Leos Carax made Boy Meets Girl when he was 23 and you’d never be able to tell judging from his virtuoso use of the camera, surrealistic sense of humor and his stunning compositions. The film stars Denis Lavant as an amateur filmmaker and Mireille Perrier as a suicidal model and the object Alex’s affection. With references to the French New Wave, David Bowie and Buñuel, Boy Meets Girl feels as fresh now as it did when it was originally released. Now, thirty years after its premiere, a new restoration of the film is being presented at Film Forum from August 8-14 (set to be followed by a one-week Carax Festival) and here we give you five reasons why you can not miss it.
It’s easy to assume that a young artist will only know/want to talk about himself, yet looking back at the film - especially after having watched all of Carax’s oeuvre - it becomes evident that through Alex, Carax was trying to exorcise his own demons. From his name (Carax was born Alex Christophe Dupont), to the fact that he would use Lavant again and again as his alter-ego, Boy Meets Girl presents us with a sincere portrait of a youth in turmoil.
Carax has never shied away from sharing his love for other filmmakers and artists (the whole of Holy Motors was inspired by a single image from Eyes Without a Face!) and in Boy Meets Girl, his references to German Expressionism and silent cinema are so full of admiration and respect that you’ll wish you could frame every shot just so you can take in their beauty and layers.
“When Mozart was my age he’d been dead for two years” says a guest at a party that looks straight out of a Fellini nightmare. By the end of this movie, you’ll only want to be talking in quotes from it.
2. Mireille as a Silent Cinema Heroine
Boy Meets Girl often serves as an ode to silent cinema; there is a strange exchange between a mute character and Alex during a scene in which the former explains, “I was a grip when movies were as silent as I am”, before going on and on about his experiences during the 1920s. But Carax’s love for silent cinema is perhaps most obvious in the way in which he shoots Mireille, who he conceived as a Lillian Gish figure. In fact, there are moments when she is so exquisitely show that she looks like Falconetti.
Part hero, part clown, part sad-sack, part spoiled brat, part philosopher, part romantic lead, part creep, part lovable goof, part loser...all endlessly watchable, Alex is one of Lavant’s greatest creations. "I'm going to wind up a loser. Yet I stood a chance. I wanted to be someone outstanding: flyer, traveler, musician... Can't I be reborn?" he asks, few characters have captured the ennui, anxiety and energy of being in your early twenties, like Alex.
Boy Meets Girl plays at Film Forum on August 8-14. For more information and tickets click here.