Mr. Oizo

Quentin Dupieux
Dupieux at the 2012 Deauville American Film Festival
Born	Quentin Dupieux (1974-04-14) April 14, 1974 (age 47) Paris, France
Other names	Mr. Oizo
Occupation	Filmmaker producer DJ composer songwriter
Years active	1992–present
Musical career
Genres	French house techno experimental
Instruments	Synthesizer sampler drum machine keyboard computer
Labels	F Communications Ed Banger Records Because Music Brainfeeder
Associated acts	Gaspard Augé Uffie Handbraekes Boys Noize Sébastien Tellier SebastiAn Feadz
Website	www.oizo3000.com
Musical artist

Quentin Dupieux (French: [kɑ̃tɛ̃ dypjø], born April 14, 1974), also known by his musical stage name Mr. Oizo ([məsjø wazo]),^[1] is a French filmmaker, electronic musician, and DJ. Dupieux uses his full name for his filmmaking career, Mr. Oizo being only used for his musical career.

Dupieux has directed numerous films including; Rubber (2010), Wrong (2012), Wrong Cops (2013), and Reality (2014), shot in the United States and 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".^[2] His pseudonym is a corruption of the French oiseau, meaning "bird".^[3] He is signed to F Communications, Ed Banger Records and Brainfeeder.

Early life[]

Quentin Dupieux was born on April 14, 1974 in Paris. 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 Mr. Oizo's father.^[4] Garnier then found out about Dupieux's talents and let him direct the music video for his song "Flashback". Later, Dupieux was signed to FCom, which he released his first EP, "#1".^{[citation needed]}

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 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 album's production – it was composed entirely using analog equipment.^{[citation needed]} 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". There are a total of three singles off of this album. A version of "No Day Massacre" without any record scratching exists on the Flat Beat EP, titled "Monday Massacre".

Moustache (Half a Scissor)[]

Moustache (Half a Scissor) 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).^{[citation needed]} 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 his only album not to have its debut release on vinyl; in January 2011 it was released through Brainfeeder.^[5]

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 October 16, 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 March 15, 2009, the second single off the album was released, Pourriture, whose EP features 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 F Communications, who notoriously referred to Moustache (Half a Scissor) as "unlistenable".^[6] "Positif", "Two Takes It" (featuring Carmen Castro) and "Pourriture" were chosen as the album's singles. It also includes a track, "Steroids", which features the label-mate Uffie. "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 Uffie first collaborated on her second single, "Ready to Uff", in 2006. Since then he has produced the following tracks for Uffie: "Dismissed", "Hot Chick", "First Love" (which charted at number 18 in Belgium^[7]), "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, Mirwais, J-Mat and Uffie 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.^[8][9] 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, which contains 10 tracks and a single collaboration with Bart B More on the track "Dry Run". Unlike his previous albums, this album was released by Brainfeeder because of his activity at the time in the United States.^[10]

Two years later, he released the album All Wet on Ed Banger Records. The album contains collaborations with Boys Noize, Phra, Siriusmo, Mocky, Peaches, Charli XCX and Skrillex on the track "End of the World", which is also the lead single of the album.^[11]

Production and equipment[]

In his early years, Mr. Oizo used a Korg MS-20, an Akai S1000, and an Atari 1040 computer.^{[citation needed]} 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 result of music is more or less the same.^{[citation needed]} His first album to switch to all computers was Moustache (Half a Scissor). In 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".^[12] He not only directs his productions, he is usually also writer, editor, composer and cinematographer.^[13]

His first film, Nonfilm, starring Vincent Belorgey (Kavinsky) and Sébastien Tellier, released in 2001.^[14]

Dupieux's second feature film Steak was released in France on June 20, 2007.^[15][16] The cast is composed of Éric Judor, Ramzy Bedia, Jonathan Lambert, Vincent Belorgey and Sebastian Akchoté (SebastiAn), with an original soundtrack signed Dupieux himself, Sébastien Tellier and SebastiAn. The film ended up being a box-office bomb and this is the only film by Dupieux that has not been distributed internationally.^[17] According to Dupieux, the film was presented as a "popular comedy" by StudioCanal, the audience expected to see a comedy by Éric and Ramzy and he was disappointed, hence the reason for this flop in the theaters.^[17] Dupieux also directed opening credits of the adult animated series Moot-Moot, created by Éric and Ramzy, broadcast on Canal+ the same year.

