Leos Carax

[Matt]

I watched the premiere of Carax's new short, It's Not Me on the Criterion Channel. It was unexpectedly very touching, full of farewells to his collaborators who have died and intermingled clips of his own films, films by others that have inspired him, and even a very cool recreation of an iconic scene from one of his films in an unexpected fashion.

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah that end credits sequence is gold

[Red Screamer]

The strangest thing about it is that it's something of an imitation of Godard's late collage shorts. Which in turn becomes part of its fatherhood theme since Carax claims Godard as one of his fathers early on. I wasn't sure what to make of the film overall, as brilliant audiovisual touches intermingle closely with some pretty shaky ideas. And is that unused footage from Holy Motors? Could be nice to program with the new Jia.

I haven't seen many people mentioning that the film was originally conceived as part of the Centre Pompidou's Where do you stand? / Où en êtes-vous series, which I think adds context to the self-retrospective approach (on top of Carax's usual confessions and alter egos, I mean).

[Matt]

Yeah, it definitely wears its Godard influences on its sleeve. The films own brief mention of its origins, bleeping the name "Pompidou" while flashing a picture of the man, made me laugh out loud.

[swo17]

I wasn't available during the livestream, unfortunately. But I did just watch the new Kleber Mendonça Filho film, which seems very similar

[Stefan Andersson]

Pierre ou les ambiguïtés (Pola X, 180 mins), 2025 restoration showing in Paris March 12:
https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/132713.html

[Zot!]

oh baby, 180 minutes, this is the extended TV cut! I've never seen it. I know this was never well received, but I love it and is the end of the line for me with Carax (I turned Annette off altogether). I hope it shows up sooner rather than later and I will happily go to the theater for this one.

[Oedipax]

Amazing news that this will finally see the light out day outside a fuzzy bootleg. I love the shorter version and can't wait for the insanity that surely unfolds in the extended cut - surely Radiance or Criterion will pick this one up at some point.

[Calvin]

Amazing news that this will finally see the light out day outside a fuzzy bootleg. I love the shorter version and can't wait for the insanity that surely unfolds in the extended cut - surely Radiance or Criterion will pick this one up at some point.

It was on Radiance's 'Failed Licences' list just two months ago as they couldn't track down the UK rightsholder. Why that is apparently difficult who knows.

[Captain Paranoia]

Amazing news that this will finally see the light out day outside a fuzzy bootleg. I love the shorter version and can't wait for the insanity that surely unfolds in the extended cut - surely Radiance or Criterion will pick this one up at some point.

It was on Radiance's 'Failed Licences' list just two months ago as they couldn't track down the UK rightsholder. Why that is apparently difficult who knows.

I do not know who owns the rights to the film (presumably Pathe doesn't have them). The film was produced by Bruno Pesery of Arena Films, who incidentally, also co-produced The Wayward Cloud (as well as a few Claire Denis features that are in dire need of restoration and rerelease on a side note), which had a restoration premiere a few years back yet a wider release is reportedly affected by rights issues connected to him. I do wonder if he's the stumbling block with a rerelease for Pola X as well.

The restoration is credited to Leos Carax, Arena Films at the Cinémathèque française, at Eclair Classics laboratories.

As for UK release, Artificial Eye issued the film on DVD in the mid-2000s as part of their Carax DVD box set and I wouldn't be surprised if they still own the rights as with the most of his filmography (their Carax Blu-Ray - which does not include Pola X - is still in print), and I could picture what is now Curzon doing a new Carax box set with Pola X (and probably even Les Amants du Pont-Nuef if Criterion hasn't secured the UK rights) as they did with Von Trier, Tarr, Haneke, etc...

Janus doesn't have it listed on their site so I assume they don't have US rights ( andthis dims my predictions of Criterion releasing it in North America, let alone as part of a Carax box set) and I sense Radiance has moved on so I'm not expecting them to release it either.
Ideally, I do hope whoever releases the film in North America issues a release with both cuts as well as the Sans Titre (I don't even care if thats been restored or not, but if it was that would be awesome, and I'd be more shocked if a rerelease didn't include it either way) short and much more. (On a final note, I wouldn't be surprised if It's Not Me is included as a supplement on the very likely Criterion of Pont-Neuf)

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I do not know who owns the rights to the film (presumably Pathe doesn't have them). The film was produced by Bruno Pesery of Arena Films, who incidentally, also co-produced The Wayward Cloud (as well as a few Claire Denis features that are in dire need of restoration and rerelease on a side note), which had a restoration premiere a few years back yet a wider release is reportedly affected by rights issues connected to him.

The understanding I have from a source very close to the film is that the issues with The Wayward Cloud were resolved a year or two ago, with Tsai's company taking the Asian rights and Arena (or whatever entity currently controls its assets) taking the rest.

[hedge]

Pierre ou les ambiguïtés (Pola X, 180 mins), 2025 restoration showing in Paris March 12:
https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/132713.html

Unfortunately the longer cut has been restored from a SD master and upscaled to HD because the negative for that material is lost. However, the theatrical version HAS been restored from the negative they just didn’t incorporate the restored theatrical material due to visual inconsistency.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=eXu-zweWBOg ... 0VVxCU-Y_K