I was riveted by Leos Carax’s Holy Motors last year, and its undulating strange vision of theatrical transformation, almost vaudevillian in objective and feel. It was a burlesque act, a contemplation of what it means to transform in the first place, the roles we play and inhabit, brought to us by the almost otherworldly talents (physical and emotional) of its star, regular Carax colleague, Denis Lavant. I have never seen Mauvais Sang, from 1986, however, despite the fact that it is a favorite of many people I love and respect. It played last week at the Film Forum in a new restoration and I finally got my ass down there to check it out. One of the reasons why I made sure I saw it, despite these busy bustling times, is that my good friend Charles Taylor wrote about Mauvais Sang and its new restoration for the L.A. Review of Books. It is a must-read, just like Mauvais Sang is a must-see. I can’t even begin to summarize Charley’s essay, it can’t be summarized. If his essay doesn’t make you want to see the film, then there is no hope for you.
Starring Lavant, again, as well as Juliette Binoche and Julie Delpy (both tremblingly alive and effective), Mauvais Sang is overwhelming. It’s hilarious, emotional, gorgeous, independent, a genre-nod to heist flicks of the past, and slapstick comedies (there’s a Laurel and Hardy nod) with an exhilarating “Modern Love” dance break, wiping any memory of Kevin Bacon in Footloose from your head. I left the matinee a bit emotionally re-arranged, shaken up, stirred. I can’t get it out of my head. One scene in particular, a scene involving a parachute jump gone awry, is so beautiful that it reached a level of profundity usually found in great literature. Without a word. I could say that it is a symbol, or a metaphor, and it is that. The sound dropping out, Lavant and Binoche clutched together as they fell to earth in slow motion … for me, it was a representation of what falling in love actually feels like that has rarely been matched in cinema. Again, all without a word.
But Charley’s is the piece to read. Have at it.
