Strangulation Blues

Taking part in a poll for the best films of 1980, I decided to take a glance at French films which came out that year. Having enjoyed (and reviewed) his first three works,I was happy to spot Leos Carax's first movie,leading to me heading out on a Parisian night.

View on the film:

Years before he would hit the big screen with his indie Rock-scored Boy Meets Girl (1984-also reviewed) debut writer/directing auteur Leos Carax plays closer to the French New Wave rather then Cinema du Look, with Carax & cinematographer Bertrand Chatry following Paul on the streets with fluid FNW-style hand-held camera moves captured in grainy black and white.

Displaying a interest in disillusioned youth which would become a major theme in his later works, the screenplay by Carax tightly blends a poetic stream of consciousness with a nervousness over brutal crime,as Paul gets strangulation blues.

Leos Carax first experience behind cameras is artistic yet unusual just like many of his future films such as "Lovers on the Bridge" or "Holy Motors" but unlike those movies where his identity and trade-marks are evidentely worthy of praise and admiration, this early experiment echoes the cinema of Godard each frame goes by. It's not a bad thing to take inspiration on a cinematic master, but it doesn't allow viewers knowing better who is the creator behind the movie since it feels a copy from the master rather than an authoral work. Yet Carax survived, his career went on and proved to be one of the most original and talented film directors of all time with one film better than the other.

"Strangulation Blues" contains a good portion of fine and interesting dialogues even though its action is limited in seeing a couple spending a night in this dark room of which for quite some time we can't see almost anything. Most of the talk is done by the man, a screenwriter who abandoned his girlfriend for a time and when he returned he came back filled with script ideas and he shares them with the girl, who does not care about any of that. But like Godard, most of the time the main guy keeps on rambling on ideas about his script, his adoration for his girl and many random thoughts all at once until somehow he notices that something strange happened to her and he can't quite understand what happened.

The great black-and-white cinematography, use of some cold humor and a couple of well-shot sequences makes of it a somewhat unique experience, showing that the director had some skills of his own rather than just paying tribute (or copying) a veteran filmmaker - which is strange in a way since their cinema and movies have nothing in common. It's a fine picture but hardly ever accessible to audiences where they can form a whole idea about the experience or feel deeply impressed by it. He'd improve a great deal with his first feature "Boy Meets Girl" (1984) which would include his regular actor Denis Lavant. Maybe that's what missing here too...without Lavant you don't feel as if watching an Carax film (see "Pola X" and you'll understand what I'm talking about). Watchable. 6/10.