Deerskin (Le Daim) by Quentin Dupieux is an oddball, quirky black comedy about a suede jacket with killer propensities.
Full Suede Jacket
by Alexa DalbyDeerskin
[rating=4]
CAUTION: Here be spoilers
Shocking and darkly hilarious
– Chris Drew, Dog And Wolf
Georges (usually charismatic Jean Dujardin, a middle-aged loser here) inexplicably spends his entire savings on a very expensive, vintage, fringed deerskin jacket. His bizarre ambition is to be the only jacket wearer in the world.
The crusty seller (Albert Delpy) throws in an old video camera. After leaving his remote cabin, Georges drives to a small town high in the French mountains, where he takes up residence in its only hotel and reinvents himself as a film director who is shooting a film, on the strength of having a video camera. He persuades bemused locals, hopeful of being in the film he purports to be making, to throw away their jackets despite the fact that it’s snowing.
His unhealthy fixation with deerskin jackets, and with all kinds of deerskin garments and footwear, escalates alarmingly. He talks to the jacket in his hotel room and his obsession with the jacket and videoing himself develops in other strange ways.
The barmaid (Adèle Haenel) of the cafe he frequents, an eager amateur film editor who is seeking to get a break into the film industry, offers to edit his footage for him. When she examines it, it seems to show that Georges has filmed several grisly serial killings locally. Is she professional enough to tell if the film a documentary or fiction? How unhinged has Georges become? How much worse can the bloodstains get? The running joke has a shocking punchline.
Deerskin premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, screened at the BFI London Film Festival and is released on demand on 8 May 2020. Deerskin will open in cinemas across the UK on Friday 16 July 2021.
