CANNES – Jean Dujardin returns in Quentin Dupieux’s “Deerskin” (Director’s Fortnight)
Led by Jean Dujardin and Adèle Haenel, “Deerskin” is Quentin Dupieux’s seventh feature. Among the most singular directors in the contemporary film scene, Quentin Dupieux is also a screenwriter, director of photography, film editor and composer of electronic music, known internationally as Mr. Oizo (film was named “Le Daim” in France).
“Deerskin” marks the return to Cannes of Jean Dujardin in a leading role after he emerged on the world scene with “The Artist” in 2011, for which he won the Best Actor award at both the Cannes Festival and at the Academy Awards, among many other awards. Adèle Haenel has been gaining traction in France’s independent cinema and is regarded highly for her diverse roles and the breadth of her acting range.
Quentin Dupieux began his career with music videos and advertising clips, working with Michel Gondry. In 2001, he directed his first film, “Nonfilm,” a disturbing and disjointed telling of the film shoot itself. Next came “Steak,” starring the well-known comic duo Éric and Ramzy; then “Rubber,” selected for Critics’ Week in 2010, which creeped out the Croisette with the murderous obsessions of a tire.
In 2012 he directed “Wrong,” which was followed a year later by the short film “Wrong Cops,” selected at the Directors’ Fortnight, the first chapter of the feature film of the same name presented in 2013 at Sundance. In “Reality,” (Venice Film Festival; 2015) Alain Chabat has forty-eight hours to find the best whimper in the history of filmmaking. “Keep an Eye Out,” a surrealist absurdist and grating film starring the extraordinary Benoît Poelvoorde, Grégoire Ludig and Anaïs Demoustier, was among the most successful arthouse films of 2018 in French film theatres.