Quentin Dupieux (Mr. Oizo) films

[Mobbd]

There's been a short-lived thread about him before. It's now my intention to watch all of his films and make a few notes about them here, starting with Rubber (2010).

Please join in with your thoughts and memories and by all means watch along with me if you fancy it.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I like Deerskin, cheers.

[Mobbd]

As a musician he is responsible (among other things) for Flat Beat (1999), which is easy to remember from the Levi's Commercials.

Official music video:

Main Levi's ad:

Sequel Levi's ad:

I liked these ads but the general consensus (if I recall correctly) was that they were an annoying Crazy Frog-like meme to be shunned and ignored. I thought there was something cool about them though, something a bit Spike Jonze- or Chris Cunningham-like. Maybe I was right! We'll see how much fun he is when we/I watch his feature films.

I also remember a lovely Adam & Joe parody of the Levi's ads. When the trunk of the car is opened, BaaadDad is inside, looking confused and bewildered. He says "Will someone turn this filthy racket orf?"

[madhair60]

big big fan of his music, can't be arsed with his films

[Small Man Big Horse]

I liked these ads but the general consensus (if I recall correctly) was that they were an annoying Crazy Frog-like meme to be shunned and ignored. I thought there was something cool about them though, something a bit Spike Jonze- or Chris Cunningham-like. Maybe I was right! We'll see how much fun he is when we/I watch his feature films.

My memory of it is that people loved it initially (a friend even bought a cheap knock off Flat Eric glove puppet) but began to get a bit fed up of it after a while.

As mentioned in the OP I did start a thread a while back but I'm looking forward to reading this one, it's irritating as I love the first five or six films that he made (though am too lazy right now to check) but his last two disappointed, they had a decent enough concept but he did very little with it, and I haven't seen the most recent release.

I'm hoping his next film, the one about Dali, will be a return to form, but I'll happily wait for it to be available to stream rather than rushing to see it.

[Mobbd]

I like that this was made (and thanks for posting it) but it doesn't quite land, does it? I knew that Eric would eat the sausage as soon as it was thrown. I liked the original "no sausage on stage" moment but hated that it was called back to.

I loved the range of shabby cosplay-like Eric suits, the montage in the middle being the best and weirdest bit.

A 7-minute film that's probably 3 minutes too long.

It's weird how Dupieux doesn't play himself as the director in the seats. So you have two different people playing him, diegetic and non-diegetic. Double self-indulgence!

[Mobbd]

his last two disappointed

I haven't seen any of them yet but I don't like the look of the recent superheroes one. The one about the heckler looks good and the Dali one looks great. I'm looking forward to that one very much but I'll watch in order.

Glad you spotted the thread, btw. Was hoping you would.

[Mobbd]

The guy who plays (puppeteers?) Flat Eric in Being Flat is also called Eric, which makes me wonder if he always played him and if that's why the puppet is called Eric.

Anyway, his main gig seems to be VFX on Star Trek fan films. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2661495/

EDIT: no credit for Eric or anyone else on the original Flat Beat music vid: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15163496/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

[madhair60]

i only know his music so I'll cunt off now - cheers x

[Mister Six]

I think everyone loved Flat Eric when he first appeared, didn't they? Seemed very popular at the time, at least.

Of his films, I've only seen Smoking Causes Coughing, which I thought was a massive waste of money and effort, although the rat thing and the story about the farming accident made me laugh.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Another vote for Deerskin. Bonkers idea quite well executed and Adèle Haenel's (probably) last ever film appearance alongside Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Another vote for Deerskin. Bonkers idea quite well executed and Adèle Haenel's (probably) last ever film appearance alongside Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

It works great alongside In Fabric, which is another good, odd, but quite different film about a murderous garment of clothing.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I haven't seen any of them yet but I don't like the look of the recent superheroes one. The one about the heckler looks good and the Dali one looks great. I'm looking forward to that one very much but I'll watch in order.

Glad you spotted the thread, btw. Was hoping you would.

Yeah, the superhero one, Smoking Causes Coughing, is the one I haven't seen as just a brief clip was enough to put me off, and Mister Six hating it doesn't bode well either. I probably will watch it at some point as the completist in me is annoying, but I'm not looking forward to doing so!

Nonfilm is really rough around the edges and I wasn't that fond of Steak, but I really fell in love with Rubber very quickly and then loved his films up to and including Deerskin. But Mandibles and Incredible But True disappointed, and I think I feel let down by them as they had a "Well this is a good idea but I'm only interested in exploring it on a surface level" element to them. That might be unfair, and perhaps he was experimenting with something I just didn't get, but his output is quite considerable and I wish he'd slow down a little and devote more time to the scripts.

