Pola X
by Leos Carax
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Actor: Catherine Deneuve, Delphine Chuillot, Guillaume Depardieu, Laurent Lucas, Yekaterina GolubevaDirector: Leos Carax
Brand: Genius
Writer: Leos Carax
Producer: Albert Prévost
Producer: Bruno Pésery
Producer: Dschingis Bowakow
Writer: Herman Melville
Writer: Jean-Pol Fargeau
Writer: Lauren Sedofsky
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 134 minutes
Published: 2001-04-01
DVD Release Date: 2001-04-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Fox Lorber
DVD Reviews of Pola X
DVD Review: Intense and feverish, like Carax's best work.
Summary: 4 Stars
In 1992, Leos Carax's career as a film-maker seemed to be over. His film "Lovers On The Bridge," a collection of visual and sensory extremes that took years to complete and bankrupted three producers in the process, received uniformly bad reviews and failed at the box office. No one wanted to work with Carax or sponsor any more of his work.
Carax disappeared. According to later interviews, he spent much of the nineties in the Balkans, observing the various wars there up close. Then, in 1999, he suddenly filmed "Pola X," an adaptation of Melville's bizarre novel "Pierre, Or The Ambiguities." His return sparked some interest, but critics hated "Pola X" about as much as "Lovers On The Bridge." No surprise there -- "Pola X" is even more maximalist and emotional than its predecessor. It's not a "comeback." In this film, Carax so clearly doesn't care if anyone is listening that one can't help but admire him.
Unlike "Lovers On The Bridge," where the plot had a very strong realistic underpinning at its core, "Pola X" is contrived from beginning to end, like the book it's based on. But it is a very impressive and intense film. Objectively, "Lovers On The Bridge" might be "better," but "Pola X" has a way of forcing one's admiration.
Leading man Guillaume Depardieu is the film's biggest strength. Carax's films tend to draw more attention to their director than to their actors, so it may be easy to overlook Depardieu's performance, but it is actually very strong. Like all of Carax's protagonists, Depardieu's character is desperate and obsessed. But Carax's previous favourite actor Denis Lavant always seemed to get some kind of smug self-gratification from exhibiting his pain, whereas Depardieu looks like he's credibly suffering from his mania. This makes a big difference. "Pola X" might be the first Carax film where the protagonist's desperation is genuinely affecting.
Unfortunately, the leading lady is the film's biggest weakness. Katerina Golubeva, as Pierre's long-lost half-sister, is insufferable. She has a huge monologue in one scene where she drones on, and on, and on, in a heavy monotone voice. This is the entire range exhibited by her character. She only talks in this shrill, harsh tone. And she does a lot of wide-eyed, helpless staring. This aspect of the film is not necessarily Carax's fault -- the monologue and the characterization come directly from the source material -- but it's still very irritating. As befits a Carax film, her character is hopelessly selfish, and can think of nothing better to do than to curse her lover for no apparent reason even as he's going mad.
The other actors, however, are all quite good. Delphine Chuillot reminds me of Julie Delpy from "Bad Blood," and actually her character is pretty much identical to that one. She's the saintly, long-suffering Carax heroine, but she has the good grace to suffer quietly and look innocent and pretty. And she makes an actual sacrifice for Pierre, as opposed to Isabelle, who is incapable of doing anything other than dragging him further down.
In "Pola X," there is a sense that Carax has detached himself from his protagonist, and no longer views romantic excess as something glamorous and wonderful. This can be perceived in the scene between Pierre and his publisher. She tells him that his earlier, immature writing was superior to his latest work, precisely because it was in some sense more honest. Pierre is an immature young man, and it is beyond his ability to find any kind of deep, original truth about life, much less shock someone with it. This is echoed later, when Pierre receives a rejection letter that characterizes his writing as "a raving morass which reeks of plagiarism." This is very interesting. If it had merely said "raving morass," then we might be inclined to think that Pierre's writing is actually brilliant, and the world has cruelly misunderstood him. But the part about plagiarism suggests that the publisher may be right.
Pierre even says something to this effect, addressing Isabelle: "I thought I could give you everything, but I have nothing." It's presumptuous to try to read into the director's motives, but Carax might be saying something about himself here. If he spent much of the nineties observing wars, he may have come to find the hip romanticism of his early films to be inadequate. Such a line certainly never appears in any of those films.
Carax's long absence has only improved his visual style. "Pola X" has less expensive visuals than "Lovers On The Bridge," but it rivals the earlier film in grandeur. The brief opening montage of a wartime bombing raid is arguably Carax's most effective image. It's vastly superior to Godard's attempts at something similar in his last film "Notre Musique."
The warehouse is also very impressive, in some way even more than the Pont-Neuf from "Lovers On The Bridge." Like the depiction of Bastille Day in that film, the warehouse scenes combine visuals and sound to great effect. The camera pans over the rusty, forbidding set, while a bunch of stern-faced guys (apparently extremists of some sort) play gloomy, rhythmic music. It's kind of ridiculous, the way Carax sticks this weird industrial band into the set for no apparent reason, but at the same time it somehow reflects and illustrates Pierre's increasingly demented, warped condition. The camera lingers on the rust on the walls and the sharp corners. So, even if the plot of the film makes no sense, at least it's possible to believe it on its own terms while one is watching the film.
If "Pola X" is really Carax's last film, it's a strong conclusion to an unfortunately short career. But, as recently as 2006, there have been rumours that Carax has started work on a new film. Will we see him again?
Description of Pola X
Guillaume depardieu plays a young successful author who finds his life spiraling downward into a world of lies ambiguities and masquerades when he realizes the identity of the woman who has been haunting his dreams. Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 06/19/2007 Starring: Guillaume Depardieu Catherine Deneuve Run time: 134 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Leos CaraxBestsellers in DVD
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