Quentin Dupieux (, born 14 April 1974), also known by his musical stage name Mr. Oizo (), is a French filmmaker, electronic musician, and DJ. Dupieux is credited with his legal name for his films, while the name "Mr. Oizo" is used for his musical works. Dupieux has directed numerous films including ''

Rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, a ...

'' (2010), '' Wrong'' (2012), '' Wrong Cops'' (2013), and ''

Reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

'' (2014). After initially producing his films in the United States, he began making films in France in 2018. Since then, he has released '' Keep an Eye Out!'' (2018), '' Deerskin'' (2019), and '' Mandibles'' (2020) which have been entirely filmed and produced in France. Under the pseudonym Mr. Oizo, he is best known for his 1999 single " Flat Beat". His pseudonym is a corruption of the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, meaning "bird". He is signed to

F Communications F Communications, also known as FCom, was a French record label based in Paris. It was founded in 1994 by Eric Morand and Laurent Garnier. It produces dance and electronic music by artists like Avril, Garnier, and Mr. Oizo amongst many others. ...

, Ed Banger Records and

Brainfeeder Brainfeeder is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California, founded by Flying Lotus in 2008, focusing on electronic music and instrumental hip hop. It has signed artists such as Ras G, Samiyam, The Gaslamp Killer, Thundercat, ...

Early life

Quentin Dupieux was born on 14 April 1974 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. At the age of 18, he found a camera and started taking photographs. At 19, he began to play music to illustrate his images, and he bought his first synthesizer. In 1997, Laurent Garnier of the record label FCom bought a car from Dupieux's father. Garnier then found out about his talents and let him direct the music video for his song "Flashback". Dupieux was subsequently signed to FCom, which released his first EP, ''#1''.

Musical career

"Flat Beat"

Dupieux released " Flat Beat" in January 1999, a track consisting mainly of a repeated bass loop and a drum sample from "Put Your Love in My Tender Care" by The Fatback Band. In an interview with ''XLR8R'' magazine, Dupieux stated that it took him only two hours with a Korg MS-20 to produce. Flat Beat became a hit throughout Europe in 1999, becoming the best-known Mr. Oizo release. The track was featured in a series of

Levi's Levi Strauss & Co. () is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's () brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, ...

jeans TV commercials, which featured a yellow puppet named Flat Eric nodding his head to the rhythm while riding in an old, beat-up Chevelle. Flat Eric was also featured in the song's music video. The ''Flat Beat EP'' has sold over three million copies. The song reached number 1 in the UK.

''Analog Worms Attack''

After "Flat Beat", Oizo spent two months creating his first full album, ''Analog Worms Attack'', which was released in 1999. The album's name was derived from the fact that it was produced entirely using analog equipment. The record scratching effects were provided by Mr. Oizo's friend Feadz. "Flat Beat" appeared as a bonus track after the five minutes of silence following the final track "Analog Wormz Sequel". A total of three singles were released in support of the album. A version of "Monday Massacre" from the ''Flat Beat EP'' featuring sampled record scratching appears on the album, titled "No Day Massacre".

''Moustache (Half a Scissor)''

Moustache (Half a Scissor) ''Moustache (Half a Scissor)'' is the second full-length album by Mr. Oizo, the alias of producer/filmmaker Quentin Dupieux, released in 2005 on CD. This was Dupieux's last release for F Communications, which infamously referred to it as "unli ...

'' was Mr. Oizo's second studio album. Released in 2005, the album was composed exclusively using computers as he had by that time decided to eschew the use of analog equipment. The extensive time it took to remodel his studio and master the use of computers in composing electronic music is cited as the reason for the long hiatus between ''Analog Worms Attack'' and ''Moustache (Half a Scissor)''. Before its public release, a promo CD was released onto the internet featuring three tracks not on the original release: "CPU", "Nazis", and "A Nun". Some songs on the promo differ from the released album versions. For example, "Nurse Bob" is much longer on the final release whilst the promo version splices vocal samples into a much shorter version. This is the only Mr. Oizo album not to have its debut release on vinyl; a vinyl version would first be released in January 2011 through