[buzby]

The guy who plays (puppeteers?) Flat Eric in Being Flat is also called Eric, which makes me wonder if he always played him and if that's why the puppet is called Eric.

Anyway, his main gig seems to be VFX on Star Trek fan films. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2661495/

EDIT: no credit for Eric or anyone else on the original Flat Beat music vid: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15163496/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

I think that link to the ST fan film FX guy is an error on the part of IMDB or one of it's editors. If you look at the credits in the 'See more' bit of the official youtube upload for Being Flat, that name doens't appear at all and you can see Eric's puppeteer is Andrew 'Drew' Massey.

The original puppet was called Stéphane and started out as a glove puppet that Dupieux found in a flea market. He had a friend build a body for it and used it in the short film to accompany his track M Seq.

The 'creatives' at Bartle Bogle Hegarty in London saw this music video and thought it would be a great idea to make into an ad for their Levis account. They contacted Dupieux, who agreed to direct it and provide the soundtrack, but for copyright reasons they wanted their own puppet as the 'star', not Stéphane (they also wanted a more 'international' name than Stéphane). Janet Knechtel, a freelance puppet maker at the Jim Henson Creature Shop in London was given the job of making a 'similar, but not the same' version (the main differences are that Eric has a triangular nose, whereas Stéphane's is round, and he has ears). Andrew Massey, one of the Henson Creature Shop's puppeteers, was hired for the advert shoot, and returned for the subsequent adverts.

Dupieux was clever enough to retain the copyright of the Eric character as part of the deal to do the Levi's adverts, and the amount of money he made from merchandise basically set him up for life. The name Eric came from Eric Morand, the head of the F Communications record label Dupieux was signed to. The 'flat' part came from in the original advert treatment, the puppet was supposed to get it's head run over by a car, but that was dropped in the final script.

The video for Flat Beat was shot in an empty Paris apartment, with Richard Coombs (one of the puppeteers behind Gilbert The Alien, and who also worked with Henson's Creature Shop as a freelancer and on Spitting Image). Coombs also did some live fashion show appearances with Eric for Levis and his subsequent music video appearances.

Massey returned to work Eric when he had a cameo at Pharell Williams' appearance at the Red Bull Music Academy in 2015, and  I think he has worked Eric in his appearances since.

[chutnut]

I loved Wrong, Wrong Cops and Reality (Rubber was OK), I think I've got copies of all the films he's done since then but still haven't got around to watching them.
Music wise I'm not a huge fan but I like this one:

I don't think I'd seen any photos of him before, he looks like Joe Wilkinson

[Mobbd]

I think that link to the ST fan film FX guy is an error on the part of IMDB or one of it's editors. If you look at the credits in the 'See more' bit of the official youtube upload for Being Flat, that name doens't appear at all and you can see Eric's puppeteer is Andrew 'Drew' Massey.

The original puppet was called Stéphane and started out as a glove puppet that Dupieux found in a flea market. He had a friend build a body for it and used it in the short film to accompany his track M Seq.

The 'creatives' at Bartle Bogle Hegarty in London saw this music video and thought it would be a great idea to make into an ad for their Levis account. They contacted Dupieux, who agreed to direct it and provide the soundtrack, but for copyright reasons they wanted their own puppet as the 'star', not Stéphane (they also wanted a more 'international' name than Stéphane). Janet Knechtel, a freelance puppet maker at the Jim Henson Creature Shop in London was given the job of making a 'similar, but not the same' version (the main differences are that Eric has a triangular nose, whereas Stéphane's is round, and he has ears). Andrew Massey, one of the Henson Creature Shop's puppeteers, was hired for the advert shoot, and returned for the subsequent adverts.

Dupieux was clever enough to retain the copyright of the Eric character as part of the deal to do the Levi's adverts, and the amount of money he made from merchandise basically set him up for life. The name Eric came from Eric Morand, the head of the F Communications record label Dupieux was signed to. The 'flat' part came from in the original advert treatment, the puppet was supposed to get it's head run over by a car, but that was dropped in the final script.

The video for Flat Beat was shot in an empty Paris apartment, with Richard Coombs (one of the puppeteers behind Gilbert The Alien, and who also worked with Henson's Creature Shop as a freelancer and on Spitting Image). Coombs also did some live fashion show appearances with Eric for Levis and his subsequent music video appearances.

Massey returned to work Eric when he had a cameo at Pharell Williams' appearance at the Red Bull Music Academy in 2015, and  I think he has worked Eric in his appearances since.

Absolutely superb knowledge, thank you. Is your interest in this puppeteering? (The Gilbert reference grabbed my attention).

