A successful, carefree young writer, Pierre (Guillaume Depardieu), lives in an enormous, pristine chateau in Normandy with his adoring mother, who he calls Sister (Catherine Deneuve). He is engaged to be married to a lovely young woman who adores him, and he has just reunited with his cousin, whom he loves deeply. But Pierre is haunted by a vision in his dreams of a strange, dark-haired peasant woman who attracts him in unexplainable ways. When she suddenly appears, stumbling out of the woods and claiming that she is his long-lost sister, Isabelle (Katerina Golubeva), he falls blindly, madly in love with her. Tearing out of Normandy and heading for Paris, Pierre discredits everything in his life including his family, his friends, and his money. He takes Isabelle to an abandoned warehouse run by a cult, where they live together in deranged passionate misery.

POLA X, an intense, gripping, all-consuming film, is Leos Carax's (THE LOVERS ON THE BRIDGE) most simultaneously disturbing and beautiful movie. Based on the haunting novel by Herman Melville, PIERRE OR THE AMBIGUITIES, the film breaks down all the boundaries of familial love, then proceeds to do the same for the human psyche. Featuring lush photography that tricks the eye and taunts the mind, the filming is superb. As the story progresses and grows more complicated, the scenery changes from spacious green summer foliage to cold, cluttered, industrial structure. The sound is embracing, the acting is precise, and the feeling of the film is positively captivating.

Theatrical release: September 8, 2000.

The movie is based on the novel by Herman Melville entitled, PIERRE; OR THE AMBIGUITIES.

The first part of the movie title, "POLA" is an abbreviation of the French title of Melville's book, PIERRE OU LES AMBIGUITIES. The X stands for the number of times the film was edited down and perfected.

The Web site for POLA X featured a poem by Robert Musil, entitled "L'homme sans Qualites."

The character of Isabelle--who looks like she's been through a war--was supposedly from Yugoslavia--her mother is Yugoslavian, and her father was French. In the novel by Herman Melville, Isabelle was from France. Golubeva is from St. Petersberg, Russia.

Armond White of the New York Press named POLA X one of the 10 best films of 2000.

DVD Features:

Region 0
Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Letterbox - 1.85
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - French
Additional Release Material:
Outtakes
Audio Commentary: Guillaume Depardieu - Star
Trailers: Theatrical Trailer
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Text/Photo Galleries:
Filmographies
DVD-ROM Features:
Weblink

Guillaume Depardieu: French actor
Katerina Golubeva: Actress
Catherine Deneuve: French actress
Delphine Chuillot: POLA X
Petruta Catana: POLA X
Mihaella Silaghi: POLA X
Laurent Lucas: Thibault
Sharunas Bartas: POLA X
Samuel Dupuy: POLA X
Miguel Yeco: POLA X

Leos Carax: French Director

Leos Carax: French Director
Jean-Pol Fargeau: Screenwriter

Nelly Quettier: Editor

"...A quintessentially Caraxian cinefever, built of emotional shards, Zen twigs, and charged particles..."
"...It works on several levels of meaning and panache....Deneuve lends dignity and ballast, along with beauty and presence..."
"...Carax invests the narrative with highly charged subtext....Intense visual imagination and commitment..."
"...Delirious-to-the-point-of-deranged romanticism....As exhilarating as it is exhausting..."