Pola X (1999)

Director:

Leos Carax

Writers:

Leos Carax (writer)
Jean-Pol Fargeau (writer)

Release Date:

12 May 1999 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

A young writer becomes intrigued with a mysterious dark-haired woman who claims to be his long-lost sister and he begin an unusual relationship with her prompting a downward spiral involving his domineering mother and lovely fiancée

Plot Keywords:

Publisher | Long Lost Sister | Secret | Writer | Rain

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Guillaume Depardieu	...	Pierre
Yekaterina Golubeva	...	Isabelle
Catherine Deneuve	...	Marie
Delphine Chuillot	...	Lucie
Laurent Lucas	...	Thibault
Patachou	...	Margherite
Petruta Catana	...	Razerka
Mihaella Silaghi	...	The Child
Sharunas Bartas	...	The Chief
Samuel Dupuy	...	Fred
Mathias Mlekuz	...	TV presenter
Dine Souli	...	Taxi driver
Miguel Yeco	...	Augusto
Khireddine Medjoubi	...	Cafe owner's son
Mark Zak	...	Romanian friend

Also Known As:

Pierre oder Der Kampf mit der Sphinx (Germany) (TV title)
Pierre ou les ambiguïtés (France) (TV title (longer version))

Runtime:

134 min

Country:

France | Switzerland | Germany | Japan

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:Not Rated | Iceland:16 | France:U | Portugal:M/16 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | South Korea:18 (edited version) | Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Gladbeck, North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany

Company:

Arena Films

Trivia:

Pola is an acronym for "Pierre ou les ambiguites," the French translation of the title of the Herman Melville novel on which the film is based.

Quotes:

Margherite: Be careful! You dream of writing a mature work, but your charm lies in your thorough immaturity. You dream of setting fire to God knows what, of rising above your times like a dazzling cloud, leaving everyone terrified and admiring. But you weren't born for that, Pierre! You don't even believe it yourself.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Killing Floor (2007)

Soundtrack:

Isabel

A Beautiful Disaster

Following the mixed fortunes of his previous film, Les Amands du Pont Neuf, Leos Carax returned with an adaptation of Herman Melville's controversial novel, Pierre, or the Ambiguities.

Unfortunately, for Carax and French cinema, Carax's film is a disaster. It may have visual flourishes and unforgettable images, but the film is a tale of two halves. While he first half is beautifully shot an d highly stylised; the tawdry second half is heavy-going and repulsive to watch, replete with brutal political statements that leave little to the imagination. Both halves seem like polar opposites. Maybe this was his intention, but Carax will doubtless lose many viewers after the second half.

Catherine Deneuve is criminally underused, even though she was marketed as the prime appeal of this dire film. Although Guillame Depardieu gives a searing performance, the film s too small and delusional for his towering performance to evolve as anything substantial. The notion of tragedy is clearly evident in the film, but Carax executes his vision poorly. A far better example of such an approach is Choses Secrets, which leaves Pola X in the dust.

The biggest problem with Carax as a director is his lack of subtlety or refinement as am auteur. Working with narrative does not suit his inimitable style as one of the proponents of "cinema du look', a term he most likely despises. What's problematic about his penchant for image over narrative, is the emptiness of his images for the most part. Devoid of meaning, his images are there in Pola X to engage our superficial desire to see rather than any intuition.

What's most disturbing in Pola X is the unrealistic progression from dream-like scenarios to brutal, unforgiving reality. What could have been a dreamlike, ambiguous piece becomes too literal and heavy-handed and embarrassing to watch in its mediocrity.

A pity, Pola X could have been more ambiguous as Melville intended.