French DJ Mr. Oizo’s DEERSKIN is a Smash at Cannes Film Festival

The movie is about a man with a murderous love for his jacket.

By
5 Magazine
-

The news from Cannes this morning is largely dominated by a film from an lecherous, accused sex pest which features three hours of twerking butts. But in a quieter moment, the Guardian caught up with Quentin Dupieux for a chat about his captivating new movie, Deerskin.

Dupieux is better known (or was before now) as Mr. Oizo, French electronic music DJ and the creator of ’90s dancefloor track-turned-commercial-jingle “Flat Beat.”

Deerskin stars Jean Dujardin as Georges, a fumbling, middle-aged filmmaker with an ugly jacket. The garment causes him to fall deeply in love with his own reflection (and the jacket itself) and lash out violently at anyone else with the temerity to wear a jacket of their own.

His previous movie, Rubber, was about a sentient, murderous tire. And “Flat Beat” started the ball rolling:

[T]he experience was crucial in Dupieux finessing his film-making chops. He directed both the music video and the ads themselves, a major moment for someone who had “started when I was 15 making terrible short films, with absolutely no knowledge [of film-making]. For 10 years I was shooting bad things, and then I realised: ‘Oh, I should write some dialogue.’ And then slowly I made some better films.”

 

Mr. Oizo’s music career hasn’t gone away, though. He still plays around the world and his 2016 album All Wet was released by Ed Banger Records.