Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- harrowing
- transgressive
- melancholic
- arthouse film night
- challenging cinema viewing
What critics said
Critics broadly regard the film as a provocative, unconventional, and psychologically harrowing contemporary adaptation of Herman Melville, though its extremity and excess can divide audiences.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
The screenplay loosely transforms Herman Melville's Pierre; or, The Ambiguities into a contemporary French story of privilege, taboo, and despair.
Pierre abandons his engagement after discovering Isabelle is his sister, and their relationship moves beyond the fraternal.
Pierre leaves his wealthy home, mother, fiancée, and literary success to follow Isabelle into an austere Parisian life.
The film was associated with the New French Extremity movement and uses explicit sexual material within a harrowing psychological drama.
Films like Pola X, and why
Trouble Every Day
shared new french extremity provocation, erotic drama, psychological disintegration, and uncompromising art-house tone
The Piano Teacher
shared literary adaptation, transgressive sexuality, family taboo, and intense psychological drama
The Lovers on the Bridge
shared unconventional romance, emotional extremity, and stylized French art-house filmmaking
The Dreamers
shared incestuous desire, bourgeois repression, and bleakly transgressive psychological drama
Movie Details
- Director
- Leos Carax
- Release Date
- 1999-05-12
- Runtime
- 134 min
- Rating
- 5.5 / 10 (106)
Cast
- Guillaume Depardieu
- Yekaterina Golubeva
- Catherine Deneuve
- Delphine Chuillot
- Laurent Lucas
- Patachou
- Petruta Catana
- Mihaella Silaghi
- Šarūnas Bartas
- Samuel Dupuy
Common questions
- What is Pola X about?
- A privileged young novelist enters a destructive world of taboo desire and existential despair after a stranger claims to be his abandoned sister.
- What is Pola X like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Pola X as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Pola X violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in Pola X as mild.
- What did critics think of Pola X?
- Critics broadly regard the film as a provocative, unconventional, and psychologically harrowing contemporary adaptation of Herman Melville, though its extremity and excess can divide audiences.
- Which films are like Pola X?
- Films with a similar feel include Trouble Every Day, The Piano Teacher, The Lovers on the Bridge, and The Dreamers.
- How long is Pola X?
- Pola X runs 134 minutes.
