“In many families, you encounter one fatal creature, like a disease. I am that creature for you.” So begins Leos Carax’s remarkable It’s Not Me, a delirious, self-deprecating video essay cum confession that serves as a concise articulation of the man and his art. Running a brisk 41 minutes, this seems the perfect running time even for those (like this writer) who often find his angular features difficult to stomach. Blended in concentrated form with more overt commentary than usual, the brew is a far more palatable drink even if it’s lost none of its bite.

‘It’s Not Me’ Looks Back on Leos Carax’s Entire Career

“I have been sick all my life, and all I want to do is continue” the director lets us know, and it wouldn’t be the first time the French have engaged in such existential ennui. Incorporating clips from his earliest works such as 1984’s Boy Meets Girl through to celebrated recent works like 2021’s Annette, these clips provide a kaleidoscopic gaze into the kinetic style of the filmmaker, juxtaposing stark imagery with broad performances that enthrall and enrage in equal measure. Denis Lavant, his core collaborator in 2012’s Holy Motors, returns as Monsieur Merde (literally “Mr. Shit”), a simian-like beast of a man dropping trousers and providing searing if silly scatological commentary of his own making.

All these myriad elements evoke the filmmaking of someone who Carax is clearly enthralled by, and Jean-Luc Godard’s fingerprints are more than formalistic. There’s even an answering message from the old icon of the French New Wave, an overt tie between different generations of enfant terrible who both shared a tendency to tear at cinema’s conservatism and instead provide unabashed chaos mixed with a sardonic sense of anarchism.

Image Via Les Films du Losange

Perhaps a more keen reflection is the connection to the disgraced genius of Roman Polanski. “Like me, he’s short and makes films,” says Carax in voiceover, but the connections are deeper. The director notes their shared Jewish heritage, providing a kind of outsider gaze that even the notoriously anti-Semitic Godard could never achieve with such acuity and subtlety. Mention is made, of course, of Polanski’s atrocious crimes, but it’s this mixing of all aspects, from the sublime to the salacious, that both informs Carax’s aesthetic and in turn gives a richer if more disturbing look at all that encompasses heroes and villains alike.

There are allusions to the clown-like genius of Chaplin and the tortured blues of Nina Simone, mixing images of displaced persons with the stark vision of dead Syrian children washed up on Mediterranean shores having tried in vain to escape the implosion of their homeland. The images are both shocking and somewhat cheap, eliciting immediate reaction while subsumed by an instant smattering of contrasting elements.

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There are questions of profound aesthetic introspection at play, with such prosaic pronouncements asking “How to reclaim the gaze of the gods?” and answering via the use of dolly tracking and steadicam shots. Meanwhile, POV shots stand in as a form of déjà vu; what Carax describes esoterically as “a memory of the present.” It may not make a lot of sense — the kind of drivel that litters undergrad assignments — but within context, it feels that much more profound given both the intensity of the presentation and the slightly sarcastic air in which the lines are read.

‘It’s Not Me’s Post-Credit Scene Calls Back to Carax’s ‘Annette’
Image Via Les Films du Losange

As Carax further argues, there is “no beauty without a stain,” and the film constantly mixes the lovely and the loathable. There are clips from disparate musicians like Daniel Johnston and David Bowie, each providing a somewhat somber but piercing augmentation to the various scenes. Carax’s formal artistry is contrasted by the childish dreams of his daughter, running away fearing a shark attack, and admonishing her dad for being unable to obviate the state of her waking dream.

Finally, in a post-credit sequence (as presaged right at the top), there’s the return of Carax’s most effective yet surreal avatar yet, the puppet that gave Annette its title. Performed by three masked individuals wrapped in black, the bold Bunraku movements are laid bare in the bright lighting. On the one hand, the doll is as alive as any character; on the other, there’s the constant collision with our own layers of disbelief. The uncanny valley is as vast as ever yet hinting always at something almost human.

‘It’s Not Me’ Is Leos Carax’s Most Accessible Movie
Image Via Les Films du Losange

While Carax’s cinema may not be to everyone’s taste, this primer on both his philosophy and his aesthetic is as effective as anything he’s ever directed. Brilliant in its concision, even the most jarring of elements never overstay their welcome, making this perhaps the purest and most honest chapter in his entire filmography. There’s something to be said about the need for a mid-career retrospective, and it’s perhaps too early for such a piercing act of self-examination to be released, but the film is a welcome one, giving fans deeper insights into what drives him as an artist, while at the same time allowing detractors a more guided way into the myriad aspects of his art.

In other words, the title It’s Not Me proves to be yet another of Carax’s playful fictions, for it unequivocally is the most open and overtly autobiographical of his works. The film proves to be both audacious and slyly entertaining, a delightful distillation of this iconoclastic filmmaker’s aesthetic that’s of benefit to anyone who feels enriched by cinema’s more oblique explorations.

It’s Not Me is available to buy or rent on Fandango at Home.

This absurdist take on the autobiographical essay is a perfect dose of this iconoclastic filmmaker’s art.ProsThe movie sees director Leos Carax at his most unfiltered.A compact tale that remains as experimental and challenging as the rest of this director’s works.The movie is able to be philosophical without being polemical. ConsThe film is still a bit too self-congratulatory for its own good.

It’s Not Me is a self-reflective film by Leos Carax, examining over 40 years of his cinematic journey. The film intertwines personal life milestones with the socio-political context of the times, offering a deep exploration of the director’s experiences and their influence on his work.Release Date October 2, 2024 Runtime 42 Minutes

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