Ed Banger Records

Mr. Oizo's first EP released on Ed Banger Records is called "Transexual / Patrick122". The EP features the track "Patrick122", which is a re-working of the 1979 disco track "Do It at the Disco" by Gary's Gang. The track appeared on Mr. Oizo's MySpace page in 2006 under the title ''Patrick122''. On 16 October 2008 his MySpace page had another video appear: a promo for his upcoming album, ''Lambs Anger''. The first single off the Record was "Positif", which was released 3 days after ''Lambs Anger''. On 15 March 2009 the second single off the album was released, "Pourriture", released as an EP featuring some reworked titles by Oizo himself and a remix of "Erreurjean" by Arveene and Misk.

''Lambs Anger''

'' Lambs Anger'' is Mr. Oizo's first studio album released by Ed Banger Records, the label he chose after his split with

, who notoriously referred to ''Moustache (Half a Scissor)'' as "unlistenable". "Positif", "Two Takes It" (featuring Carmen Castro) and "Pourriture" were chosen as the album's singles. The track "Steroids" also features label-mate

Uffie Anna-Catherine Hartley (born December 9, 1987), known professionally as Uffie (), is an American-French singer, songwriter, rapper, DJ, and fashion designer formerly signed to French electronic music record label Ed Banger Records. Uffie's musi ...

. "Two Takes It" is a cover of the song " It Takes Two" by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock and "Gay Dentists" contains samples of "Let's Start the Dance" by Hamilton Bohannon.

Collaborations with Uffie

Mr. Oizo and

first collaborated on her second single, "

Ready to Uff Ready may refer to: Film and television * ''Ready'', a 2002 British short starring Imelda Staunton * ''Ready'' (2008 film), a Telugu film * ''Ready'' (2011 film), a Hindi remake of the Telugu film * "Ready" (''New Girl''), a television episo ...

", in 2006. Since then he has produced the following tracks for Uffie: "Dismissed", " Hot Chick", " First Love" (which charted at number 18 in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

), "Steroids" and " MCs Can Kiss". Mr. Oizo provided both production work and songwriting for Uffie's 2010 debut album, '' Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans''. He worked alongside Feadz,

SebastiAn Sebastian may refer to: People * Sebastian (name), including a list of persons with the name Arts, entertainment, and media Films and television * ''Sebastian'' (1968 film), British spy film * ''Sebastian'' (1995 film), Swedish drama film ...

, Mirwais, J-Mat and

to produce and write the album. He produced the first single from the album, " MCs Can Kiss", which peaked at number 48 in Japan and 97 in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. He also produced the tracks "Art of Uff", " First Love", "Our Song" and "Neuneu".

''The Church'' and ''All Wet''

In 2014, Mr. Oizo released the album ''

The Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

'', which contains 10 tracks, including a collaboration with Bart B More on the track "Dry Run". Unlike his previous album, ''The Church'' was released by

due to his activity in the United States at the time. Two years later, he released the album '' All Wet'' on Ed Banger Records. The album contains collaborations with

Boys Noize Alexander Ridha (born 22 August 1982), better known by his stage name Boys Noize, is a Berlin-based German-Iraqi electronic music record producer, songwriter, and DJ. It is similar to the name of Ridha's label, Boysnoize Records, which he esta ...

, Phra,

Siriusmo Moritz Friedrich, better known by his stage name Siriusmo, is a Berlin-based German record producer. Initially influenced by Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Squarepusher, and Aphex Twin, his tracks can be broadly defined as electronic, and ar ...

, Mocky, Peaches,

Charli XCX Charlotte Emma Aitchison (born 2 August 1992), known professionally as Charli XCX, is an English singer and songwriter. Born in Cambridge and raised in Start Hill, Essex, she began posting songs on Myspace in 2008, which led to her discovery b ...

and Skrillex on the track "End of the World", the latter serving as the lead single for the album.

