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IMDbPro

Bad Blood

Original title: Mauvais sang
  • 1986
  • Unrated
  • 1h 45m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
8.9K
YOUR RATING
Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant in Bad Blood (1986)
Leos Carax made his international breakthrough with this swoon-inducing portrait of love among thieves. In the near future, an aging crime lord (Michel Piccoli) recruits young delinquent Alex (Denis Lavant) to steal a locked-up serum designed to fight a mysterious STD. When Alex falls for his boss’s girlfriend (a radiant Juliette Binoche), Mauvais Sang becomes something rarer: an ecstatic depiction of what it feels like to be young, restless and madly in love. With its balletic gestures and bold primary colors, much of the film plays as if through the eyes of its lovesick protagonist. And it hinges on one of the most thrilling scenes in modern movies: Lavant sprinting and cartwheeling through the Parisian night to David Bowie’s “Modern Love,” a bundle of desires set briefly and wildly free.
Play trailer1:45
1 Video
92 Photos
CrimeDramaRomance

As a deadly virus which infects people who have loveless sex sweeps Paris, a lonely pariah attempts to steal a potent antidote, only to fall for the mistress of his partner-in-crime. Is the ... Read allAs a deadly virus which infects people who have loveless sex sweeps Paris, a lonely pariah attempts to steal a potent antidote, only to fall for the mistress of his partner-in-crime. Is the infectious young love the cure to the bad blood?As a deadly virus which infects people who have loveless sex sweeps Paris, a lonely pariah attempts to steal a potent antidote, only to fall for the mistress of his partner-in-crime. Is the infectious young love the cure to the bad blood?

  • Director
    • Leos Carax
  • Writer
    • Leos Carax
  • Stars
    • Michel Piccoli
    • Juliette Binoche
    • Denis Lavant
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.2/10
    8.9K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Leos Carax
    • Writer
      • Leos Carax
    • Stars
      • Michel Piccoli
      • Juliette Binoche
      • Denis Lavant
    • 28User reviews
    • 59Critic reviews
    • 74Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 3 wins & 6 nominations

    Videos1

    MAUVAIS SANG Trailer (restored version, Carlotta Films US 2013)
    Trailer 1:45
    Watch MAUVAIS SANG Trailer (restored version, Carlotta Films US 2013)

    Photos92

    Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant in Bad Blood (1986)
    Denis Lavant in Bad Blood (1986)
    Juliette Binoche in Bad Blood (1986)
    Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant in Bad Blood (1986)
    Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant in Bad Blood (1986)
    Bad Blood (1986)
    Juliette Binoche in Bad Blood (1986)
    Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant in Bad Blood (1986)
    Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant in Bad Blood (1986)
    Bad Blood (1986)
    Bad Blood (1986)
    Bad Blood (1986)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Michel Piccoli
    Michel Piccoli
    • Marc
    Juliette Binoche
    Juliette Binoche
    • Anna
    Denis Lavant
    Denis Lavant
    • Alex
    Hans Meyer
    Hans Meyer
    • Hans
    Julie Delpy
    Julie Delpy
    • Lise
    Carroll Brooks
    • The American woman
    Hugo Pratt
    • Boris
    Mireille Perrier
    Mireille Perrier
    • The young mother
    Serge Reggiani
    Serge Reggiani
    • Charlie
    Jérôme Zucca
    Jérôme Zucca
    • Thomas
    Paul Handford
    Charles Schmitt
    François Négret
    François Négret
    Philippe Fretun
    Thomas Peckre
    Ralph Brown
    Eric Vasberg
      Leos Carax
      Leos Carax
      • Le voyeur du quartier
      • (uncredited)
      • Director
        • Leos Carax
      • Writer
        • Leos Carax
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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      Storyline

      Edit

      Did you know

      Edit
      • Trivia
        An essential film of the Cinema du look movement of France.
      • Quotes

        Alex: I was a frighteningly silent child, apparently. I kept silent... but that's not right. Silence keeps us.

      • Connections
        Featured in À la folie, pas du tout: Episode dated 16 November 1986 (1986)
      • Soundtracks
        Simple Symphony - Variation on a theme of Franck Bridge
        Music by Benjamin Britten

        Chandos Records

        ed. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

      User reviews28

      Review
      Review
      Featured review
      Joint internal flight
      I think music used throughout this reveals quite a bit of the cinematic exercise.

      • Prokofiev's Roméo and Juliette, so a ballet, a cinematic opera on forbidden love between youth that aches to dream. Love that cannot be consummated in the ugly day of light and has to take to dreams, liebestod, Tristan and Isolde.


      • Limelight tied into this, that precious bit of Chaplin beneath the big old sappy narratives that was purely evocative body, that was in essence a dance between innocence and star-crossed fate.


      • David Bowie, 'Modern Love' aptly enough, so the rush of purely energetic instrumentation, dazzling camera beats, irony, New Wave atonality, in this case the song randomly caught on radio and meant to guide feelings, a dadaist gesture. Denis Lavant leaps across the frame with his wiry seething-petite frame that reminds a bit of the old silent comedians, he's a real pleasure to watch just move.


      In something like Beau Travail also with Lavant and operatic, space is arranged bodily, the whole thing is cinematic and flows. Not so here. The guy responsible for this wants to be a little like Godard, so we have the interminable recitations, the poetry, the deliberately crude crime plot where you only need a gun and a girl, always Godard's weaker spots.

      This too bad. Because there are visual moments here that left me practically giddy, for example love as a matter of leaping from a plane, a matter of joint flight and tenderly balancing mid-air.

      Instead we get a patchy, stuttery ride that only now and then blossoms into some internal scenery.

      The opportunity missed is that the eye dances but is not fully consumed with its musical capacity. Nouvelle Vague ruins this by proxy. I like to think that Wong Kar Wai saw this and immediately knew which parts worked.
      helpful•9
      2
      • chaos-rampant
      • Jun 9, 2012

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      Details

      Edit
      • Release date
        • November 26, 1986 (France)
      • Countries of origin
        • Switzerland
        • France
      • Official sites
        • Juliette Binoche: The Art of Being - Official Fansite
        • Official site (Spain)
      • Language
        • French
      • Also known as
        • Mauvais Sang
      • Filming locations
        • Rue Emile Richard, Paris 14, Paris, France(crossing the American Lady on the way to the airfield)
      • Production companies
        • Les Films Plain Chant
        • Soprofilms
        • FR3 Films Production
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Box office

      Edit
      • Gross US & Canada
        • $40,988
      • Opening weekend US & Canada
        • $8,482
        • Dec 1, 2013
      • Gross worldwide
        • $58,731
      See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

      Technical specs

      Edit
      • Runtime
        1 hour 45 minutes
      • Sound mix
        • Mono
      • Aspect ratio
        • 1.66 : 1

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