5. Dans Ma Peau (2002)
Esther - a highly intelligent, ambitious young Parisian woman - receives a cut to her body that needs stitches. Gradually she becomes obsessed with self-mutilation, carving giant pieces of her flesh off and resorting to auto-cannibalism - eating and nibbling at her own flesh. Most people who watch this film find it highly disturbing. Esther does not have any psychiatric problems that we know about. The typical reasons why women self mutilate is to express self-loathing, to displace mental torture and pain physically onto their bodies. Esther has none of these problems. Her self-mutilation seems to be a fetish or an addiction. If she was hurting herself because she was mentally ill, we might have some sympathy for her, but instead it is rather disturbing and bizarre - especially the scene where she checks into a hotel to ecstatically rip herself to shreds and eat herself. Whether the film is a comment on addiction or a remark on individuality I'm not sure. I personally saw it as Esther's retreat from the corporate world and the social and romantic worlds that demand so much of her. They are so burdensome, she wants to consume herself.