Leos Carax’s favourite films of all time
Leos Carax took home the Best Director award at Cannes Film Festival in 2021 for his film in collaboration with the Sparks Brothers, Annette. The bizarre musical, which John Waters labelled a “nutcase masterpiece”, was just another example of Carax’s talents as a filmmaker. The director began creating films when he was 19, after discovering a love of cinema, his “island”, aged 16.
After a string of shorts, Carax made his feature-length debut in 1984 with Boy Meets Girl. The film was the first of many collaborations between Carax and actor Denis Lavant, who also appeared in Mauvais Sang, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, and Holy Motors. With the release of his debut, critics were quick to note Carax’s homage to French New Wave directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, with the New York Times writing, “What’s still missing is the film maker’s own idiosyncratic personality: which, if it exists, could surface in Mr. Carax’s next film.”
Although Mauvis Sang was also compared to French New Wave cinema, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf was recieved much more successfully, becoming the 34th highest-grossing film of 1991 in France. Following this success, Carax moved into more experimental territory with Pola X starring Catherine Deneuve. A loose adaptation of Herman Melville’s novel Pierre; or, The Ambiguities, Pola X has been considered part of the New French Extremity movement, alongside films such as Irreversible, Martyrs and Romance.
It wasn’t until 2012 that Carax made another feature-length film, returning with Holy Motors, heavily inspired by classic French horror Eyes Without A Face, both starring Edith Scob. Critics heavily praised the film, and it was often cited as one of the year’s best films. In 2016, the BBC even labelled Holy Motors as the 16th greatest film of the 21st century. “Films become alive when you spill your doubts and fears into them,” Carax once said. This is apparent in all of the director’s works, especially in his latest work Annette.
Despite Annette‘s surreal and innovative qualities, Carax looks back to the past to find inspiration. When asked to list his favourite movies by LaCinetek, Carax primarily chose films released before the 1960s, with the most modern pick coming from 1994. However, starting with the earliest film on his list, Carax picked J’accuse, released in 1919. The film, directed by French filmmaker Abel Gance, best known for creating the epic silent film Napoleon, juxtaposes the terrors of the First World War with romantic drama. The film helped launch Gance to international acclaim, and he even made an updated version of the story, J’accuse!, in 1938, anticipating the outbreak of WW II.
Carax also picked silent films such as Cœur fidèle, Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid and Merry Go-Round. Another notable work is Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat, starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame. The bleak 1953 thriller is still as shocking today as it was upon its release due to its unrelenting nature and depictions of violence. Furthermore, Carax also cites Red Line 7000 as another favourite, despite director Howard Hawks famously expressing a disliking for the film: “I’m not proud of the picture as a whole.”
It seems as though Carax is a big fan of Hawks, selecting three of his films as his all-time favourites. Similarly, Carax also chose three Ernst Lubitsch films, including Broken Lullaby, and two films by American director King Vidor. Discover the complete list of Carax’s favourite films below…
Leos Carax’s favourite films:
- J’accuse (Abel Gance, 1919)
- The Kid (Charlie Chaplin, 1921)
- Cœur fidèle (Jean Epstein, 1923)
- Merry Go-Round (Erich von Stroheim and Rupert Julian, 1923)
- The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927)
- Show People (King Vidor, 1928)
- Little Lise (Jean Grémillon, 1930)
- One Hour With You (Ernst Lubitsch and George Cukor, 1932)
- Broken Lullaby (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
- Today We Live (Howard Hawks, 1933)
- Angele (Marcel Pagnol, 1935)
- Salty O’Rourke (Raoul Walsh, 1945)
- The Lady From Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)
- The Fountainhead (King Vidor, 1949)
- Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 1952)
- The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)
- Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953)
- Anatahan (Josef von Sternberg, 1953)
- Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
- The Tarnished Angels (Douglas Sirk, 1957)
- Kaagaz Ke Phool (Guru Dutt, 1959)
- Man’s Favourite Sport (Howard Hawks, 1964)
- Red Line 7000 (Howard Hawks, 1965)
- Marie for Memory (Phillipe Garrel, 1968)
- Seasons of the Year (Artavazd Peleshian, 1975)
- France/Tour/Detour/Deux/Enfants (Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville, 1977)
- Berlin Alexanderplatz (Reiner Werner Fassbinder, 1980)
- Whispering Pages (Aleksandr Sokurov, 1994)
