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Leos Carax

Leos Carax garnered a reputation as both an enfant terrible of contemporary French cinema and heir to the New Wave tradition. Inspired primarily by Jean-Luc Godard, he has written and directed what are clearly personal films. Some critics have objected to the strangeness of the work and though they lack so-called mainstream appeal, Carax's films exhibit a masterful command of filmmaking technique. He has tended to concentrate on one theme, the folly of love, and his first three films all focus on one couple. And just as Francois Truffaut used Jean-Pierre Leaud and Federico Fellini employed Marcello Mastroianni as screen alter egos, Carax (born Alexandre Dupont) has cast actor Dennis Lavant in his first three features as a character named Alex. One could argue simply that Lavant as Alex is a literal stand-in for the director, yet Carax also injects other personal references (i.e., the pun on his birth name in the title of "Les Amants du Pont Neuf," or the use of recurring characters). His work marries private meaningful ideas with an impressive stylistic ability.