Deerskin

Another crazy Dupieux movie destabilising the viewer’s thought process, Deerskin is based mainly on the main protagonist’s obscure behaviour and his unpredictable actions. The best thing about Dupieux is how much he drifts away from reality without losing contact with human psychology, which he inventively deconstructs. The one thing I didn’t quite understand was the choice of the washed-out colour scheme. Maybe it’s a paraphrase of the home video filmed by the protagonist, but in any case, it spoiled the experience a bit for me. [Cannes] (16/05/2019)

"Juste cool?!" Short, simple, but also blisteringly funny and playfully wacky comedy, in which the plucky chameleon Jean Dujardin plays a mentally ill guy named Georges, who is literally obsessed with his new deerskin jacket. And thanks to this jacket, he develops a killer style. I don't want to reveal anything further about the plot, because it is much more entertaining to watch the movie go in increasingly more and more bizarre directions with every passing minute. If you accept the fact that Deerskin probably takes place in a world where extremely severe acts do not have any real consequences at all, you will be really entertained by this. It could easily have been one act longer. [Sitges 2019] (16/10/2019)

Jean Dujardin's magnetism, and the "ordinary" charm of the protagonist he plays, takes us by the hand to make us enter the inner "reality" of the main character of Deerskin. His delirium imposes itself on the spectator with simplicity, and an efficiency that Quentin Dupieux masters well. Indeed, he builds a narrative verisimilitude that relies, on the one hand, on the use made by the main protagonist, of a videocam and of the filmed reality that he stages - a kind of mise en abîme of the film itself - in the pursuit of the satisfaction of a tyrannical "superego" (the very "deerskin" (suede) jacket that gives the film its title); and on the other hand, the director makes us perceive the "vision" of the main protagonist, and the resulting actions, as all the more real as they seem validated by the young waitress (played by Adèle Haenel) of the hotel. The latter, seeking to satisfy her dream of becoming a film "editor", and apparently taking a liking to the main protagonist's project, starts watching the images shot and recorded by the videocam, in order to edit them. The film borders on the absurd, while making us believe in this story, thanks to the patient, but effective, weaving done by the director, in the construction of the characters. As important, the choice of the shots and an effective direction of the photography, contribute to this "waking dream" with (dark) humorous touches. (18/10/2022)

Deerskin is one of the most unpredictable and wrenching comedies of the year. At first, it looks very understated and chooses a slower pace. The decoration is thoughtfully set in lighter tones of brown, grey and beige, which can look a little bland, but it works perfectly with Dujardin's outfit; we must not forget it, because his jacket is the second main "character" of the film. Their common dream is to be unique, and that's when this supple comedy turns into a chilling and absurdly frantic ride. Gradually a hat, shoes, trousers and gloves join the jacket, and suddenly Dujardin's outfit is downright murderous. Not even Carrie Bradshaw has this much style. Finally, I must not forget to say that I promise never to wear a jacket again in my life... (06/02/2020)

A simple, absurd comedy story based on the amusingly smug performance of the main protagonist and the nonsense logic of a fictional world that gives up on certain actions and reactions, tells you practically nothing about the main character and his past and only directly (but not stupidly) fulfils its weird theme. For Dupieux, it’s basically run-of-the-mill; a plaything. But it does contain a few ideas that are worth laughing at. (10/10/2019)