‘Strangulation Blues’: The first film by Leos Carax
Due to the indescribable nature of his works, Leos Carax has carved out a unique space for himself within the landscape of contemporary French cinema. Known for his poetic features such as Boy Meets Girl and Mauvais Sang, Carax’s romantic approach to film art and his early penchant for tortured love stories helped the French director develop a strong global following.
While Carax pushed the boundaries of the cinematic medium in Holy Motors, many fans still maintain that his run in the 1980s remains his greatest achievement. His first feature, Boy Meets Girl, attracted attention from critics and cinephiles all over the world because it highlighted Carax’s greatest strengths. Starring Denis Lavant, the film tells the story of an aspiring director who meets a suicidal young woman after a terrible breakup.
However, that wasn’t Carax’s first film. In fact, his filmmaking career actually commenced with a series of short films that came before Boy Meets Girl. The first of them is a 1980 short titled Strangulation Love, made when Carax was just starting his 20s. For those who love toxic romances, you’re in for a treat. It revolves around Paul and Colette, two listless young lovers who only decided to be together because they looked good in a photograph (predicting the rise of social media relationships).
Carax’s relationship with cinephilia is on full display in Strangulation Love. During an interview published by Projectorhead, Carax recalled: “As a kid, I liked going to the movies, like any kid. I went for the actors. The new Charles Bronson film, the new Marlon Brando film. But I discovered cinema, that there was someone behind the camera, when I was 16, when I moved to Paris. I saw a lot of movies at the Cinématheque.”
However, the director maintained that he wasn’t a student of cinema and actually bluffed his way into the industry: “I didn’t study films, I didn’t go to shoots so from the beginning it was kind of a bluff when I would go to people and say, ‘Give me money, I know how to make films’. It’s always been like that. I don’t feel like a filmmaker, for me each time I make a film it’s like my first film and my last film. So short films are not really exciting for me.”
If you’re a fan of Carax’s romantic visions from the ’80s, Strangulation Blues is a film that is specifically made for you. It’s a film about the performativity of relationships, involving two people whose desires are too contradictory for any kind of reconciliation. Paul tells Colette: “But you inspire nothing in me, merely a verse, not a single damn movie shot.” It’s also a film where the guy thinks he accidentally choked his girlfriend to death and immediately leaves for a nice drive through the streets of Paris while smoking a cigarette. Yes, this is as French as it can get.
Watch Strangulation Blues below.