Production and equipment

In his early years, Mr. Oizo used a Korg MS-20, a Roland TR-606, an Akai S1000, and a demo of Cakewalk. Mr. Oizo is known currently for strong use of computers in his music. As he stated in an interview with ''XLR8R'', he started using computers to avoid having to plug in four different appliances, and because the resulting music is more or less the same. His first album to switch to all computers was ''Moustache (Half a Scissor)''. For ''Lambs Anger'', Mr. Oizo used a Macintosh G5 running Logic Pro to compose all of the songs. During his DJ sets, he uses two CDJs.

Filmmaking career

Dupieux created a number of music videos and feature films, starting with the 1997 music video "Kirk". He not only directs his productions, he is usually also writer, editor, composer and cinematographer. Dupieux's films are highly

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

in nature, and he has been compared to filmmakers such as

Charlie Kaufmann Charles Stuart Kaufman (; born November 19, 1958) is an American filmmaker and novelist. He wrote the films '' Being John Malkovich'' (1999), ''Adaptation'' (2002), and ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' (2004). He made his directorial d ...

and Luis Buñuel. The frequent use of dreams in his movies have also invited comparisons to director

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

, although Dupieux himself dislikes this comparison. His movies often consist of meta narratives: In the film

, a group of "audience members" on-screen watch the events of the film take place; the film

is a film about a filmmaker attempting to create a suitable groan of pain for his new movie; in the climax of Keep an Eye Out, it is revealed the actors are part of a theater trope that have been performing the events of the film on stage for an audience. His first film, ''Nonfilm'', starring

Vincent Belorgey Vincent Belorgey (born 31 July 1975), known professionally as Kavinsky, is a French musician, producer, DJ, and actor. His production style is reminiscent of the electropop film soundtracks of the 1980s. Kavinsky claims that his music is inspire ...

(Kavinsky) and Sébastien Tellier, released in 2001. Dupieux's second feature film ''Steak'' was released in France on 20 June 2007. The cast is composed of Éric Judor, Ramzy Bedia, Jonathan Lambert, Vincent Belorgey and Sebastian Akchoté (SebastiAn), with an original

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

composed by Dupieux himself in collaboration with Sébastien Tellier and SebastiAn. The film ended up being a

box-office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...

and the only film by Dupieux that did not receive an international release. According to Dupieux, the film was marketed as a "popular comedy" by StudioCanal, leading to the audience expecting to see a comedy more similar to previous films by Éric and Ramzy, hence the reason for this flop in the theaters. Dupieux also directed the opening credit sequence for the adult animated series '' Moot-Moot'', created by Éric and Ramzy, broadcast on Canal+ the same year. Filming for the absurdist

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apo ...

'' began in 2009. The electronic music duo

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

stated that they would be working on the soundtrack for ''Rubber'', saying they had to 'finish working on the soundtrack for Mr. Oizo's new film before we start recording for the new album'. However, only Gaspard Augé of the duo ended up collaborating with Dupieux on the soundtrack. In the United States, the film was released simultaneously through streaming and limited theatrical engagements. The surreal comedy '' Wrong'' premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

in 2012. The comedy '' Wrong Cops'' was produced by Realitism Films, who describe it as "a filthy 90 minute comedy about some disturbed cops. It is not a sequel to ''Wrong''." The first thirteen-minute chapter of the film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Dupieux returned in 2014 with the surreal comedy ''

'', starring Alain Chabat, distributed in the US by IFC Midnight. The film premiered in the Horizons section at the 71st Venice International Film Festival on 28 August 2014. In 2018, his first film shot in France, '' Keep an Eye Out!'' (original title: ''Au poste!''), starring Benoît Poelvoorde and

Grégoire Ludig Grégoire is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname / Family name *Alexandre Grégoire (1922–2001), Haitian painter * Augustus Gregoire (1936–1972), Dominican cricketer * Christine Gregoire (born 1947), ...

