DEERSKIN (LE DAIM)
(director/writer: Quentin Dupieux; cinematographer: Quentin Dupieux; editor: Quentin Dupieux; music:Janko Nilovic; cast: Jean Dujardin (Georges), Adèle Haenel (Denise), Albert Delpy (Monsieur B), Pierre Gommé (The Child), Laurent Nicolas (Le réceptionniste), Coralie Russier (La voisine hôtel); Runtime: 77; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Mathieu Verhaeghe, Thomas Verhaeghe; Nexus Factory; 2019-France-in French with English subtitles)
“The way you rate the sicko film hinges on how appealing you find Dujardin, who is a very funny dude.“
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A loopy comedy by the loopy French auteur Quentin Dupieux (“Rubber”/”Keep an Eye Out”). The perplexing tale stretches from absurd black comedy to dark horror, that abounds in uncomfortable laughs over its one-joke plot. It’s about a serial killer in a killer jacket, a compulsive madman who is sickly entertaining as he tries to rid the world of those who wear jackets.
The bearded, middle-aged Georges (Jean Dujardin) rides across France. On one stop he dumps his old corduroy jacket in a gas station trash bin. In the Pyrenees he goes to the house of an old man (Albert Delpy) and buys an expensive second-hand vintage fringed jacket made of 100% deerskin for 8,000 euros. It costs him almost his entire life savings. The old man tosses into the sale a digital camera as a gift.
His wife realizes this marriage is not working and after his large withdrawal she blocks him from using their joint bank account. This leaves Georges penniless in a rural Alps small town. But the now fashionably charming gentleman gets a hotel room by pawning his wedding ring that’s held by the hotel for security. Georges then tells bartender Denise (Adele Haenel) he’s a visiting filmmaker.This gets Denise’s attention, since she’s an amateur editor of footage. Thereby the wide-eyed gal marvels at a chance to get into the movie business and he offers her a job in his film. Then the charmer somehow also talks her into investing in the documentary.
When Georges talks to his jacket he hears it telling him it wants to be the only jacket in the world. So Georges concentrates on both making a snuff documentary and using a ceiling fan as a weapon to do the killings of those he spots on the road wearing a jacket. He will film it with his camera. The jackets from the corpses are kept in his car trunk. Meanwhile his daily footage is shown to an incredulous Denise, who wonders about how weird the film is (with Denise possibly being a substitute for the viewer).
The way you rate the sicko film hinges on how appealing you find Dujardin, who is a very funny dude. This is really an absurd film that might be one person’s treasure yet trash for another.
REVIEWED ON 11/29/2019 GRADE: B- https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/