The Cinematheque

New Restoration

“A movie that explodes in your head for days after you see it.”

Robert Horton, Film Comment

Leos Carax’s spectacular third feature, made in the midst of France’s bicentennial celebrations, is a vivid, visionary valentine to Paris. It’s also one of French cinema’s most notorious boondoggles—a massively over-budget, much-delayed, mega-money-losing debacle the likes of which France had never seen before. Denis Lavant and Juliette Binoche, in her second Carax film, are young vagrants who meet on Paris’s famed Pont-Neuf bridge. Alex (the name of Lavant’s character in each of Carax’s first three films) is a fire-eating street performer and addict. Michèle (Binoche) is a heartbroken painter who is slowly going blind. Carax’s dazzling, delirious chronicle of their amour fou is exhilarating filmmaking. Much of it was shot on a life-size replica of the Pont-Neuf and its environs, built at great expense in southern France. Expect fireworks—both literal and cinematic!

In French with English subtitles

“Could be the great urban expressionistic fantasy of the ​’90s … Carax’s best work to date.”

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

“A one-of-a-kind romantic vision that has managed to outlast the bad hype that surrounded its release … What stands out are the film’s expressive power, elemental imagery, and bona fide poetry. It lives up to its influences while creating something unique and genuinely moving.”

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The A.V. Club