Leos Carax, a French filmmaker, discussed the highs and the lows of his 42-year career at Sunday’s Marrakech International Film Festival.
He spoke candidly about the setbacks, doubts about his place on the set during the initial days of a shoot. This was across eight feature director credits that he has accumulated.Boy meets Girl (1984), The Night is Young (1986), Les Amants du Pont Neuf, Pola X, Tokyo!, Holy MotorsAnd Annette.
“With each film, it’s true I’ve only done a few, but I feel like a beginner, a bit like an imposter so I need to lot of tests to get to know the new tools, cameras as the film gets on the road. I become a technician in a way,”He said.
Carax stated that a series near-chance encounters with people who would be long-time collaborators were at the core of his career as director.
He cited Jean-Yves Escoffier (late cinematographer), who shot three of his early movies, and Caroline Champetier (director of photography), with whom he has been working since. Tokyo!; Nelly Quettier is the editor who has edited his films every since Les Amants du Pont NeufHe and his actor “alter-ego”Denis Lavant.
“I’ve been lucky in my encounters. You don’t make cinema without these sorts of encounters,”Carax. “Film is chaos, a lot of chaos. So, you need to find people who won’t be unhappy in this chaos, who will be able to find their place.”
The director described Escoffier, who was just 52 years old, and died in Los Angeles from a heart attack in 2003, as a big brother who helped him transition to color in the second film. The Night is Young (Mauvais SangAfter his black and white debut Boy Meets Girl.
“He was 10 older than me and the same size as me, which is actually quite important when you frame, when you film. He hadn’t done many films at the point either but he had an immense amount of knowledge. We were both young. He became like a big brother.”
Carax explained that his long career with Lavant had been rocky. In fact, he had cast Lavant as the default actor in his film. Boy meets GirlMireille Perrier was her opposite.
“I had the girl, my girlfriend at the time, but I couldn’t find the boy. I was looking on the street among actors, musicians. I visited the unemployment agency for actors where actors seeking work can leave their portfolios. I was struck by Denis Lavant’s photograph and thought that he had an unusual face.
“We met, he was interested in the circus and had done theatre, and also written some texts. I don’t think he was tempted by cinema. In the end, I almost took him almost by default because I hadn’t found anything better. He was my age and my build. We through ourselves into it without much conviction.”
The talk also touched on the difficult circumstances around the three-year production of Carax’s Les Amants du Pont Neuf, where he had the famed Paris bridge and the banks on the River Seine reconstructed by Lansargues just outside Montpellier. It was one of most expensive sets in French cinema’s history.
“It took three years and in my mind it’s three separate productions. There was immense support, but there was also hate, which is normal. The film started out as small, and then grew after we had to build the set, an actor was hurt, then there was the storm (which damaged the set). Did I learn anything, I’m not sure… it was difficult. It meant I didn’t do another film for nearly ten years.”
Carax admitted that he would be making his next movie, the 1999 sci-fi thriller. Pola XHe was a failure at the box-office and was left wondering if he would ever make another film.
He credits Michiko Yoshitake, a late Japanese producer based in Paris, for getting him back behind the lens. She invited him to film one of the sections of the 3-part film. Tokyo!,Michel Gondry, Bong JoonHo and Bong Hoon Ho were the stars of the other parts.
“No was offering me anything at the time. They gave me carte blanche. The only stipulation was that it needed to shoot in Tokyo. I was reunited with Denis. I had a lot of pleasure inventing the language, the style. It was a lot of fun and it did me good”