From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Wiki Commons Tumblr Wikisource YouTube Shop Featured: A Scheme for abolishing all Words is one of the wittiest and smartest comments on semantics. (Illustration: extreme close-up from the movie "The Big Swallow" (1901), produced and directed by James Williamson (1855-1933)

Leos Carax (born November 22, 1960) is a French-born film director, critic, and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was Boy Meets Girl (1984), and his notable works include Lovers on the Bridge (1991) and the controversial Pola X. His professional name is an anagram of his first and middle names.

Leos Carax was born Alexandre Oscar Dupont in Suresnes, a commune in the suburbs of Paris, France. His mother was American and his father French. He began his film career with a series of short films, and as a film critic, before he released Boy Meets Girl. That piece established Carax's reputation for a mature visual style. It also saw the first grouping of Carax with Denis Lavant and cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier. He followed the piece with the science fiction themed Bad Blood in 1986, which alienated some of his audience, but the work continued to explore the complexities of love in the modern world, this time through a darker, more criminal viewpoint. The work was clearly an homage to French New Wave cinema, and his use of such actresses as Juliette Binoche proved a touching tribute to his influences, especially Jean-Luc Godard.

Five years later, Carax returned to directing with Lovers on the Bridge, which proved to be an expensive undertaking as Parisian authorities granted him only 10 days in which he could film on Pont Neuf. His initial reaction to the problems of filming on a public bridge had been to construct a model of the bridge in the community of Lansargues, in Southern France. However, on the first day of filming Denis Lavant injured his thumb severely, which pushed the movie by a month. Subsequent financial difficulties pushed filming over a much longer period than intended. The movie was released to critical acclaim and opened the door for Carax to enter more experimental waters with his fourth feature, Pola X. That film, released in 1999, was an adaptation of Herman Melville's tale of incest, "Pierre: or, The Ambiguities".

Selected filmography

• Tôkyô (2008) pre-production - Director
• Scars (announced)
• The Process (2003) - Actor
• Pola X (1999) - Director / Screenwriter
• Sans Titre (1997) - Director
• The House (1997) - Actor
• Lovers on the Bridge (1991) - Director / Screenwriter
• King Lear (1987) - Actor
• Mauvais Sang (1986) - Director / Screenwriter
• Boy Meets Girl (1984) - Director / Screenwriter
• Strangulation Blues (1980) - Director