Leos Carax’s debut feature (age 24) announced the arrival of a great, singular, and audacious filmmaker – a Rimbaud for the 1980s. Shot in densely detailed black-and-white by late DOP Jean-Yves Escoffier, the film tells the story of 22-year-old loner Alex (Denis Lavant), an aspiring filmmaker whose girlfriend Florence has left him for his best friend. Wandering nocturnal Paris before he leaves for military service, he crashes a party where he meets Mireille (Mireille Perrier), who has also been dumped. A portrait of modern love and existential malaise told with the instinctive mastery of visual aesthetics, sound ideas, and poetic dialogue that comes to characterise Carax’s work.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Leos Carax, hosted by Paul Duane, a film writer, producer and director based in Dublin.

Notes by Marie Pierre-Richard

Screening as part of the IFI French Film Festival, November 15 – 26.