Customer Reviews

Pola X (Widescreen Edition) [VHS]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Leos Carax's POLA X is truly one of the most engaging films that have come out in the past decade. Throughout the movie Carax (Lovers on the Bridge, Boy Meets Girl) creates a visual poetry which is both innovative & contemporary. The film may create a sombre mood throughout but it engages you to a limit that you start looking at things the way Carax wanted you to.

I am inclined to write the review of this movie because of the various negative publicity & misleading reviews it has received over the years. True, this is not your usual run-on-the mill type even in the art house genre, but it is definitely worth a watch. POLA X( based on Herman Melville's "Pierre, or the Ambiguities") is actually an acronym of the French title of the movie "Pierre, Ou Les Ambiguities"[P-O-L-A]. The 'X' in POLA X derives from the shooting script being Carax's tenth draft of his screenplay. The protagonist Pierre(Guillaume Depardieu),a young novelist coming from a rich family & a prolific background, is writing his new novel but is falling short of new ideas. His otherwise mundane lifestyle turns upside down when he meets a disheveled dark haired girl, Isabelle (Golubeva), who resembles the girl he has been dreaming about for some time. She turns out to be his illegitimate sister, a secret he was kept in dark about for all these years. Pierre finds in her the inspiration for newer ideas & an opportunity to break out of his routine lifestyle. He breaks his engagement to his sweetheart Lucie (Delphine Chuillot) & embarks on a journey with Isabelle - to provide her with all the love, support & protection that the world has denied her & also to stimulate his own creative instincts.

It is definitely disappointing to see that even after so many years of its release, a few minutes sex scene between Pierre & Isabelle seems to get all the attention. It's true that it is graphic but it is sensual - innovatively shot with the use of tricky camera shots, colour & use of light & shadow. Carax didn't want to make it look like one of those "Guide to Sex" videos. I find the pace of the movie quite appropriate that does justice to the unfolding of the story. The scene at the forest where Isabelle talks about her past seems tedious for a first viewing but it settles with you with successive viewings. Isabelle's anxiety, insecurity & pain, which she could not share with anyone for so long, could be shown in that manner only. Also who can forget the background score of Scott Walker which supports the sombre mood & haunts you throughout the movie? Superb Cinematography & clever use of light & shadow techniques makes it a visual treat - completely in sync with the script. In fact this is a film which tries to tell its story visually rather than using long dialogues. I see this film reaching a cult status, may be 25 years down the line, when those Criterion Collection guys will come out with its special edition. But for the time being I will strongly recommend it to those who want a unique cinematic experience & a BREAK from the usual hundred million budgeted HOLLYWOOD Blockbuster crap.

Pola X is a love it or hate it experience. Motorcycles on winding roads it may have, but these roads are not called "Middle."

This film, brought to us by the same man who brought us the intense, passionate, uncomfortable film The Lovers on the Bridge in 1991, revisits some of the same territory of that film here. There is Desperation. Lust. Love. Blindness. Sight. Darkness. Light. Prosperity. Intense Poverty. Artists. Their Art. The Loss of that Art. The Incredible Need to Recapture It. Hunger. Satisfaction. Illness. Life. Death. Pain. Loss. Intense joy. Bitterness. Jealousy. Regret. All in all, the ingredients of what makes a Great, with a capital G Great, film.

Pola X has a light side and an incredibly dark and desolate one. The film starkly separates these sunny and shadowy pieces of our hero's life into two main segments. First we see the light. When the film opens, we meet Guillaume Depardieu, in his beautiful villa, with his beautiful mother, and his beautiful fiance. Next to all this is a beautiful little computer, next to which lies his beautiful little book, which he wrote when even younger, and which he became instantly famous for writing, a sort of cult figure. He is a beautiful young man who has everything. Except his writing, except his muse. Because he has reached a point in his life where everything is so stable and 'flat' that he is beginning to have trouble writing, creating, producing. And this is nagging at him, slightly, like a small child tugging softly at his arm for a piece of candy or a pat on the head. For a while, though, he is happy. Happy smoking a cigarette with his beautiful mother on the lovely sun-dappled lawn, and making love to his fiance with quiet passion in her young room in her own house. Happy with these creatures of light, these creatures which cannot see into him, into his dark self, his true self, his strong, artistic, belligerent self which is knocking at his door, waiting to be let out.

All of this changes when he begins having dreams of a mysterious stranger, who is somehow familiar to him. Then, when in town one day with a friend, he sees a woman, a woman who somehow resembles the woman in his dream. She is following him. He follows her. They find each other. What happens next begins a gigantic odyssey of obsession, artistic fervor, dark secrets and their telling, and a manic intensity which takes our young hero, and all those around him and unravels them, slowly, one thread at a time....

