“A noisy epic swirl of breast-beating, hair-tearing angst and portentous symbolism.” - New York Times

Ever the champion of creative cinematic experiences over traditional structures and narratives, enigmatic auteur Leos Carax added another outlaw romance to his oeuvre with Pola X - a loose adaptation of Herman Melville's novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (a text from the Moby Dick author widely regarded as a noble literary failure about that very topic).

Demonstrating the visual flair and emotional flamboyance his films are known for, Carax's fourth feature combines poetry, passion, impulsivity and impropriety into an eclectic amalgam of excess. The feverish tone of the source material remains in his fervent rendering of the tale of a young aristocrat (the late Guillaume Depardieu, son of Gérard), his cloying mother (Catherine Deneuve), and the mysterious woman (the late Yekaterina Golubeva, Twentynine Palms, MIFF 04) who comes between them. Original score by Scott Walker.

D Leos Carax P Bruno Pésary S Lauren Sedofsky, Jean-Pol Fargeau WS Pathe L French w/English subtitles TD 35mm/1999

See the film and read the book; browse online at Readings.