A successful young novelist throws his comfortable life away after falling under the spell of a mysterious woman who claims to be his half-sister. Deemed untouchable after the ruinous production of his masterpiece The Lovers on the Bridge, enfant terrible turned filmmaker maudit Carax reemerged eight years later with this audacious, sexually explicit Melville adaptation—and it would be another decade before his next feature, Holy Motors. Carax’s characteristically astonishing images and pure cinematic style are matched by cult icon Scott Walker’s soundtrack, produced at the dawn of his late-career foray into full-on experimental music, and featuring songs by Sonic Youth and Smog. (MK)
