Product Description

Based on Herman Melville's 1852 novel Pierre: or the Ambiguities, filmmaker LeosCarax (Lovers On The Bridge, Mauvais Sang) presents an ambitious tale of one man's search for the truth in a vague world. A young, successful author (Depardieu) is haunted by a recurring dream of a woman obscured in darkness. After discovering the identity of this mysterious figure, he finds his life spiraling downward into a world of lies, ambiguities and masquerades.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24088 in DVD
• Brand: Genius
• Released on: 2001-04-10
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 134 minutes

Customer Reviews

"SPECTACULAR & VISUALLY STUNNING - A MUST SEE"
Leos Carax's POLA X is truly one of the most engaging films that have come out in the past decade. Throughout the movie Carax (Lovers on the Bridge, Boy Meets Girl) creates a visual poetry which is both innovative & contemporary. The film may create a sombre mood throughout but it engages you to a limit that you start looking at things the way Carax wanted you to.

I am inclined to write the review of this movie because of the various negative publicity & misleading reviews it has received over the years. True, this is not your usual run-on-the mill type even in the art house genre, but it is definitely worth a watch. POLA X( based on Herman Melville's "Pierre, or the Ambiguities") is actually an acronym of the French title of the movie "Pierre, Ou Les Ambiguities"[P-O-L-A]. The 'X' in POLA X derives from the shooting script being Carax's tenth draft of his screenplay. The protagonist Pierre(Guillaume Depardieu),a young novelist coming from a rich family & a prolific background, is writing his new novel but is falling short of new ideas. His otherwise mundane lifestyle turns upside down when he meets a disheveled dark haired girl, Isabelle (Golubeva), who resembles the girl he has been dreaming about for some time. She turns out to be his illegitimate sister, a secret he was kept in dark about for all these years. Pierre finds in her the inspiration for newer ideas & an opportunity to break out of his routine lifestyle. He breaks his engagement to his sweetheart Lucie (Delphine Chuillot) & embarks on a journey with Isabelle - to provide her with all the love, support & protection that the world has denied her & also to stimulate his own creative instincts.

It is definitely disappointing to see that even after so many years of its release, a few minutes sex scene between Pierre & Isabelle seems to get all the attention. It's true that it is graphic but it is sensual - innovatively shot with the use of tricky camera shots, colour & use of light & shadow. Carax didn't want to make it look like one of those "Guide to Sex" videos. I find the pace of the movie quite appropriate that does justice to the unfolding of the story. The scene at the forest where Isabelle talks about her past seems tedious for a first viewing but it settles with you with successive viewings. Isabelle's anxiety, insecurity & pain, which she could not share with anyone for so long, could be shown in that manner only. Also who can forget the background score of Scott Walker which supports the sombre mood & haunts you throughout the movie? Superb Cinematography & clever use of light & shadow techniques makes it a visual treat - completely in sync with the script. In fact this is a film which tries to tell its story visually rather than using long dialogues. I see this film reaching a cult status, may be 25 years down the line, when those Criterion Collection guys will come out with its special edition. But for the time being I will strongly recommend it to those who want a unique cinematic experience & a BREAK from the usual hundred million budgeted HOLLYWOOD Blockbuster crap.

A Blast of Cinematic Energy You Won't Soon Forget
Pola X is a love it or hate it experience. Motorcycles on winding roads it may have, but these roads are not called "Middle."

This film, brought to us by the same man who brought us the intense, passionate, uncomfortable film The Lovers on the Bridge in 1991, revisits some of the same territory of that film here. There is Desperation. Lust. Love. Blindness. Sight. Darkness. Light. Prosperity. Intense Poverty. Artists. Their Art. The Loss of that Art. The Incredible Need to Recapture It. Hunger. Satisfaction. Illness. Life. Death. Pain. Loss. Intense joy. Bitterness. Jealousy. Regret. All in all, the ingredients of what makes a Great, with a capital G Great, film.

Pola X has a light side and an incredibly dark and desolate one. The film starkly separates these sunny and shadowy pieces of our hero's life into two main segments. First we see the light. When the film opens, we meet Guillaume Depardieu, in his beautiful villa, with his beautiful mother, and his beautiful fiance. Next to all this is a beautiful little computer, next to which lies his beautiful little book, which he wrote when even younger, and which he became instantly famous for writing, a sort of cult figure. He is a beautiful young man who has everything. Except his writing, except his muse. Because he has reached a point in his life where everything is so stable and 'flat' that he is beginning to have trouble writing, creating, producing. And this is nagging at him, slightly, like a small child tugging softly at his arm for a piece of candy or a pat on the head. For a while, though, he is happy. Happy smoking a cigarette with his beautiful mother on the lovely sun-dappled lawn, and making love to his fiance with quiet passion in her young room in her own house. Happy with these creatures of light, these creatures which cannot see into him, into his dark self, his true self, his strong, artistic, belligerent self which is knocking at his door, waiting to be let out.

All of this changes when he begins having dreams of a mysterious stranger, who is somehow familiar to him. Then, when in town one day with a friend, he sees a woman, a woman who somehow resembles the woman in his dream. She is following him. He follows her. They find each other. What happens next begins a gigantic odyssey of obsession, artistic fervor, dark secrets and their telling, and a manic intensity which takes our young hero, and all those around him and unravels them, slowly, one thread at a time....

This is riveting, fascinating French cinema. It asks, among other questions, which is more important: Art, or Life? Without a middle ground to choose from, our hero embarks on a desparate, driven attempt to find his Voice. As he peels off all the layers of familiarity and comfort, all health and future plans, in the name of writing again, he starts a slow, solid spin out of control, and ends up almost at the point of death. A must-have for every serious (intense) cinema lover. A raw, exorcising cinematic experience. Five Stars.

A SHOCKING BEAUTY OF A DVD FROM FOX LORBER/WINSTAR!
This DVD is truly shocking all across the board. Leos Carax's film is a study of willful descent into madness by a perfect and dewy blond young Guillaume Depardieu and he informs this film with an understanding of ambiguity and existentialism that I think only the French can express somehow. Carax is masterful! How he got Catherine Deneuve to bare her breasts, I cannot imagine!

Also, pleasureably shocking is how perfect the picture quality and sound on this DVD is. Fox Lorber has often had trouble getting their material up to the standard that DVD can display but this DVD shows they have turned it around. Never again would I hesitate to buy from them - I'll do it gladly! The color saturation and detail of the picture truly preserve the gorgeous original photography. Lastly, this DVD contains the most emotionally honest commentary track I've ever heard by Guillaume Depardieu. If you're buying any Catherine Deneuve or Leos Carax film, buy this.