Boy Meets Girl is a 1984 French drama film written and directed by Leos Carax

Leos Carax

Leos Carax is a French-born film director, critic, and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was Boy Meets Girl , and his notable works include Lovers on the Bridge and the controversial Pola X...

, starring Denis Lavant

Denis Lavant

Denis Lavant is a French film actor known for his distinctive face and the physically demanding aspects of the roles he plays, which often involve slapstick, acrobatics or dance, as well as for his long-standing association with director Leos Carax...

 and Mireille Perrier

Mireille Perrier

Mireille Perrier is a French actress. Her first starring role was in Leos Carax's Boy Meets Girl in 1983. Since then, Perrier has had major roles in other films such as Un monde sans pitié, Netchaïev est de retour, Toto le Héros, À vendre, Le Comptoir, Un dérangement considérable and...

. It was Carax' first feature film. The plot follows the relationship of an aspiring filmmaker (Denis Lavant), who has just been left by his lover and a suicidal young woman (Mireille Perrier), who is also reeling from a failed romance.

Plot

A depressed aspiring filmmaker falls in love with a suicidal young woman. Both have been recently dumped by their lovers and neither is coping very well. They meet via an apartment intercom system. Later the filmmaker sees her by the Seine. They finally meet in person at an elegant party and begin a long, strange conversation over a kitchen table. During the course of their talking, the two find themselves unable to resist their mutual neediness and this leads them to tragedy.

Cast

• Denis Lavant
  Denis Lavant
  Denis Lavant is a French film actor known for his distinctive face and the physically demanding aspects of the roles he plays, which often involve slapstick, acrobatics or dance, as well as for his long-standing association with director Leos Carax...
  
   as Alex
• Mireille Perrier
  Mireille Perrier
  Mireille Perrier is a French actress. Her first starring role was in Leos Carax's Boy Meets Girl in 1983. Since then, Perrier has had major roles in other films such as Un monde sans pitié, Netchaïev est de retour, Toto le Héros, À vendre, Le Comptoir, Un dérangement considérable and...
  
   as Mireille
• Carroll Brooks as Helen
• Elie Poicard
• Maite Nahyr as Maïte
• Anna Baldaccini as Florence

Reception

The film premiered at the 1984 International Critic's Week

International Critic's Week

The International Critics' Week , founded in 1962 and organized by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, is the oldest parallel competitive section of the Cannes Film Festival. It showcases first and second feature films by directors from all over the world, and has remained true to its tradition...

, an independent parallel section to the Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

. It was released in France on 21 November 1984. Vincent Canby

Vincent Canby

Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...

 reviewed the film for The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

: "Mr. Carax is 24, but Boy Meets Girl looks like the work of a talented 18-year-old, someone who still spends more time inside the Cinematheque Francaise

Cinémathèque Française

The Cinémathèque Française holds one of the largest archives of films, movie documents and film-related objects in the world. Located in Paris, the Cinémathèque holds daily screenings of films from around the world.-History:...

 than outside it. ... In Boy Meets Girl, one recognizes a bit of Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....

 here, something of Francois Truffaut

François Truffaut

François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...

 there, and every now and then one hears what may be the faint, original voice of Mr. Carax trying to make himself heard around and through the images of others." Canby added however that "Boy Meets Girl has been handsomely photographed (by Jean-Yves Escoffier

Jean-Yves Escoffier

Jean-Yves Escoffier, is a french cinematographer who worked with Mehdi Norowzian, Jeanne Moreau for Air France, David Lynch for Nissan, and on music videos, 'Hurt' for Johnny Cash and Mark Romanek....

) in black-and-white images that look as velvety smooth as fudge sauce atop vanilla ice cream. The performances are perfectly decent -Miss Perrier is especially good in a long Godardian monologue. What's still missing is the film maker's own idiosyncratic personality, which, if it exists, could surface in Mr. Carax's next film." The film had a total of 131,042 admissions in France.