Deerskin – Film Review

Director – Quentin Dupieux
Writer – Quentin Dupieux
Stars – Jean Dujardin, Adèle Haenel, Albert Delpy

We meet George (Jean Dujardin) in a moment of crisis. He’s just left his wife and moved across the country to start again. He found a deerskin coat online and pays an outlandish price for it. He arrives in a small town and tries to start a new life. He pretends to be a filmmaker to impress a girl who works as a waitress (Adèle Haenel) at the local bar. She has aspirations to become a professional editor, and George manages to get her to edit his film. That’s when things start to get really odd, as George starts to lose a grip on his sanity, all inspired by his deerskin coat!

This film is written and directed Quentin Dupieux, who has previously worked on low key releases such as Keep an Eye Out (2018) and Reality (2014). Jean Dujardin won the academy award for Best Actor for The Artist back in 2011. He may also be known to some from his appearances on ‘Call My Agent’ on Netflix or even the “Un gars, une fille” series. Adèle Haenel has a relatively small part as the film focuses mainly on George, but she is well known for Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) and Love at First Fight.(2015) for which she won the César Award for Best Actress.

While this film is unlikely to catapult director Dupieux to fame and fortune, it does have an unusual quirky style that separates it from the pack. At times it is reminiscent of the work of Yorgos Lanthimos, with an unusual or bizarre premise drawn to a conclusion. The two main actors work well together, with Jean Dujardin particularly enjoying his role as a man on the edge of a nervous breakdown and then going far beyond!