Bad Blood France
1986, 116min.
Prod.: Alain Dahan, Philippe Diaz, Denis Chateau, Script/Dir.: Leos Carax, Dir. of Phot.: Jean-Yves Escoffier, Music by Sergey Prokofiev, Art. Dir.: Michel Vandestien, Jacques Dubus, Thomas Peckre, Sound: Claude Hivernon, Harrik Maury, Henri Morelle, Joël Riant, Sound Mix: Gérard Rousseau, Edit.: Nelly Quettier.
Cast: Michel Piccoli (Marc), Juliette Binoche (Anna), Denis Lavant (Alex), Hans Meyer (Hans), Julie Delpy (Lise), Carroll Brooks (The American woman), Hugo Pratt (Boris), Mireille Perrier (The young mother), Serge Reggiani (Charlie), Jérôme Zucca (Thomas).
This critically acclaimed French drama blends film noir and science fiction elements in a story about a strange and deadly plague. A sexually transmitted disease called STBO is sweeping the country; it's spread by having sex without emotional involvement, and most of its victims are teenagers who make love out of curiosity rather than commitment. While a serum that can treat the disease has been formulated, it's been locked away in an inaccessible government building, and most of those suffering can't get at it. A woman known as "The American" (Carroll Brooks) has hired Marc (Michel Piccoli), who is deep in debt and desperate for cash, to steal the drug; Marc enlists the aid of Alex (Denis Lavant), the teenage son of one of his close friends, to help pull off the robbery. Alex is in love with Lise (Julie Delpy), a girl his age that he's been involved with, but he finds himself attracted to Anna (Juliette Binoche), Marc's younger lover who is determined to stand by her man. Mauvais Sang received the Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival and the International Fantasy Film Award at the Fantasporto Film Festival. (All Movie Guide)
Awards
Prix Louis Delluc, 1986, Berlinale, 1987 (Alfred Bauer Award, C.I.C.A.E. Award - Honorable Mention).
| Carax, Leos  Leos Carax (born 1960, Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France)
Director, critic and writer. Leos Carax was born Alexandre Oscar Dupont His professional name is an anagram of his first and middle names. His mother was American and his father French. He began his film career with a series of short films, and as a film critic, before he released Boy Meets Girl. That piece established Carax's reputation for mature visual style. It also saw the first teaming of Carax with Denis Lavant and cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier. He followed with a science fiction themed Bad Blood in 1986, which alienated some of his audience, though this work continued to explore the complexities of love in the modern world, this time through a darker, more criminal viewpoint. The work was clearly an homage to French New Wave cinema, and his use of such actresses as Juliette Binoche proved a touching tribute to his influences, especially Jean-Luc Godard.
Five years later, Carax returned to directing with Lovers on the Bridge, which proved to be an expensive undertaking as Parisian authorities granted him only 10 days in which he could film on Pont Neuf. His initial reaction to the problems of filming on a public bridge had been to construct a model of the bridge in the community of Lansargues, in Southern France. However, on the first day of filming Denis Lavant severely injured his thumb, which pushed the movie by a month. Subsequent financial difficulties pushed filming over a much longer period than intended. The movie was released to critical acclaim and opened the door for Carax to enter more experimental waters with his fourth feature, Pola X. That film, released in 1999, was an adaptation of Herman Melville's tale of incest, "Pierre: or, The Ambiguities." (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Filmography
Strangulations blues (1980, short), Boy Meets Girl (1984), Bad Blood (Mauvais sang, 1986), Lovers On The Pont-Neuf (Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, 1991), Sans titre (1997, short), Pola X (1999).
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