Rated: MA15+
Directed and Written by: Quentin Dupieux
Photography, Editing: Quentin Dupieux
Art and Set Direction: Joan Le Boru
Sound: Guillaume Le Braz, Alexis Place, Gadou Naudin, Cyril Holtz
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Adele Haenel
French with English subtitles
‘I swear never to wear a jacket as long as I live.’
Deerskin first introduces Georges (Jean Dujardin) wearing a green jacket with three plastic buttons. He parks on the wrong side of the petrol bowser. And looking at his reflection in the car window he frowns at what he sees. Then he flushes the jacket in the public toilet.
Yep, Georges is losing it.
The music flares.
And I think to myself, I already like this movie.
The film is character driven and continues to follow Georges. But there’s another character in this movie. A jacket. We meet the beast. The new jacket: 100% Deerskin.
The way the film flashes to a live deer in the wilderness seals it somehow. Just how cool the jacket is. But It’s not. It’s made from the skin of this beautiful innocent animal (see previous flash to said deer in the wilderness). And, it’s got… fringes. But Georges LOVES it: ‘Style de tueur (Killer style),’ he says, looking in the mirror.
It just makes me grin.
After that Georges keeps driving.
‘You’re no-where Georges. You no longer exist.’ That’s what his ex-wife tells him, over the phone.
Georges ends up in the bar of a small village, where he meets the barmaid, Denise (Adele Haenel). She’s been burnt by love too. But Georges is a brand-new man in his deerskin jacket. He tells Denise he’s a film maker.
It makes sense to say he’s a film maker. He’s been recording film all day, so it’s kinda the same. ‘No it’s not,’ says the jacket.
Instead of getting to know an available woman, Georges gets to know the jacket as his relationship with this 100% deerskin jacket becomes the subject of Georges’ movie to be.
Killer style indeed.
Director and writer Quentin Dupieux says, ‘I wanted to film insanity.’
And Georges has lost it. But wow, he’s really enthusiastic about it.
The way Georges insanity is shown is somehow shocking and hilarious.
It’s the same dark humour used in, The Lobster, but less confronting even though there’s more killing… And this whole jacket business is just so ticklish.
Jean Dujardin (who plays Georges in the film) explains it’s Quentin’s use of space that creates the comedy, ‘It’s in those moments of hesitation that the comedy and drama blend. You’re right on the borderline. All those scenes, for example, in which Georges demands money, or can’t pay. Quentin takes the time to stretch out the sense of malaise, to allow for some lingering doubt. Is Georges going to turn violent? Weep? Laugh? You never know what will happen. Time stands still for a moment, and those little agonies make me want to die laughing.’
Then there’s Georges dream in life – for him, it’s all about wearing this deerskin jacket. To be the only person wearing… a jacket. It doesn’t make sense. But from the perspective of Georges, as he makes a film about his dream, it kinda does.
The character Denise gets it. She reckons the jacket is like a shell to protect the wearer from the outside world.
I think it’s because Georges hates who he used to be, wearing that green blazer with the three plastic buttons.
Or perhaps Deerskin is just a weirdo movie that’s put together in a way that somehow makes sense.
Whether you analyse the layers or not, I was thoroughly absorbed and entertained from start to finish.
Like Denise says, ‘I’m into it.’