This is riveting, fascinating French cinema. It asks, among other questions, which is more important: Art, or Life? Without a middle ground to choose from, our hero embarks on a desparate, driven attempt to find his Voice. As he peels off all the layers of familiarity and comfort, all health and future plans, in the name of writing again, he starts a slow, solid spin out of control, and ends up almost at the point of death. A must-have for every serious (intense) cinema lover. A raw, exorcising cinematic experience. Five Stars.

This DVD is truly shocking all across the board. Leos Carax's film is a study of willful descent into madness by a perfect and dewy blond young Guillaume Depardieu and he informs this film with an understanding of ambiguity and existentialism that I think only the French can express somehow. Carax is masterful! How he got Catherine Deneuve to bare her breasts, I cannot imagine!

Also, pleasureably shocking is how perfect the picture quality and sound on this DVD is. Fox Lorber has often had trouble getting their material up to the standard that DVD can display but this DVD shows they have turned it around. Never again would I hesitate to buy from them - I'll do it gladly! The color saturation and detail of the picture truly preserve the gorgeous original photography. Lastly, this DVD contains the most emotionally honest commentary track I've ever heard by Guillaume Depardieu. If you're buying any Catherine Deneuve or Leos Carax film, buy this.

Why good old Leos would think to turn Melville's infamous classic "Pierre or the Ambiguities" into a film is beyond me. Aside from the fact that the book is loaded with themes which cannot be communicated through the medium of film, it's a problematic novel in and of itself. The fact that the book is problematic though should not be seen as a slander because it is reveals itself as one of the book's virtues (with many). That being said, with POLA X, you have a film filled with impressions and beautiful visions, but a work that needs the focus that Leos is incapable of giving. Guillaume Depardieu deserved to win awards for this film, for his work is truly quite brave and moving. I however cannot make the same statement about Golubeva, someone who's only reason for being cast is that wild head of hair she's got. Golubeva est terrible. Deneuve is well Deneuve, which is to say she's quite above reproach (at least to me).
Now, is one is looking for a film of strength aesthetically, look no further. THe scene where Isabel tells Pierre of her past in the woods is quite a sight and worthy of a review by itself; Brother and Sister (possibly) walk through the ashes of the past, both ghosts of what has never been and always been, doomed to die by corrosion and the discovery of the meaning of death, which is to say, of the unknown. Along the same lines, when Pierre's mother (Deneuve) gets on his father's bike and rides through the black woods only to crash and lay wounded as the flaming bike comes towards her, we get a feeling for what the entire film could have (and should have)been.
THe problem with the film is that it concentrates where perhaps it shouldn't and wanders where it should be still. Leos Carax is far from being a useless filmmaker, and his attempt at something great here is quite commendable. But, his films are never perfect (as are many of the masters' works)and this is no exception. Pola X is a beautiful, disquieting, pusillanimous mess of a film. I'd like to give it five stars for risk but risk alone doesn't make masterpieces.
(For those interested in a real examination of incest, death, God, and existence, check out Bergman's similarly themed 'THE SILENCE', a five star film!)

In 1992, Leos Carax's career as a film-maker seemed to be over. His film "Lovers On The Bridge," a collection of visual and sensory extremes that took years to complete and bankrupted three producers in the process, received uniformly bad reviews and failed at the box office. No one wanted to work with Carax or sponsor any more of his work.

Carax disappeared. According to later interviews, he spent much of the nineties in the Balkans, observing the various wars there up close. Then, in 1999, he suddenly filmed "Pola X," an adaptation of Melville's bizarre novel "Pierre, Or The Ambiguities." His return sparked some interest, but critics hated "Pola X" about as much as "Lovers On The Bridge." No surprise there -- "Pola X" is even more maximalist and emotional than its predecessor. It's not a "comeback." In this film, Carax so clearly doesn't care if anyone is listening that one can't help but admire him.

Unlike "Lovers On The Bridge," where the plot had a very strong realistic underpinning at its core, "Pola X" is contrived from beginning to end, like the book it's based on. But it is a very impressive and intense film. Objectively, "Lovers On The Bridge" might be "better," but "Pola X" has a way of forcing one's admiration.

Leading man Guillaume Depardieu is the film's biggest strength. Carax's films tend to draw more attention to their director than to their actors, so it may be easy to overlook Depardieu's performance, but it is actually very strong. Like all of Carax's protagonists, Depardieu's character is desperate and obsessed. But Carax's previous favourite actor Denis Lavant always seemed to get some kind of smug self-gratification from exhibiting his pain, whereas Depardieu looks like he's credibly suffering from his mania. This makes a big difference. "Pola X" might be the first Carax film where the protagonist's desperation is genuinely affecting.

