FRANCE: LEOS CARAX' S FILM "POLA X" ABOUT INCEST, IS THE FIRST OF COMPETING FILMS SHOWN AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Record ID: 388391

  • Title: FRANCE: LEOS CARAX' S FILM "POLA X" ABOUT INCEST, IS THE FIRST OF COMPETING FILMS SHOWN AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
  • Date: 15th May 1999
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 13, 1999) (REUTERS) ( ** BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) CANNES BEAUTY SHOTS AND PAN TO BOATS AT SEA PEOPLE ON THE CROISETTE GIANT POSTER "POLA X" CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 13, 1999) (REUTERS) PALAIS DES FESTIVALS CROWD GATHERED OUTSIDE PALAIS DES FESTIVALS KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS ARRIVING AT PALAIS AND POSING IN FRONT OF PHOTOGRAPHERS CUTAWAY OF PHOTOGRAP
  • Embargoed: 30th May 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CANNES, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA79OS4GLD9HUKAXEN52L3V06UI
  • Story Text: French director Leos Carax's dark Palmes d'Or entry,
    "Pola X" about incest, has won both ecstatic praise and virulent criticism at the Cannes film Festival.It is the first of 22 films in competition to be screened.
    Carax attended the official screening of "Pola X"
    accompanied by the film's starrring actors, Catherine Deneuve and Guillaume Depardieu on Thursday (May 13).
    Pola X, a film based on Herman Melville's novel "Pierre : or the Ambiguities", is the first Palme D'Or entry at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
    Starring Guillaume Depardieu (son of "Green Card actor Gerard Depardieu) as Pierre, a handsome young aristocrat who lives in a Normandy chateau with his mother, (Catherine Deneueve), "Pola X" was the object of tremendous media hype before its screening, largely because of the personality of its director.
    Carax, who rarely appears in public is a much-worshipped cult figure in France.He attended a news conference following his film's press screening, on Thursday, to discuss his latest work.
    In "Pola X", the discovery by Depardieu's character of an abandoned half-sister, Isabelle, leads him to call off his imminent marriage, and flee with his sibling to a life of poverty.
    They live with a strange sect in a filthy warehouse on the outskirts of Paris where Pierre attempts to write a second novel, and eventually he and Isabelle become lovers.
    Their love-making is depicted in an extremely graphic scene."That scene was very difficult for me.It was difficult to get myself in the right physical state," said Depardieu, son of the actor Gerard Depardieu.
    Defending his very controversial offering, Carax said: "This is not the image of myself, perhaps these cliches are in your heads.He is a heroe, he is a guy who does what he wants to do but he is not ready, he asks too much of God and then he rebels and then he falls."
    Difficult to finance because of the repeated delays, interruptions and huge expense of "Les Amants du Pont Neuf", his last film which flopped at the box office, "Pola X" is a strange, violent and frightening film.
    What might be an indication of the disappointment with "Pola X" was Deneuve's absence from the press conference.
    However, France's most elegant screen siren, ascended the red-carpeted steps at the Festival palace and posed for the paparazzi beforethe official screening, held in the evening.
    Judging by inital reactions from critics, "Pola X" is unlikely to be the winner of this year's Palmes D'Or though they admit that Carax clearly has a skilled and dramatic sense of cinematography.
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