LE DAIM/DEERSKIN
France, 2019, 77 minutes, Colour.
Jean Dujardin, Adele Haenel, Albert Delpy, Marie Bunel, Pierre Gommrt.
Directed by Quentin Dupieux.
This very brief film is designed for audiences who are looking for and appreciate what might be called cinema of the absurd. They probably won’t be disappointed.
Many will want to watch this film because of its star, Jean Dujardin, the popular French actor who won an Academy award for Best Actor in The Artist (2011). They don’t know what they are in for!
In one sense, this is a film about a middle-age crisis – certainly a very unusual style of crisis with completely unexpected consequences. Jean Dujardin is Georges, suddenly introduced driving a car, filling up with petrol, taking off his jacket, stuffing it down the service station’s toilet bowl, flooding overflow, and his driving off carefree. But, that is only the beginning.
However, in a brief prologue, three young people are filmed, taking off their jackets, speaking to camera and swearing that they will never wear a jacket ever again in their life and putting their jacket in the boot of a car. That sequence will recur later, with full meaning. But it does give a clue to the theme and its absurdity, what might be called the dejacketisation of the world. Georges has an extreme abhorrence to jackets but say the least.
It is difficult to say more about the plot in a film review. Its impact relies on audiences not really knowing what will happen next or where the screenplay is going. But, there are strong clues as Georges drives into the mountains, finds an old man who has advertised a deerskin jacket which Georges covets, pays thousands of euros for, drives off happily, especially with a video camera which the old man throws in as a bonus.
By this time, we gather that Georges is an extreme narcissist, admiring the coat, admiring himself in the coat, continually looking in the mirror, in window glass reflections, in the windows of his car. Later, as he has cosy and questioning conversations with the coat, there is a touch of schizophrenia. And, no secret, he is obsessive.
The gift of the video camera makes a great impression on him, his buying a book in the local small village bookshop, his beginning to film and encountering a young woman, Denise (Adele Haenel in the local bar, who expresses her desire to edit films (she has practised on her computer at home and re-edited Pulp Fiction in linear fashion!).
By this stage, the audience has accepted Georges (although he is in no way likeable) and wonders about his filmmaking.
It is best now not to pursue the plot developments in a review, what is best is for unexpected action to be discovered, not without some shocks, by the audience. And, embarrassingly, in a moment of black humour, they may, like this reviewer, actually laugh at the moment when we see what happens to Georges!
Yes, and a number of comments have actually said, “Oh deer!�.
1. A cinema of the absurd story? French perspective?
2. Brief running time, establishing the character of Georges, the revelation of his obsession, the revealing of his mental condition, his obsession, his narcissism, the touches of schizophrenia as he can versus with his jacket, the conscienceless violence, the exploitation of Denise?
3. The mountain settings, the beauty, Georges filming them? His character, middle age, separated from his wife and her rejecting him on the phone? Blocking his credit card? Driving, the petrol, taking off his jacket, putting it in the toilet bowl, the flood, his disregard?
4. Arriving at the house, the encounter with the old man, the deerskin jacket for sale, expensive, Georges buying it? The old man giving him the video camera?
5. Georges, preening himself in the coat, his admiration, looking in mirrors, looking in reflecting glass, car windows…? His literal narcissistic regard? Going to the hotel, walking in, no money, his gold ring as guarantee? (Adding to the absurd, the receptionist, his watching television, the news of his suicide, no family, lying in room 1, his deerskin hat, Georges taking it, getting his ring back?)
6. The video camera, fondness, filming, shoplifting the book about filmmaking, continually referring to it?
7. Georges, going to the bar, Denise and her friendliness, the older prostitute, following him in the car, his rejection? Going back to the bar, Denise giving him drinks? Their conversation, his identity as a filmmaker, his stories about the production company in Siberia, no contact, no money, the fax yet their deaths in an avalanche?
8. Denise, her age, background, in the bar, interested in Georges as a filmmaker, her interest in editing, re-editing Pulp Fiction in a linear style? His giving her the cassettes, her watching, editing? The issue of money, her withdrawals from the bank, later amounts of money, her father selling his shop…?
9. Georges, buying the cassettes, filming at random, the countryside, paying the group money to act, to take off their jackets, in the boot of the car, his driving off, later hiring the excavator, the hall, burying the jackets?
10. His intent to rid the world of jackets? Denise to remove hers? Her affirming this as the theme of the film? The dejacketisation of the world? The people coming from the cinema, following them, threatening, filming? The propeller from his fan in the room? Challenging people, the brutal murders, the woman in the car and the propeller through the roof? (And nobody in the village, let alone the police, noticing or acting?)
11. Giving the cassettes to Denise, her urging him on, wanting more blood? And her buying him the deerskin trousers? His outfit complete?
12. Denise knowing the truth, their agreement to work together, the money? The going out to the mountains, Georges preening in his outfit? Beckoning to the deers?
13. Being shot? The irony of the hotel owner, his son being the silent boy observing, Georges throwing the stone at him, his injury? Georges hunted down and shot?
14. Denise, the inheritance…? Her future and the film?
