Pola X (1999)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

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:

Writer | Normandy | Novelist | Male Frontal Nudity | Brother Sister Relationship

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:

Come, Ye Sons of Art

Carax couldn't tell us his story, but wasn't it on purpose?

"pola x" is based on the novel "pierre ou les ambiguités" by Melville which is about a writer who can't manage to write his second movie. There's everything in this film: a good story, interesting characters whose feelings evolved along the film. But Carax messed it up: actors aren't well directed, the story is very badly told. The only good point is that there sometimes are very nice and emotive pictures. But the very fact that the movie is a failure may be the main point of it: the incapacity to write was the topic of Melville's book, the incapacity to direct may be the topic that Carax wanted to explore.