The spirit of the late Jean-Luc Godard lives on in It’s Not Me, French iconoclast Leos Carax’s latest unclassifiable whatsit—a film that, its title notwithstanding, is all about the director himself. Originally assembled for an exhibition in the Centre Pompidou, one that never ended up taking place, the film is ostensibly an answer to a simple question: “Where are you at, Leos Carax?” Running just 40 minutes long, Carax’s response is an anarchic, essayistic foray into the process of artistic creation itself, featuring the music of Ravel and David Bowie, the films of artists like Jean Vigo and FW Murnau, not to mention footage from his own iconic filmography (Holy Motors, Lovers on the Bridge, et al)
Endlessly inventive, rhythmically precise, and tonally unpredictable, It’s Not Me is as invigorating a cinematic experience as one is likely to encounter this year. No mere victory lap, it is a self-portrait of an artist confronting his place in movie history—a film that pays tribute to cinema’s past in order to make way for its future.
Denis Lavant, Katerina Yuspina, Nastya Golubeva Carax, Loreta Juodkaite, Anna-Isabel Siefken, Petr Anevskii
France
2024
In French with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Charles Gillibert, Leos Carax
Cinematography
Caroline Champetier
Editor
Leos Carax
Production Design
Florian Sanson
Leos Carax
Leos Carax is a French filmmaker renowned for his visually striking and often surreal cinema. A former critic at Cahiers du Cinéma, he transitioned to directing in the early 1980s and immediately established himself with Boy Meets Girl (1984) and Mauvais Sang (1986). Carax’s films frequently explore themes of love, identity, and existential angst. In 2021, his film Annette, starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, opened the Cannes Film Festival where he won the award for Best Director.
Filmography: Boy Meets Girl (1984); Mauvais Sang (1986); Lovers on the Bridge (1991); Holy Motors (2012); Annette (2021)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Afterpiece
This wry, twisty theatrical farce stars Stephen Fung as a playwright, actor, and director who writes a play based on his own past. His rich ex-lover wants to co-star, but our hero has found a sexy new actress, and he’s got a plan to get her the part…
Short Forum 6: Archive Lives!
Before anything becomes archival, it’s lived.
A Safe Distance
Following a camping trip gone awry, a woman is rescued by a free-spirited couple living off the grid. As she warms to the pair, she finds herself becoming dangerously entangled in their psychosexual affairs in Gloria Mercer’s red-hot crime drama.
First Comes Love: Nakabingwit
An engaging hybrid documentary with a rom-com aesthetic, First Comes Love: Nakabingwit follows Canadian women in the Filipino diaspora as they search for the language to discuss race, privilege, and love with their white romantic partners.
Take Me Home
Liz Sargent’s film stars her sister Anna, who plays a woman quite like her real self: thirty something, cognitively disabled, and utterly vivacious. Exploring one unique family and the hardships it faces, this is a film of deep empathy and subtle beauty.
Image: © Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi