C'EST PAS MOI
C’est pas moi: pure poetry from Leos Carax
Back in 2021, the Festival kickstarted its 74th edition with the thrum of The Sparks, the legendary pop-rock band that was thrust into the limelight in Leos Carax‘s Annette. The director’s unparalleled creativity took this musical powered by Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard to the next level, with the film going on to win the Best Director Award. Now the French film-maker is back with C’est pas moi as part of Cannes Première, a poetic, 40-minute self-portrait.
He’s had three films in Competition as a director (Pola X, 1999, Holy Motors, 2012, Annette, 2021), two films at Un Certain Regard as an actor (The House, 1997, Mister Lonely, 2007) and his short film Merde showcased at Un Certain Regard as part of Tokyo !, a three-part anthology co-directed by Bong Joon-Ho and Michel Gondry. Now Leos Carax‘s seventh film C’est pas moi is making waves, in a compendium of nods and references to his earlier work.
The Centre Pompidou had set the film-maker the task of responding to the question: where are you at, Leos Carax? While the exhibition ultimately didn’t go ahead, this medium-length film draws on visual essays and autofiction to serve up an image-rich answer, with the epic Denis Lavant playing Monsieur Merde from Tokyo ! . For C’est pas moi, the director plugged back into his faithful crew, harnessing the talents of director of photography Caroline Champetier and head set designer Florian Sanson, both of whom worked with him on Holy Motors and Annette.
