Thursday 3 September
FOOD AND DRINK POLICY: FOMO Cinema Lounge Bar opens 1 hour before the first screening of the day and closes at 02:00, serving a wide selection of beer, wine, cocktails and non-alcoholic refreshments including coffee and tea, as well as fresh hot popcorn. Outside food is allowed in the bar but not in the cinema. No alcohol from outside is allowed. All guests are invited to arrive early and stay late.
LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.
HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to Level 1. Signage is on the door. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us.
REFUND & CREDIT POLICY: If FOMO cancels a screening, all ticket holders will receive a full refund. If your plans change and you can no longer attend, we’ll issue you a credit for the value of your ticket, which can be used for any FOMO film screening within the following 30 days.
FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia
