“Cinema Obsessed Frenchmen on Failed Love”

Boy Meets Girl – Leos Carax (1984)

Boy Meets Girl is the first in a series of fruitful collaborations between Leos Carax and the actor Denis Lavant (Mauvais Sang, Holy Motors). Lavant plays Alex, a melancholy Charlie Brown type character who, in spite of his youth, is well acquainted with life’s disappointments. Like Charlie Brown, Alex pushes onward with the grim humor and resigned acceptance of much older man.  

The film is brimming with references to Godard, Truffaut and other figures in the French New Wave. The scene in which Mireille dances with a frying pan while head-banging to the Dead Kennedy’s “Holiday in Cambodia” is a personal favorite.

Masculin Féminin – Jean Luc Godard (1966)

Jean-Pierre Léaud (400 Blows, “Antoine Doinel”) stars as an idealistic slacker who divides his energies between two passions: political activism and the pursuit of a young and beautiful pop star (Chantal Goya).

The film is interspersed with a series of cinema-verité style interviews in which Godard asks young Parisians about their feelings on love, sex, and politics.