Review for Boy Meets Girl

Leos Carax is a French Director who has made many films that are adored by the critics and the cinema world. He is one of those Directors who seems to always make a film that is styistically beautiful, acted wonderfuly (starring either Juliette Binoche or Denis Lavant) and has a habit of including at least one David Bowie song at some point. This does mean that he is a great filmmaker and no more could this be stated in possibly one of the most boring films I have ever seen: Boy Meets Girl.

Boy Meets Girl is the story of two people Alex, an aspiring filmmaker, who has just been left by his lover and Mireille, a suicidal young woman who is also recovering from a relationship gone sour. Over the course of the film they meet and this leads to an understanding between them that ultimately (and ridiculously) leads to tragedy.

Where do I start with this utterly pointless and boring film?

First up, this film looks wonderful. It is a classic French film in the style of Godard with lingering shots, wonderful use of lighting which really helps with the black and white aesthetic created by Carax. His ability to establish and create a shot is something that a true artist would know how to do, making sure all elements that need to be in that frame are there. This part of the film I cannot fault and if this was an experimental film (like the ones of Andy Warhol or other video artists) I would say it worked.

But it is not. This is supposed to be a piece of entertainment in which we are supposed to relate and want to follow the story of these characters. But nothing happens in this film. Nothing. Not in a clever Seinfeld-like way, I mean that my synopsis of the film probably gives the 'story' of the film a lot more credit than it deserves. It is sad when one of the best scenes, from a fascination point of view, was the fixing of a pinball machine, simply because it was amazing to see what it takes to make a machine like that work.

Carax regular Denis Lavant as Alex is wonderful as he always is, but there's nothing for him to do. When he is introduced he immediately attempts to murder his best friend. I'm not even sure if this was just 'an attempt' or whether he actually succeeded as it is never brought up again and I'm unsure whether the character appears again. Mireille Perrier as Merielle is fine, but again has so little to do and considering she was supposed to be suicidal we are never truly given any backstory or reasons for it to become invested in. If she had had an awful childhood, or been treated badly by the lover who she proceeds to dump through the buildings' intercom it would have made sense, but it is simply not given any time to develop.

As for the ending? I'm a little unsure what I am supposed to think and ultimately it makes me wonder whether Carax who also wrote the script really knew what he was doing. This being Carax's debut I could forgive most of these things, but as I saw later through watching The Night is Young this wasn't a one off. Despite how great he is visually as a Director, as a Writer his films are often very weak and sometimes just thoroughly boring.

Only two extras are included, an archive Introduction by Denis Lavant, which I had hoped was going to be a contemporary introduction by the actor to the film. Instead it is just around ten minutes of Lavant rambling on about what he thinks the film is about. This could have been fine, but for some reason he's standing with earphones on while the David Bowie song plays in the background. Very strange.

On Set 'In The Kitchen' is a nearly twenty minute behind the scenes of the film. Rather than this being interviews, explanations of the film and why certain things were done, it is basically just shots being set up and rehearsals of certain scenes. I'm not sure who would want to watch this as it didn't really show anything, though if you are a fan of Carax it might give you an idea of how he works.

Boy Meets Girl is a disappointing film on every aspect, other than visually. I watched waiting for something to happen, anything. Instead I was left feeling hollow, not learning anything, not engaging and certainly not enjoying it. This is not a film I would want to meet again.