Mauvais Sang (Bad Blood in the english version), also known as The Night Is Young, is Leos Carax’s second film. Released in 1986, the film played at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival before being nominated for 3 César Awards and winning the Prix Louis-Delluc. Set a few years before the 21st century, the film tells the story of Alex (Denis Lavant), the teen-age son of a murdered criminal who is enlisted by two former associates of his father to steal a valuable serum for an AIDS-like disease. Like its predecessor, Boy Meets Girl (1984), Mauvais Sang, nominally a neo-noir set in Paris in the near future, is deeply in thrall to the masters of Nouvelle Vague, particularly Jean-Luc Godard. But Carax’s endlessly romantic film transcends homage (and plot, for that matter); above all, his work captures ineffable states of being.