[Small Man Big Horse]

I haven't seen any of them yet but I don't like the look of the recent superheroes one.

Of his films, I've only seen Smoking Causes Coughing, which I thought was a massive waste of money and effort, although the rat thing and the story about the farming accident made me laugh.

I'm listening to the end credits music as I write this, and well, it's an absolute mess of a film, and barely a film at that, it feels more like a couple of sketches thrown together with a shaky framing device. I didn't hate it because I went in with the lowest of possible expectations, and like Mister Six the antics of the rat and the accident sketch were quite amusing, but the rest of it feels pretty pointless. It's taking the piss really, if I'd paid money to see this I'd be much angrier, and I really hope he starts making proper films again rather than just fucking about to amuse himself. 5.6/10

[madhair60]

Quentin dopoo

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's taking the piss really, if I'd paid money to see this I'd be much angrier, and I really hope he starts making proper films again rather than just fucking about to amuse himself.

I saw it at Glasgow film festival, and given how a lot of the other stuff I was seeing was quite serious and dour, and long, I found the brevity and daftness of it quite refreshing. Although yeah, would've probably been pissed off if I had bothered to get a bus into town just to see it on a standard ticket.

[fucking ponderous]

I like his music and the Flat Eric stuff. Rubber, Wrong, and Wrong Cops I saw forever ago but remember enjoying. I appreciate that he's a genuine surrealist- he just throws nonsense together with no real thought for theme or meaning it seems like. Even Buñel's stuff had an element of social satire whereas Oizo just seems to do whatever comes to his mind first, for better or for worse. Not many filmmakers like that today.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I saw it at Glasgow film festival, and given how a lot of the other stuff I was seeing was quite serious and dour, and long, I found the brevity and daftness of it quite refreshing. Although yeah, would've probably been pissed off if I had bothered to get a bus into town just to see it on a standard ticket.

I can imagine how in those circumstances it might be fun, I guess part of me is frustrated that he's making films like this which seem so flimsy and disposable, at least compared to the fantastic run he had from Rubber through to Deerskin.

[Mobbd]

I haven't forgotten about this thread, btw. I just took a last-minute trip instead. I will soon start watching these films and reporting back.

Quentin dopoo

Mr Poo Poo Goes to the Lavatory.

[Mobbd]

It begins. Rubber (2010)

I liked it. I liked the tire and I liked the slow, ponderous shots of it. I liked most of the humour and also the pathos of the tire's personality.

A cop car pulls up and a cop gets out of the trunk to speak to us directly through the fourth wall. It's hilarious that he gets out of the trunk rather than out of the car. This happens for no reason that I can see but it's funny and odd and I was glad of it.

Cop then tells us that lots of things in movies "happen for no reason," giving examples. I don't agree with the examples. There are reasons - diegetic and/or non-diegetic - for practically all of them. If this is the thesis for the film, it's not very good. Too flippant, not smart enough. It makes me wonder if the things I love about Rubber are even deliberate. But hey.

A crowd assembles to watch the tire in action, and therefore watch the movie with us. Postmodernism!! Among their number is a little girl. I'm not great at identifying actors aside from the occasional That Guy but I call this kid from a mile off. She's the make-up girl from Better Call Saul! She must be about 14 in this film and her face is obscured by binoculars but I call it in a fraction of a second. Get in.

The effect of the tire moving around is good. I like its tenuous fails to get going; it's good anthropomorphism. I don't even know how the effect is done: is this CGI or practical or what?

When the tire is rolling, it looks like a cool music video even when in silence. Adam Buxton could have made it. Or Chris Cunningham. I mean this in a good way to all concnered.

The tire squashes a plastic bottle and seems to find it interesting. It then kills a scorpion and LIKES IT. I'm unsure if the weight of an empty innertube would be enough to squash a scorpion but never mind.

These tentative movements suggest it's the tires first outing but the spectators seem to be part of someone's regular grift, suggesting that this happens all the time. Not sure what's going on there. Maybe the tire resets every day. Later in the film there is no hint of this and it seems the events of the film are a one-off.

I'm a bit disappointed that the tire's next move is to destroy a glass bottle with telekinesis. I was wondering how a tire would be able to kill people so when I saw the bottle I figured it would arm itself by getting all shards of glass in its tracks and then use it to slash people. That doesn't happen though. The tire just has Carrie powers, which feels a bit unimaginative to me.

The tire has real personality. "He's" triumphant after killing a rabbit and I'm rooting for him when he's trying to kill his first humans.

I cheer when he explodes a guy's head. The effect is not as dogfoody as the head pop in Scanners but it's very satisfying because it's earned, goddammit!