, released in theaters. The film's story involves a '' commissaire de police'' (Poelvoorde) and a suspect (Ludig) in an interrogation room. For this film, Dupieux was indirectly inspired by the film ''

Le Magnifique ''Le Magnifique'' (literally ''The Magnificent''; also known as The Man from Acapulco) is a French/Italian international co-production released in 1973, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jacqueline Bisset and Vittorio Caprioli that was directed by Phil ...

'', starring

Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...

, and some press reviews have compared the film to '' Buffet froid'' by Bertrand Blier. In 2019, Dupieux returned with '' Deerskin'' (original title: ''Le daim''), starring Jean Dujardin and Adèle Haenel. The film was presented as opening film at the Directors' Fortnight at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. His film '' Mandibles'' (original title: ''Mandibules''), starring

David Marsais David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

and

, the two members of the duo Palmashow, released on 19 May 2021 in French theaters. It was screened out of competition at the 77th Venice International Film Festival on 5 September 2020. Following the critical success of the film at the Venice International Film Festival,

Magnolia Pictures Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor. It is a subsidiary of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's 2929 Entertainment 2929 Entertainment, LLC. is an American integrated media and entertainment company co-founded by billionaire entrepreneur ...

acquired distribution rights for the United States. In 2022, he released two films. The first, '' Incredible but True'' (original title: ''Incroyable mais vrai''), was released in June 2022 in French theaters and starred Alain Chabat and

Anaïs Demoustier Anaïs Demoustier (; born Anaïs Aude Marie Michèle Demoustier; 29 September 1987) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films since 2000. Personal life During the filming of '' Marguerite & Julien'', Demoustier began dating ...

, who respectively played in his previous films ''Reality'' and ''Au poste!''. The second, '' Smoking Causes Coughing'' (original title: ''Fumer fait tousser''), was released in November 2022 in French theaters and also featured Chabat and Demoustier as actors.

Personal life

He currently lives with his partner Joan Le Boru, who is the chief decorator and artistic director of his films. They have several children together.

Discography

Studio albums * '' Analog Worms Attack'' (1999) * ''

'' (2005) * '' Lambs Anger'' (2008) * '' Stade 2'' (2011) * ''

'' (2014) * '' All Wet'' (2016) * ''Voilà'' (with Phra) (2022)

Filmography

Films

Music videos

* "Kirk" (1997) * "Flashback" - Laurent Garnier (1997) * "M-Seq" (1999) * "Flat Beat" (1999) * "Analog Worms Attack" (1999) * "Inside the Kidney Machine" (1999) * "Stunt" (2004) * " La Ritournelle" - Sébastien Tellier (2004) * "Making Lambs Anger" (2009) * "Where's the Money, George?" (2010) * "Being Flat" (2015) (Short film) * "Night Owl" - Metronomy (2016) * "Discow" - Handbraekes (2018) * "Viandes Légumes Véhicules" - (2019, directed by Meat Dept.)

Awards and nominations

Dupieux was promoted to " Officier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres" on 12 March 2019 by the Ministry of Culture. {, class=wikitable , - ! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result , - , rowspan=2, 1999 , MTV Europe Music Awards , rowspan=2, Himself , Best Male , , - , Viva Comet Awards , Beste Werbung (Best Advertise) , , - , 2000 , Billboard Music Video Awards , " Flat Beat" , Best New Artist Clip (Dance) , , - , 2008 , Beatport Music Awards , Himself , Best Indie Dance / Nu Disco Artist , , - , rowspan=2, 2016 , UK Music Video Awards , "Hand in the Fire" (with

) , Best Animation , , - , Best Art Vinyl , '' All Wet'' , Best Art Vinyl ,

References

External links

* *
Lambs Anger Album Review

Video footage of Making Lambs Anger by Mr Oizo

Review of Mr. Oizo's ''Pourriture'' EP on the Daily Music Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oizo, Mr. 1974 births Because Music artists Brainfeeder artists Electronic dance music DJs French DJs French cinematographers French composers French dance musicians French electronic musicians French film directors French film editors French house musicians French male composers French male non-fiction writers French male screenwriters French record producers French screenwriters French male songwriters French songwriters Male songwriters French surrealist artists Living people Musicians from Paris Mute Records artists