Unfortunately, the leading lady is the film's biggest weakness. Katerina Golubeva, as Pierre's long-lost half-sister, is insufferable. She has a huge monologue in one scene where she drones on, and on, and on, in a heavy monotone voice. This is the entire range exhibited by her character. She only talks in this shrill, harsh tone. And she does a lot of wide-eyed, helpless staring. This aspect of the film is not necessarily Carax's fault -- the monologue and the characterization come directly from the source material -- but it's still very irritating. As befits a Carax film, her character is hopelessly selfish, and can think of nothing better to do than to curse her lover for no apparent reason even as he's going mad.

The other actors, however, are all quite good. Delphine Chuillot reminds me of Julie Delpy from "Bad Blood," and actually her character is pretty much identical to that one. She's the saintly, long-suffering Carax heroine, but she has the good grace to suffer quietly and look innocent and pretty. And she makes an actual sacrifice for Pierre, as opposed to Isabelle, who is incapable of doing anything other than dragging him further down.

In "Pola X," there is a sense that Carax has detached himself from his protagonist, and no longer views romantic excess as something glamorous and wonderful. This can be perceived in the scene between Pierre and his publisher. She tells him that his earlier, immature writing was superior to his latest work, precisely because it was in some sense more honest. Pierre is an immature young man, and it is beyond his ability to find any kind of deep, original truth about life, much less shock someone with it. This is echoed later, when Pierre receives a rejection letter that characterizes his writing as "a raving morass which reeks of plagiarism." This is very interesting. If it had merely said "raving morass," then we might be inclined to think that Pierre's writing is actually brilliant, and the world has cruelly misunderstood him. But the part about plagiarism suggests that the publisher may be right.

Pierre even says something to this effect, addressing Isabelle: "I thought I could give you everything, but I have nothing." It's presumptuous to try to read into the director's motives, but Carax might be saying something about himself here. If he spent much of the nineties observing wars, he may have come to find the hip romanticism of his early films to be inadequate. Such a line certainly never appears in any of those films.

Carax's long absence has only improved his visual style. "Pola X" has less expensive visuals than "Lovers On The Bridge," but it rivals the earlier film in grandeur. The brief opening montage of a wartime bombing raid is arguably Carax's most effective image. It's vastly superior to Godard's attempts at something similar in his last film "Notre Musique."

The warehouse is also very impressive, in some way even more than the Pont-Neuf from "Lovers On The Bridge." Like the depiction of Bastille Day in that film, the warehouse scenes combine visuals and sound to great effect. The camera pans over the rusty, forbidding set, while a bunch of stern-faced guys (apparently extremists of some sort) play gloomy, rhythmic music. It's kind of ridiculous, the way Carax sticks this weird industrial band into the set for no apparent reason, but at the same time it somehow reflects and illustrates Pierre's increasingly demented, warped condition. The camera lingers on the rust on the walls and the sharp corners. So, even if the plot of the film makes no sense, at least it's possible to believe it on its own terms while one is watching the film.

If "Pola X" is really Carax's last film, it's a strong conclusion to an unfortunately short career. But, as recently as 2006, there have been rumours that Carax has started work on a new film. Will we see him again?

To all of you who wish to obtain the movie -please, do so without reading any of the reviews (they will just make the confusion even greater) Carax's film is too intensively beautiful to be judged in any way. Pola X is all about abstraction, visualization, feeling, sensitivity and mind at a higher degree. If you feel comfortable with yourself and ready to explore new ideas and visions then go for the movie, if not - don't end up writing misleading reviews.
Evidently Hollywood has brain washed a lot of heads around and not all of us have managed to retain a real appreciation for a pure, innovative, artistic work. Qualities that Pola X possesses.
I assume I will not be an exception of the rule and will devote some time on the love scene. Yes, it is a real punishment for Puritan America. Yes, it is sensual and arousing. For all of us who have made real love to the degree when you are even afraid to touch the other's skin: we'll understand the scene - for the others remain the use of the word "sex".
There is an enormous set of details throughout the movie, which will help you better understand and appreciate it. The first line, the first shot - even the title
The film is not for people complaining about their burned croissant on he breakfast table. In order to survive through the movie you must have learned how to survive in live.

Pola X is at once the most accessible and least interesting film from infant terrible Leos Carax. His modernised adaptation of Herman Melville's Pierre, or The Ambiguities is certainly less disjointed than his other features, but it lacks the inspired standout moments that make them worth watching even if they don't entirely work. If you're expecting something like the joyful sequence set to David Bowie's When I Live My Dream in Boy Meets Girl you'll be bitterly disappointed: this is a joyless film that wanders into unintentional self-parody without ever providing much to smile about. This is self-conscious Miserablism in the classic tradition.