Back to the spectators, one of them says, "Not bad! This is the first time in my life I identify with a tire," which of course is what we're thinking too, and even the next comment about "the chick's ass" being "not that great" calls us out as the disgusting pieces of crap that we are (but not the ass double casting director whose doing this really is). We've been chastised! Isn't 2010 a bit late for this sort of pomo mischief though? Ah, it's fine.

Spoiler alert

The tire kills a hotel maid whose body is discovered by a pizza delivery boy who has randomly stopped to put roadkill meat (actually an avian victim of the tire) on the pizza he's delivering. Not sure who would be punkd by that; nobody would eat tge raw- and wet-looking mystery meat that arrives on an otherwise basic cheese pizza. It's just there for the gross-out factor, I suppose, and the suggestion that delivery food tampering probably happens all the time. Did somebody say Just Eat?

The spectators eat a cooked turkey, tearing it apart like zombies for some reason. It gives them violent food poisoning. It's done deliberately by the "no reason" cop seemingly because the murderous events of the film can't unfold without an audience. But one of the audience doesn't eat the meat and survives so the film continues.

A hopelessly crappy sting operation fails to kill the tire. The surviving audience member objects and asks why the cops can't just deploy a flame thrower because everyone's a critic, right? The "no reason" cop destroys the tire, which is then "reincarnated as a tricycle." And that's pretty much it.

We watch the trike pedal away for a while, other tires unearthing themselves in its wake. The trike looks boss.

We see the HOLYWOOD sign in the hills like how we see the Eifel Tower at the end of 28 Days Later, though the implication is just a bit "oh, movies" rather than implying specific next events.

[close]

I like Rubber's lightness of touch. The way it doesn't really go anywhere will annoy plenty of people but I liked it. Why should everything be so consequential?

According to Wikipedia, QD doesn't like to be compared to David Lynch, which is fair enough, but there are many Lynchian beats to the film. No Reason cop feels a lot like a DL character with his absurdist pronouncements and goofy wide-eyed ways and how we don't quite know how much he knows. He even looks a bit like David Lynch!

Anyway, yeah. I liked it. That tire has personality. According to the credits and one of the trailers, his name is Robert.

[Mobbd]

I wrote too much.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I wrote too much.

Not at all, it made for a fascinating read, and I just wish I could respond to it in detail but I watched it about a decade ago and my memory is an appallingly rubbish thing. From what I can recall I had pretty much the same reaction as you did except I think I liked it even more, it's a ridiculous film in many ways but it does make some interesting points, especially with the way the audience identifies with the tyre even though it's a murderous little bastard.

[Mister Six]

I also enjoyed the write-up, and I've never seen the film.

[fucking ponderous]

Cop then tells us that lots of things in movies "happen for no reason," giving examples. I don't agree with the examples. There are reasons - diegetic and/or non-diegetic - for practically all of them. If this is the thesis for the film, it's not very good. Too flippant, not smart enough. It makes me wonder if the things I love about Rubber are even deliberate. But hey.

IIRC, one of the examples he gives is "In E.T., why is the alien brown? No reason." And he also calls The Texas Chainsaw Massacre "The Excellent Chainsaw Massacre". So I think it is meant to be the film's thesis, but it's also meant to be as farcical as everything else that's going on.

[Mobbd]

IIRC, one of the examples he gives is "In E.T., why is the alien brown? No reason." And he also calls The Texas Chainsaw Massacre "The Excellent Chainsaw Massacre". So I think it is meant to be the film's thesis, but it's also meant to be as farcical as everything else that's going on.

Yes! Good memory, guy. Those are in there, though they're a bit lighter and more punchline-like than the other examples.

I'd say ET is brown because there's a limited number of alien skin colours that aren't too silly for a film with ET's emotional remit. Or within the reality of the film we could say it's something to do with his planet's climate or star (the sort of logic Star Trek goes into with thousands more hours available to it than ET). It's not "no reason," more that the reason isn't stated on screen. A reason would also, of course, be of very little interest or consequence.

And the reason we don't see anyone wash their hands in "Tobe Hooper's Excellent Chainsaw Massacre" is because everyone in that film is either in extreme crisis or else a filthy desert cannibal.

He also says there's "no reason" we can't see the air around us. There are so many reasons we can't see the air around us!

[fucking ponderous]

A reason would also, of course, be of very little interest or consequence.

Right, I think that's the key. I don't remember his other "no reasons" but the two cited here at least, nobody in their right mind would stop to consider those things while watching those films. They're questions so utterly unimportant to what the films are about.

[Mobbd]

Tee-hee! I didn't agree with the examples but I liked the bit.