Filming for the absurdist horror film Rubber began in 2009. The electronic music duo Justice 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'.^[18] However, only Gaspard Augé of the duo collaborated 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 in 2012.^[19]

The comedy Wrong Cops was produced by Realitism Films,^[20] 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 Reality, starring Alain Chabat, distributed in the US by IFC Midnight.^[21] The film premiered in the Horizons section at the 71st Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2014.^[22]

In 2018, his first film shot in France, Keep an Eye Out! (original title: Au poste!), starring Benoît Poelvoorde and Grégoire Ludig, 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, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, and some press reviews have compared the film to Buffet froid by Bertrand Blier.^[23][24]

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.^[25]

His film Mandibles (original title: Mandibules), starring David Marsais and Grégoire Ludig, the two members of the duo Palmashow, released on May 19, 2021 in French theaters. It was screened out of competition at the 77th Venice International Film Festival on September 5, 2020.^[26] Following the critical success of the film at the Venice International Film Festival, Magnolia Pictures acquired distribution rights for the United States.^[27]

His next film, entitled Incroyable mais vrai, starring Alain Chabat and Anaïs Demoustier, who respectively played in his previous films Reality and Au poste!, will be released in 2021. The cast is also composed of Léa Drucker and Benoît Magimel.^[28]

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.^[29]

Discography[]

Studio albums

• Analog Worms Attack (1999)
• Moustache (Half a Scissor) (2005)
• Lambs Anger (2008)
• Stade 2 (2011)
• The Church (2014)
• All Wet (2016)

Filmography[]

Films[]

Year	Title	Credited as						Notes	Ref(s)
		Director	Producer	Writer	Composer	DoP	Editor
2001	Nonfilm	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Two existing versions, respectively 44 and 75 minutes	[30]
2007	Steak	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-composer with Sébastien Tellier and SebastiAn
2010	Rubber	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-composer with Gaspard Augé	[31]
2012	Wrong	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-composer with Tahiti Boy	[32]
2012	Wrong Cops: Chapter One	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Short film
2013	Wrong Cops	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	[33]
2014	Reality	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes		[34][35]
2018	Keep an Eye Out!	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes		[36]
2019	Deerskin	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes		[37]
2020	Mandibles	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes		[38]
TBA		Yes	No	TBA	TBA	Yes	Yes	Post-production

Key

Denotes film not yet released

Music videos[]

• "Kirk" (1997)
• "Flashback" - Laurent Garnier (1997)^[39]
• "M-Seq" (1999)
• "Flat Beat" (1999)
• "Analog Worms Attack" (1999)
• "Inside The Kidney Machine" (1999)
• "Stunt" (2004)
• "La Ritournelle" - Sébastien Tellier (2004)^[40]
• "Making Lambs Anger" (2009)
• "Where's the Money, George?" (2010)^[41]
• "Being Flat" (2015) (Short film)
• "Night Owl" - Metronomy (2016)^[40]
• "Discow" - Handbraekes (2018)
• "Viandes Légumes Véhicules" - (2019, directed by Meat Dept.)^[42]

Awards and nominations[]

Dupieux was promoted to "Officier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres" on March 12, 2019 by the Ministry of Culture.^[43]

Year	Awards	Work	Category	Result
1999	MTV Europe Music Awards	Himself	Best Male	Nominated
	Viva Comet Awards		Beste Werbung (Best Advertise)	Won
2000	Billboard Music Video Awards	"Flat Beat"	Best New Artist Clip (Dance)	Nominated
2008	Beatport Music Awards	Himself	Best Indie Dance / Nu Disco Artist	Nominated
2016	UK Music Video Awards	"Hand in the Fire" (with Charli XCX)	Best Animation	Nominated
	Best Art Vinyl	All Wet	Best Art Vinyl[44]	Nominated

References[]

External links[]

• Mr. Oizo discography at Discogs
• Quentin Dupieux at IMDb
• 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