Bad Blood
This noir-ish drama involving a robbery and a doomed love triangle earned director Leos Carax comparisons to David Lynch and Martin Scorsese when it screened at the 1987 Festival. Juliette Binoche stars.
Description
This stunning film by Leos Carax has earned him comparisons with such virtuoso filmmakers as David Lynch and Martin Scorsese. Awarded France’s Prix Delluc as Best Film of 1986, it more than confirms the promise of Boy Meets Girl (The Festival 1985), made when he was only 24. Like Godard’s Pierrot le Fou, Bad Blood’s poetic fireworks are suspended from a noir-ish plot involving a robbery and a doomed love triangle. Declaring its passion for cinema with every frame, the film recalls the best New Wave films of the 1960s but is firmly rooted in a palpable love of working with actors. And Carax is rewarded by magnificent performances from his central trio—Denis Lavant, the versatile mime introduced in Boy Meets Girl, Juliette Binoche (star of Philip Kaufman’s forthcoming film of Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being) and veteran character actor Michel Piccoli. The camerawork of Jean-Yves Escoffier is nothing short of dazzling. —Peter Scarlet
Star Juliette Binoche attended the 1987 Festival screening.
Films from the Vault revisits previously presented titles at the San Francisco International Film Festival, highlighting the Festival’s role in championing emerging artists and iconic auteurs and inviting audiences to rediscover these films anew. – Jessie Fairbanks
Biographies
Leos Carax made short films and wrote film criticism before making his feature debut at 24 with Boy Meets Girl (Festival 1985), the first of the “Alex Trilogy” that would include Bad Blood (Festival 1987) and The Lovers on the Bridge (Festival 1999). Among his other works are Pola X (1999), Tokyo! (2008), Holy Motors (2012), and Annette (2021).
