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
Indigenous & Community Access
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)
Spectrum
See more films in this series
The Universe in a Grain of Sand
Mark Levinson explores the synergy of art and science, mapping out revolutions in technology through a dazzling array of artwork and experimental films, celebrating the transcendent power of the imagination on a breathtaking journey through the universe.
*smiles and kisses you*
A lonely man builds himself a girlfriend by pairing a life-size love doll with an AI chatbot. Bryan Carberry’s documentary is a haunting, romantic sci-fi parable that asks if AI can replace real human connection.
Pepe
In 2009, a hippopotamus named Pepe, formerly a part of Pablo Escobar’s private zoo, became the first—and so far only—such animal to be killed in the Americas. In this unclassifiable, formally audacious feature, Pepe tells us his side of the story.
Realm of Satan
This experiential documentary contrasts macabre rituals with the mundane domestic lives of high-ranking members of The Church of Satan. A series of wordless vignettes that paint a non-judgmental portrait of the modern Satanist.
Real
Adele Tulli’s documentary explores our relationship with reality in an increasingly virtual world. Exploiting the modern ubiquity of the camera, Real embraces the uncanny beauty of virtual reality and examines technology’s place in human connection.
Grand Theft Hamlet
A machinima documentary about two out-of-work actors who mount a full production of Hamlet within the world of Grand Theft Auto V online. Something is rotten in the city of Los Santos; the perfect backdrop for Shakespeare’s bloodsoaked tragedy.
Listen to the Voices
A powerful docudrama following a teenage boy spending the summer at his grandmother’s house in French Guiana, where he learns about his roots and connects with a community of people still reeling from the tragic loss of his uncle several years earlier.
The In Between
After the death of her brother, filmmaker Robie Flores is drawn back to USA/Mexico border town of Eagle Pass, and, while processing her grief, finds echoes and reverberations of her own memories in the hopes, dreams, and daily lives of the youth there.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Upon finding a rare Antarctic mineral in a kidney stone, a former nature documentary narrator guides us on a meditative trip– from volcanic Fogo Island to the granite quarries of Palestine, and beyond– to explore the often overlooked world of stones.
It’s Not Me
“Where are you at, Leos Carax?” To this question, the French filmmaker assembles an unpredictable essay-film made in the spirit of the late Jean-Luc Godard—an endlessly inventive self-portrait of an artist reflecting on his place in cinema history.