Based
on Melville's 1852 novel, Pierre, or the Ambiguities, Carax sets this
gothic romance in contemporary France. Pierre, a successful young
writer engaged to the beautiful Lucie, lives in a sumptuous country
chateau in Normandy with his adoring mother. But the recurring dream
of a woman engulfed by darkness haunts him. When a mysterious woman
from the Balkans suddenly shows up claiming to be his half-sister
Isabelle, Pierre sees her as the catalyst of a new life of authenticity.
Together they move to Paris, where they join an alternative community
inhabiting a dark Parisian netherworld. Pierre works feverishly on
his next novel, but his former life dogs him in the form of his fiancée
and a former friend, now a jealous rival for the affections of Lucie.
Trapped between two worlds and two identities, Pierre careers toward
destruction. Carax’s first film since the extravagant box office
disaster, Les Amants du Pont Neuf, POLA X boasts a similar exaggerated
visual style and unabashed hyper-romanticism. The film is both an
allegory of the restless, exploited underclass on which Europe is
built, and a fictional account of Carax’s own struggle to achieve
authenticity in his work despite extraordinary expectations and pressures.
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| PHOTO Courtesy
of Winstar Cinema |
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