carax09 wrote:Cold Bishop wrote:I think it's quite the opposite, actually. It's essentially half-romance, half-gangster film (a genre I'd really love to see Carax tackle head-on), all with sci-fi overtones. I don't understand why it didn't become as much a crossover hit as Diva or La Femme Nikita, other than the tendency of people to not like good things.
I completely agree! Mauvais Sang (and even The Moon In The Gutter) is so much greater, and yet those two have always gotten all the oxygen, when critics discuss Cinema du Look. Eh...whatever...I guess it should be of no surprise that critics aren't exempt from the same tendency.
I played all four titles regularly when I ran a repertory cinema, and
Diva was miles ahead of the rest in terms of popularity. In fact, when box office takings plunged during the early 1990s recession it was one of our few guaranteed cash cows.
That said, the
Moon in the Gutter/Roselyne and the Lions double bills did well enough to justify repeat bookings - I suspect the
Diva/Betty Blue combo was so successful that it generated a fair bit of curiosity.
I don't remember how well Carax performed, but we certainly did
Boy Meets Girl/Mauvais Sang double bills on quite a few occasions, especially when
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf opened - and thereafter we'd double-bill that with one of the earlier titles.