Boy Meets Girl 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

Boy Meets Girl 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 19, 2026

Leos Carax's directorial debut "Boy Meets Girl" (1984) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include recent program with Leos Carax; new program with Denis Lavant; recent documentary; raw fotoage from the production process; and more. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Accidental lovers

Denis Lavant is Alex, an aspiring young filmmaker whose girlfriend has ditched him for his best friend. He desperately wants to fall in love again. However, he has less than a day before he must pack his bags and go to the Army.

Unsure whether to feel depressed or liberated, Alex wanders the streets of Paris, observing the happy couples. When possible, he approaches them, trying to absorb bits of their positive energy, the magic that keeps all lovers together. Some find his curiosity charming, but others are immediately annoyed by it.

In a cheap café, Alex pays the bill for a beautiful girl who smiles at him but then quickly disappears into the thick shadows of the night, leaving him perplexed. Shortly after, he crashes a party organized by a pretentious but friendly socialite. At the party, Alex meets Mireille (Mireille Perrier, For Sale, Love Without Pity), a beautiful model also ditched by her lover, and she instantly, but unintentionally, begins melting his heart.

Leos Carax’s directorial debut, Boy Meets Girl, is as much about Lavant and Perrier’s characters as it is about the City of Lights and its timeless allure. It is shot in black and white, fragmented into multiple episodes, and heavy on atmosphere like the one that permeates the best New Wave films. One such similar film is Paris vu par, a collection of six short episodes directed by six major New Wave directors in which various colorful characters meet in unusual ways and have memorable experiences, as the camera unapologetically looks for beauty in the busy French capital.

Boy Meets Girl also produces plenty of the surreal humor that several of Jean-Luc Godard’s early films are remembered for. In fact, Lavant’s character frequently finds himself stuck in bizarre but hilarious situations almost identical to the ones Godard created for Jean-Paul Belmondo’s classic characters.

Lavant’s facial expressions are not yet as striking as they are in Carax’s later films -- in The Night is Young and especially in The Lovers on the Bridge, where he plays a reckless drunkard who suddenly discovers true love -- but there is a familiar purity in the way he moves and looks into the camera. Perrier is believable as the disillusioned model, though she emulates what Anna Karina did in several big New Wave films from the 1960s.

Boy Meets Girl does not have a prominent music score. However, different music clips are effectively incorporated into the narrative to enhance its special atmosphere. The clips are from popular songs by Serge Gainsbourg, David Bowie, Dead Kennedys, Jacques Pinault, and Jo Lemaire.

In 1984, Boy Meets Girl premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Award of the Youth (French Film).

Boy Meets Girl 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Criteiron's release of Boy Meets Girl is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray is Region-A "locked".

Please note that all screencaptures included with this article are taken from the Blu-ray. We have not provided downscaled screencaptures from the 4K Blu-ray.

The combo pack presents a new 4K restoration of Boy Meets Girl on 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray, sourced from the original camera negative. The 4K restoration was supervised by cinematographer Caroline Champetier, who collaborated with Leos Carax on Holy Motors.

In 2014, we reviewed this Blu-ray release of Boy Meets Girl, produced by Carlotta Films. At the time, the Blu-ray release presented an exclusive new, very good 2K restoration of the film. I used it to perform several comparisons.

The 4K restoration looks very, very similar to the 2K restoration. In fact, in multiple areas of the film, there are darker and well-lit visuals that look practically identical. Delineation, clarity, and depth are excellent. The only meaningful improvement that I saw on my system was in darker details, which appear slightly more coarse on the 2K restoration. The 4K restoration produces visuals that have more even, more natural appearance. The native 4K presentation is not graded with Dolby Vision or HDR. The density levels of the visuals are impressive, but they were also great on the 2K restoration. I felt that a few darker sequences might be a tad too dark, but there are no anomalies. What about any discrepancies between the native 4K and 1080p presentations of the 4K restoration? On my system, both looked wonderful, and I feel that both are equally satisfying.

Boy Meets Girl 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this release: French LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Although Boy Meets Girl does not have a prominent music score, several music clips are effectively incorporated into the narrative to enhance its special atmosphere. They all sound great. Also, plenty of organic sounds and noises create unique dynamic contrasts. All dialogue is very clear, sharp, and easy to follow. The English translation is outstanding.

Boy Meets Girl 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• It's Not Me (2024) - originally commissioned by the Centre Pompidou for the ultimately unrealized exhibition, this self-portrait film by Leos Carax focuses on some of his most important figures and events that defined his forty-year filmography, in response to a recurring question posed by the institution: "Where are you at"? In French, with English subtitles. Dolby Digital 5.1. 1080p. (42 min).

• Leos Carax - in this recent program, Leos Carax reveals his real name and explains how he created his current name, and discusses the exact moment when he decided to become a filmmaker and his vision of cinema. Carax also comments on his professional relationship with Denis Lavant. The program was produced for the Criterion Channel release of Carax's film It's Not Me (2024). In English, not subtitled. (10 min).

• Denis Lavant - in this new program, Denis Lavant reveals when Leos Carax approached him with an offer to appear in Boy Meets Girl and how he prepared for his part (which was modeled as Carax's alter ego), Lavant also comments on the importance of silence in Carax's work, as well as his working methods and his collaborations with Juliette Binoche on The Night is Young and The Lovers on the Bridge. The program was produced for Criterion in 2026. In French, with English subtitles. (26 min).

• Denis Lavant's Screen Test - in this video introduction/screen test, Denis Lavant discusses the character he plays in Boy Meets Girl and the film's unusual atmosphere and rhythm. The introduction also appears on British label Artificial Eye's old R2 DVD release of the film. In French, with English subtitles. (9 min).

• On Set: "In the Kitchen' - presented here is raw footage from the shooting of the kitchen sequence where Alex offers Mireille a cup of tea and tells her about his dreams. In French, with English subtitles. (18 min).

• Booklet - a 42-page illustrated booklet featuring Amina Cain's "Vital Signs", Leos Carax's "It's All Just Words", and film and technical credits.

Boy Meets Girl 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Arguably the most remarkable director-actor partnership in contemporary French cinema started with this poetic charmer paying tribute to the great New Wave films of the 1960s. While not as dazzling as Leos Carax's color films, it perfectly captures what makes his work special. Criterion's combo pack presents a wonderful new 4K restoration of Boy Meets Girl and two fantastic recent programs with Carax and Denis Lavant. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.