On the occasion of its 50th edition, the Laceno d’Oro International Film Festival in Avellino (1-8 December) is awarding a second “Laceno d’Oro” Lifetime Achievement Award to the brilliant French director Leos Carax, author of highly personal and incandescent films – Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Holy Motors, Mauvais sang, Annette – the expression of an original and constantly evolving creative talent.
A retrospective will be dedicated to the director, featuring some of his most beloved films – C’est pas moi, an unconditional declaration of love for cinema and images; the legendary Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Mauvais sang, Holy Motors, Annette, and his debut film Boy Meets Girl.
Leos Carax will also hold a masterclass, open to the public, to discuss his idea of cinema and retrace his career.
Leos Carax (Biography)
Leos Carax (born 1960) is a French film director, critic and writer.
His film career began with a series of short films, and as a film critic, before he released Boy Meets Girl (1984), which reveled him one of the most promising directors of his generation. This is also the first collaboration with Denis Lavant, who will begin the protagonist of Carax’s filmography. His next film, Mauvais Sang (1986), an original homage to the Nouvelle Vague, confirmed his talent and it was acclaimed by the cinephiles and the press. The film was presented at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival.
Five years later, Carax embarked on the ambitious and legendary Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, once again with Denis Lavant and Juliette Binoche. Following an accident, problems multiplied, and filming had to be interrupted several times. Carax owed the completion of his film to the support of numerous French and international filmmakers and a large part of the cinephile and artistic community. The film was welcomed by a great critical success.
In 1999 Carax released the bold and more experimental Pola X, an adaptation of Herman Melville’s Pierre: or, The Ambiguities, screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 2012, Leos Carax made his grand return, thirteen years after his last feature film, with Holy Motors, starring again Denis Lavant. The film, presented in the competition at the Cannes Film Festival, obtained a generally very enthusiastic reception. That same year, Carax received the Golden Leopard for his lifetime achievement at the Locarno Film Festival.
In 2021, Carax directed Annette, a music-filled drama feature film written by Sparks and starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, which opened the Cannes Film Festival and for which he won the Award for Best Director. His last film, C’est pas moi, a magnificent short film that evokes Godard’s cinema, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2024.