In Pola X (1999), an adaptation of Herman Melville’s Pierre, or the Ambiguities (1852), a wealthy author living in Normandy is haunted by the presence of a dark and mysterious woman who claims to be his half-sister. Leaving behind his beautiful fiancée and idyllic chateau, the writer impulsively runs off with his sister-lover and muse in order to begin a new, hardscrabble life in a Parisian hovel, where he attempts to write a meaningful novel. Director Leo Carax’s sprawling, beautiful, and complex film overflows with romanticism and lyrical excess.
