Refocus: The Films of Leos Carax

Deadline for submissions:
June 30, 2025

Full name / name of organization:
James Slaymaker (Trinity College Dublin), Edinburgh University Press

Contact email:
slaymakj@tcd.ie

Across a career spanning over 40 years, French-born filmmaker Leos Carax has firmly established himself as one of the most unique and innovative voices in modern European cinema. After a period writing criticism for Cahiers du Cinéma while he was still a teenager, Carax released his debut film Boy Meets Girl (1984) at age 23 to international acclaim. Carax followed up on this early promise with the futuristic neo-noir Mauvais Sang (1986), the romantic drama Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991), and the Herman Melville adaptation Pola X (1999). After an extended absence from feature filmmaking, Carax reemerged with Holy Motors (2012), a self-reflexive examination of cinema’s history and its uncertain digital future, followed by his English-language debut, the Sparks-penned musical Annette (2021), and the essayistic self-portrait It’s Not Me (2023).

Although his work has been frequently discussed in relation to the ‘cinéma du look’ movement of the 1980s and 1990s, Carax’s art is far too idiosyncratic to be pinned down to a single style or trend. Carax openly draws on a wide range of cinematic, literary, and inspirations, from the nouvelle vague to silent film to modernist literature, but his films cannot be described as simple tributes or pastiches. On the contrary, Carax synthesizes his artistic influences into an aesthetic that feels stunningly original, deeply personal, and engaged with the present moment.

We are pleased to invite chapter proposals for an edited volume dedicated to exploring Carax’s rich and multifaceted body of work. We welcome a wide range of disciplinary approaches to exploring Carax’s work. In addition to textual, historical, social, and philosophical analysis, we welcome industrial, technological, and reception-based studies of Carax’s films. Chapters may focus on a single feature/short, a recurring theme across Carax’s entire body of work, or extra-textual elements such as Carax’s public persona or the production/distribution context in which his films circulate.

Potential areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to, the following:

Carax and the Legacy of the Nouvelle Vague
Carax and Silent Cinema
Adaptation and Intertextuality in Carax’s Films
Performance and Theatricality in Carax’s Cinema
The Role of Sound and Music in Carax’s work
Carax’s Engagement with Literary Influences (E.g. Herman Melville, Arthur Rimbaud, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Edgar Allan Poe)
Self-Reflexivity in Carax’s Cinema
Memory and Subjectivity in Carax’s Films
Carax’s collaborations with performers (E.g. Denis Lavant, Juliette Binoche)
Baroque Aesthetics in Carax
The Influence of French History and Politics on Carax’s Work
Gender, Sexuality, and the Body in Carax’s Films
Carax as a Transnational Auteur
The Distribution, Exhibition, and Reception of Carax’s Films
Carax and Digital Culture
Your Suggested Topic

The volume is intended for the Edinburgh University Press ReFocus: International Directors Series (series editors: Robert Singer, Gary D. Rhodes and Stefanie Van de Peer).

If you are interested in contributing, please send a proposal of 350-500 words, along with a 100-word bio, to Dr James Slaymaker at slaymakj@tcd.ie by 30th June 2025. Successful proposals will be announced by July 30th 2025.

Full chapters of 5000-7000 words will be provisionally due by 30th December 2025.

Please direct any inquiries to:

James Slaymaker – slaymakj@tcd.ie