A little bit of sci-fi and a little bit of gang warfare. Neither motif is unfamiliar to French film. The approach of Halley's Comet, it's true, is a rarer event, and we might not see it in film again until 2061. In 1986, however, a mysterious virus was highly topical, since AIDs had been classified as a separate illness in 1981. Leos Carax, on othe other, seemed to have arrived from the not-so-distant past. The film critic-turned-director created his film with the same ambition to innovate the language of cinema that the directors of the French New Wave had. And yet he did it differently. In the '80s, a new trend emerged, represented by, in addition to Leos Carax, Jean-Jacques Beineix and Luc Besson. This movement was dubbed the “cinéma du look”.
How does this differ from the earlier French New Wave? Chiefly in that its relationship with reality is different, and instead of turning the world on its head, the style itself had become more important. The cinéma du look admitted concepts from American cinema, which itself had been renewed in the meantime, as well as the mentality of advertising and music videos. So although it doesn't represent a revolution getting underway in the streets, we do see the world depicted more sensitively.

This film screening is sponsored by Institut Français.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest