Leos Carax

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Leos Carax at the Cannes International Film Festival 2012

Leos Carax (born November 22, 1960 in Suresnes , France , actually Alexandre Oscar Dupont ) is a French film director .

Life

Leos Carax was born as Alexandre Oscar Dupont . His stage name is an anagram of his first names Alex and Oscar (Alex and Oscar are also the characters played by actor Denis Lavant in Carax's films). Carax was enthusiastic about astronomy and oceanography in his youth before he became interested in film. Before his career as a director, he worked as a film critic for the magazine Cahiers du cinéma .

Carax first became known when he surprisingly won the Prix ​​de la jeunesse in Cannes in 1984 for his first feature film Boy Meets Girl . With his subsequent film The Night is Young he was able to achieve success at the Berlinale, among other places . For his film Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991) had almost four years needed Carax, as unpredictable events the production time extended and production costs drove up. At the time, the film was considered the most expensive film in France.

In 1999, Carax returned with his controversial film Pola X , but it failed both critics and viewers.

After Pola X , Carax tried unsuccessfully for five years to get funding for his English-language directorial debut, Scars , for which production costs of 13 million euros had been estimated. The film, for which actresses such as Uma Thurman or Milla Jovovich were named, was designed as a comedic road movie in the United States with musical elements and “visual fantasies”. However, the project could never be realized. During this time, Carax devoted himself to short films, including Merde , which was part of the episode film Tokyo! (2008) was published together with works by Michel Gondry and Bong Joon-ho .

Out of frustration at the failed film project, Carax made the feature film Holy Motors in 2012 . In it, Carax's regular actor Denis Lavant plays a mysterious man who changes his identities - from employer, murderer and beggar to his father. The film - in other roles with Eva Mendes , Kylie Minogue and Michel Piccoli - received an invitation to the competition at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2012 , but it did not receive a prize. In the same year he was awarded the Honorary Leopard for Lifetime Achievement at the Locarno International Film Festival .

Leos Carax is described as difficult and silent in the film industry. He has hardly given interviews and little is known about his personal life.

Filmography

Awards

  • 1984: Prix de la jeunesse at the Cannes International Film Festival for Boy Meets Girl
  • 1986: Louis Delluc Prize for The Night is Young
  • 1987: Alfred Bauer Prize and CICAE Prize (Honorable Mention) for The Night is Young
  • 2008: Titra Prize, Jury Prize and Youth Jury Prize of the Neuchâtel International Fantasy Film Festival for Tokyo (together with Michel Gondry and Bong Joon-ho)
  • 2012: Honorary Leopard (Lifetime Achievement Prize) at the Locarno International Film Festival

Web links

literature

  • Peter Fröhlich: [Article] Leos Carax. In: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Film directors. Biographies, descriptions of works, filmographies. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008 [1. Ed. 1999], ISBN 978-3-15-010662-4 , pp. 111-113.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Léos Carax . In: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 24/2000 from June 5, 2000 (accessed via Munzinger Online ).
  2. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy: Assayas producer drums up starry slate . In: Screen International , May 13, 2004 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  3. ↑ Description at critic.de (accessed on April 22, 2012).
  4. ↑ The Pardo d'onore Swisscom goes to Leos Carax at pardolive.ch, June 21, 2012 (accessed on July 3, 2012).
personal data
SURNAME Carax, Leos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dupont, Alexandre Oscar (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French film director
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Suresnes , France