By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Starring: Adele Haenel | Albert Delpy | Coralie Russier | Jean Dujardin
Country: france
Year: 2020
Running time: 77
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8193790/reference
Chris says: “Not as inventive or all-out gonzo as RUBBER or WRONG, but neither of those had the weird chemistry that materializes between Jean Dujardin’s weasel-like enigma and Adele Haenel’s at first bemused, then all-in co-conspirator. So, I’m thankful Quentin Dupieux’s still making movies. 3.5 cats”
Michael responds: “Chris is right, DEERSKIN can’t match the heights reached by writer/director Quentin Dupieux’s previous films, RUBBER or WRONG, but it’s still a delightful, bizarre, mystifying film that was a lot of fun to watch. In fact, as each goes by, I think I like it more and more. Inanimate objects often become the focal points in Dupieux’s films — in RUBBER it was a homicidal car tire that could psychically cause people’s heads to explode — and DEERSKIN follows that path. In this case it’s a fringed jacket, frontier style, made of 100% deerskin. Georges (THE ARTIST’s Jean Dujardin) purchases the jacket from an older gentleman who wore it once or twice in the 70’s, on his way to a remote mountain village hotel after leaving a bitter and ugly divorce in his wake. So bitter that his bank account has been frozen after he withdrew the money to pay for they hefty cost of this jacket. The older gentleman throws in a digital video camera with the sale of the jacket because… why not… and Georges finds himself painting himself as a filmmaker at the village bar. There he meets Denise (PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE’s Adèle Haenel) a bartender who just happens to be an amateur film editor with a drive to break into the profession. Georges and Denise are the only real characters of note in DEERSKIN… oh, except of course, for that jacket.
“The less said about the plot, such that one exists, the better. Just know that it’s absurd, and a little bloody, pretty short, and damn amusing. Jean Dujardin is very effective as a man who becomes so self-obsessed, especially once he starts wearing that jacket, that you can’t help but simultaneously laugh and cringe every time her refers to his “killer style,” or gazes at himself in the mirror. And Adèle Haenel is his perfect foil… is she really that gullible, or is there something else going on? Ultimately, the first scene, which features a string of people depositing their jackets into the trunk of a car saying, “I swear never to wear a jacket as long as I live,” was the perfect opening to immediately engage me and set up the brazen absurdity of the next 77 minutes. Like Chris, I’m really glad Quentin Dupieux is making films. 4 cats”
Diane says: :An ordinary-looking man driving an ordinary car takes a sudden dislike to his ordinary green corduroy jacket, and we’re off. As he finds and pursues a new dream for his life, the craft of moviemaking takes center stage in a surreal way, in what might be the absolute antithesis of 2012’s HOLY MOTORS. DEERSKIN has a promising start, buttressed by a cool, washed-out and dingy look and a ominous “bla-at” of brass repeatedly calling the viewer to vigilance. But every minute of DEERSKIN lessened my enjoyment of it. 2 cats”
Bob says: “Quentin Dupieux’s latest work isn’t as nuts as RUBBER or WRONG, but it presents a character who kind of is. Genuine deerskin and a digital video making apparatus will do that to you if you’re not careful. By the way, I’m thinking that the song that plays in the car at the beginning – ‘Et si tu n’existais pas’ by Joe Dassin, may be a love song to the jacket. Here’s an English translation of some of the lyrics:
“And if you did not exist
Tell me why I would exist?
To hang out in a world without you
without hope and without regret.”