The Soft Skin

Plot[edit]

Pierre Lachenay, a middle-aged married father and well-known writer, lecturer, and editor of a literary magazine, makes it to Paris-Orly Airport in time to catch his plane to Lisbon. As he disembarks, the photographers who have gathered to greet Pierre ask him to pose for a picture with Nicole, a young stewardess who had caught his eye during the flight.


After delivering a lecture entitled "Balzac and Money" in a sold-out auditorium, Pierre returns to his hotel, which is also where Nicole is staying. He shares the elevator with her and then, having noticed the room number on her key, calls her from his room to ask if she would like to get a drink. She declines because of the late hour but, shortly after hanging up, calls back. They agree to go out for drinks the following evening, even though Pierre had been scheduled to catch a plane at noon.


On their date, Pierre and Nicole talk in a bar until sunrise, and then return to their hotel and have sex in Nicole's room. She slips him her phone number on the flight back to Paris, and Pierre tries to call her that night while he and Franca, his wife of fifteen years, are entertaining friends, but Nicole is not at home.


When Pierre gets hold of Nicole the next day, they meet up. He eventually begins to use excuses to get away and meet Nicole at the airport between her flights. When she has some time off, they arrange to spend the night together, though not at her apartment, as the landlady knows her parents. They go to a nightclub, where Pierre watches Nicole dance, and plan to stay at a hotel, but they do not check in, as the circumstances begin to make them feel sordid. Pierre takes Nicole home and invites her to go on an overnight trip to Reims the following week. She agrees, and, not wanting him to return to Franca, invites Pierre up to her apartment.


Pierre and Nicole drive from Paris to Reims and check in to an out-of-the-way hotel. He only agreed to his friend Clément's request to introduce a screening of Marc Allégret's 1951 documentary Avec André Gide so he could be alone with Nicole, but he has to go to a dinner, and then give his speech, and then go out for drinks with Clément, while Nicole sits alone at the hotel, cannot get tickets to the sold-out screening, and is repeatedly propositioned by a man in the street. To avoid going to a reception after the screening, Pierre says he has to return to Paris, but Clément surprises him by asking for a ride, so he agrees, only to ditch Clément and get Nicole from the hotel. She feels upset and humiliated, but forgives Pierre after he apologizes and describes the evening he has had.


After driving through the night, Pierre and Nicole reach a romantic inn. They enjoy themselves, until Pierre calls Franca to say that he had to extend his stay in Reims and learns she knows he is lying. Pierre drops Nicole off at her apartment and goes home, where Franca accuses him of having an affair. He says he just needed some time alone, but she does not believe him and says they should separate. Calling Franca's bluff, Pierre does not argue and goes to sleep at his office.


Franca informs Pierre that she is initiating divorce proceedings. When he goes to get his things, she vacillates between treating him coolly, hitting him, begging him for forgiveness, and kissing him. They end up having sex. As Pierre is leaving, Franca asks if he wants to return to her, but he replies that it would never work. When Franca's friend Odile visits and sees the state Franca is in, she fears Franca may attempt suicide and throws away sleeping pills she finds in the bathroom.


At a restaurant, Pierre gets embarrassed by Nicole's loud talking, and she asks him to take her home. Pierre apologizes and says he has had a hard week, and that he misses seeing his daughter every day. When Pierre later shows Nicole the apartment he plans for them to share, she says she has realized they are incompatible and breaks off their relationship. Meanwhile, Franca uses a receipt from the pocket of one of Pierre's jackets to pick up photographs taken by Pierre and Nicole on their romantic weekend. Franca then goes to a restaurant that Pierre frequents, tosses the photos at him, and shoots him with a shotgun. Dropping the weapon, she sits down, and a faint smile crosses her lips.