It starts out as glacially classical French film-making before moving more into better photographed nouvelle vague with all the usual clichés - self-indulgent disaffected hero (Guillaume Depardieu) flirting with ill-defined violent politics in the pursuit of an equally ill-defined truth while constantly lying to himself; utterly hopeless leading lady (Katerina Golubeva) that either producer or director wants to have sex with delivering a pitifully bad and painfully stilted performance; 'daring' unsimulated sex scene (albeit featuring body doubles); clumsy symbolism and a bleak-chic ending you don't need to have read the book to see coming. There's an interesting note of criticism in the anti-hero's search for truth in poverty and his need to increasingly create a fiction to support his self-image (he persuades his sister to pose as his wife and his fiancé to pose as his sister and while desperate for money constantly refuses to touch the money he and his family have) and it earns Brownie points for its attitude to racism in France, but it's not quite enough. Jacques Rivette declared it the best French film of the last ten years, but I guess that just implies he doesn't see many French films these days.

I had a copy of "Pierre," the Herman Melville book the movie is based on, and could never quite finish it. I gave it to my boyfriend, who did read it, and then told me about this movie. I found it VERY helpful to watch this movie with someone who had read Pierre, since it fills in some gaps for the characters' motives which isn't at all obvious in the film.

Basic, basic plot: Young man is in love, also kind of sketchy dynamic with his mom. Meets woman who claims to be his half-sister. He decides to abandon his secure life to run off with her, and the results are not good.

Guillaume Depardieu, as well as the two female supporting characters in the form of his girlfriend and the half-sister, do their best in a movie that is just a little too difficult to follow without a knowledge of what Melville had in mind. Catherine Deneuve isn't in the movie enough - she is powerful, beautiful, and absolutely packs in the psychological compulsion that make her scenes the most fun in a mostly humorless movie.

Guillaume Depardieu died a week ago. I am sure that his father, Gerard, was proud of him, but I would have been particularly so given his ability to take on such a potentially ridiculous screenplay and bring it closer to the psychological turmoil that comes across more obviously in the original book.

recommended for: arthouse freaks who would like everyone to know that they also read Melville.

p.s. I didn't find it THAT sexually explicit, particularly for a French film, but there's one scene a lot of reviewers refer to, and yes, it's pretty crazy, but not in an x-rated way. More in a "whoa?! what?" way.

"Faithful readers will know I have an affection for raving lunatics," Roger Ebert says about Carax's Pola X, "and am grateful for films that break free of the dismal bonds of formula to cartwheel into overwrought passionate excess."

Carax (1960) is an acquired taste, and his films are not for everyone. With Boy Meets Girl (1984), Mauvais Sang (1986), The Lovers on the Bridge (1991), Pola X (2000), and Process (2005), the French film director established a cult following with his poetic film style and depictions of tortured love. Loosely based on Herman Melville's 1852 novel, Pierre: or, The Ambiguities, but set in contemporary France, Pola X tells the controversial (as in incestuous) story of Pierre (Guillaume Depardieu--Gerard Depardieu's son), a young, successful writer, who lives with his domineering mother (Catherine Deneuve). They refer to each other as "my brother" and "my sister." Although he is about to marry his lovely blond cousin, Lucie (Delphine Chuillot), it is another dark-haired woman who haunts Pierre's dreams. When he eventually meets the mysterious woman named Isabelle (Yekaterina Golubeva), she claims to be his long-lost sister. Whereas Lucie is traditional and cultured, Isabelle is streetwise and feral. "All my life I have waited for something that would push me beyond all this," Pierre says, referring to his privileged life. Then, in a series of reckless gestures he hopes will lead him to "the truth," Pierre falls in love with his sister, breaks off his engagement with Lucie, and moves to Paris with Isabelle. When Lucie eventually comes to live with them, Pierre's life spirals downward into despair. Like my favorite Carax film, Lovers on a Bridge, Pola X is more than a movie. It's an experience. Recommended.

G. Merritt

this film is carax at his most mature, simply following the paths of godard and truffaut to their inevitable conclusion, a sort of enforced envolution of cinematic language. i liken carax to gustave mahler: half-disillusioned with the possibilities of his influences, but still dedicated to seeing them through to the end. there's not much else to say about the film. either you see where he's going or you don't; either you respect the innovation or you don't; either you're onboard for the experimentation or you're seasick, yet still docked. in the end, shutting down too quickly may mean missing out on a new artistic language, a new development in structure and meaning.