Carax, Léos

(1960- )

   Actor, director, and screenwriter. Léos Carax was born Alexandre Oscar Dupont. He was a film student at Université de Paris III, when he began working as a reviewer for Les Cahiers du cinéma under the editorship of Serge Daney. His experience writing for Les Cahiers may have influenced his filmmaking, and it has certainly affected the reception of his films. His first films were shorts, including the unfinished La fille rêvée and Strangulation Blues (1979). He subsequently made three feature-length films, Boy Meets Girl (1984), Mauvais sang (1986), and Les amants du Pont Neuf (1991). These three films form a trilogy, the latter two featuring Juliette Binoche. Carax later directed the short Sans titre (1997) and the feature film Pola X (1999). Catherine Deneuve appears in both.

   Carax is often characterized, along with Jean-Jacques Beineix and Luc Besson, as a director of the cinéma du look. Carax's reception among the critical elite in France was more positive that that of Beineix's and Besson's, however, perhaps because of his connection to Les Cahiers. Carax's "look" films have been seen as more intellectual, more visually stunning, and more contemplative than those of Beineix or Besson. However, it is not entirely clear that this is accurate, and in fact, recent criticism has challenged that assertion, giving more credit to the other two directors.

   Carax's emphasis on décor and lighting has also led critics to describe his films (and those of other cinéma du look directors) as baroque or neobaroque. Further comparisons have been made between the styles of Carax and Jean-Luc Godard. Just as Jean-Pierre Léaud appears to be an autobiographical figure or "fetish" actor for Godard, the actor Denis Lavant, who plays protagonists named Alex in the first three features, seems to be Carax's stand-in. Carax acted in Godard's King Lear (1987).