Leos Carax

Leos Carax (b. 1960, Suresnes, France) joined the editorial team of Cahiers du cinéma at age 20. Shortly afterward he shot his short film debut Strangulations Blues (1980). It took another four years for his first feature, Boy Meets Girl (1984), which marks the beginning of his collaboration with actor Denis Lavant and cameraman Jean-Yves Escoffier. Then followed a somber romance with touches of sci-fi and mystery, Bad Blood (Mauvais sang, 1986), which brought him the Alfred Bauer Prize for innovation at the Berlinale. While shooting The Lovers on the Bridge (Les amants du Pont-Neuf, 1991), Carax’s vision slammed into reality; although a cult movie today, its creation brought on an eight-year hiatus that the director ended in 1999 with his controversial adaptation of Melville’s novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities entitled Pola X. In 2008 he contributed one of three segments to a film inspired by the Japanese capital, simply entitled Tokyo!.

47. MFF Karlovy Vary