Along with Luc Besson and Jean-Jacques Beneix, Leos Carax has been labelled a creator of 'le cinéma du look', one of the significant features of which is spectacle: in the case of Carax we inevitably think of the fireworks seen from the reconstructed bridge in Les Amants du Pont-Neuf. Other features of 'le cinéma du look' are marginals, young people without a job who are shown on the métro: this is certainly true of Boy Meets Girl, the title itself being ironic in suggesting happiness at the same time of course as it is a nod to the importance of American English.
Ageing is a central problem, and Alex (Denis Lavant), Carax's film alter ego,* feels that in his early twenties he's outlived himself; he collects a list of firsts which he adds to a sheet of paper on his bedroom wall. At a party full of strange people, a group mention their ages, Bouriana saying at 37 he's achieved nothing. Later, Mireille mumbles the words of a classic Barbara song about the deleterious effects of time, although she presumably omits the title – which is also the first line of the chorus, 'Quand reviendras-tu ?' – because she clearly doesn't want Bernard to return.
This is a world where nothing is, or rather nothing seems, real. David Bowie sings 'When I Live My Dream', a medieval fantasy world of living in a castle and slaying dragons. A couple of lovers kissing on the Pont-Neuf seems so artifical that Alex throws coins at their feet in a cynical way of saying he's enjoyed the performance. And then we remember the earlier scene of Maite (Maïté Nahyr) leaving Henri and driving her child to the mountains in a car which has skis and sticks protruding through the windscreen, etc.
And everyone is either breaking up or having relationship problems: one of the early shots with Jo Lemaire & Flouze playing Serge Gainsbourg's break-up song, 'Je suis venu(e) te dire que je m'en vais'; Florence is having a relationship with Thomas, now the former boyfriend of Alex; Mirielle (Mireille Perrier) has split up with Bernard; Alex has to bang on the wall to silence his neighbours' argument; in a voiceover, a couple talk about their problems with oral sex.
Chance or coincidences are important, as in Bernard dropping the card inviting he and Mireille to the party; turning the radio dial to find the Dead Kennedy's playing 'Holiday in Cambodia'; Alex finding Mireille's details on a card at the party; Bouriana being both at the party and the café.
The suicide of Mireille comes almost as an inevitability, the dark blackness of the blood seeping onto her white dress as Bernard unwittingly pushes Mireille onto the scissors she's opened in readiness.
There are echoes of Strangulation Blues: Alex trying to strangle Thomas as Paul half-heartedly (or in a dream?) tries to strangle Colette, Alex trying to write a film, and the evocative black and white photography by Jean-Yves Escoffier . After her haircut Mireille also looks a little like Jean Seberg in À bout de souffle, as Colette did in Strangulation Blues.
*As I mentioned in another post, Alex Dupont became Leos Carax, an anagram of 'Alex' and 'Oscar'.
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