IFS Blog: Movie Review: Holy Motors

Leos Carax

Holy Motors
115 minutes
Writer and Director: Leos Carax
Starring: Denis Levant, Edith Scob, Eva Mendes, Kylie Minogue, Michel Piccoli
Cinematography: Caroline Champetier
Editor: Nelly Quettier

Eva Mendes and Denis Lavant

Kylie Minogue

Sadly, I haven’t seen any of Leos Carax’s other films. Perhaps you’ve seen "Boy Meets Girl", "Mauvais Sang", or "The Lovers on a Bridge"? I’ll be sure to look for them after seeing his latest effort, "Holy Motors". Carax is a Parisian; it’s in his blood, his vision, humor, style and all over this film. Paris is that grand city of lights where stories unfurl in the dark and, if you are lucky, you witness something magical, incredible and delicious without a ribbon of sunlight to adorn it. Even the famous Poilâne bread is baked in the middle of the night.

Oscar (Denis Lavant) is on an journey of episodic delight. I understand that Carax has many muses and Denis Lavant is one of them. He is in almost every scene and possesses the physical agility of a tree monkey. He's fun to watch. It’s a smooth and even performance in a film that is nothing but bumpy and surprising.

Carax himself opens the film. After waking from a dream (or are we entering his dream?) his hand turns into an allen wrench and allows him to open a secret door to a movie theater where an audience is fast asleep while a movie unspools. The camera is on the balcony with him in the back row. Has he revealed himself to us? Are we that audience in his dream? Is this an invitation to go on a ride? There are eleven episodic tales depicted in "Holy Motors" and we begin in the pre-dusk hours as an industrialist in suburban Paris kisses his children good night and is whisked into his waiting limousine by Madame Celine (Edith Scob), his sexy and mature chauffeur, who doubles as a guardian angel and confidante.

It’s worth noting that this film is based on a short that Carax made called "Actors". I haven’t seen this film, but just the title helps you understand the edifice that Carax is constructing with "Holy Motors". Although we are taken on a episodic journey, we are essentially always in one spot, with the actor, as he delves into one character after another. After he is killed, dies of natural causes, or the script spits him out, he returns to the limousine where Madame Celine puts him back together again until his next part. And the ride continues.

The transformations that we witness are enhanced by make up, hair pieces, CGI effects, prosthetic limbs, and fabulous costumes. As we become engaged, we realize it is make-believe, movie magic, dramatic storytelling and pure fantasy that is sucking us under. Take special note of a dry and speechless performance from Eva Mendes in a killer episode of almost pornographic devilish delights and later, a key scene with Kylie Minogue where the artificial wall within a wall is broken even further.

During the screening I attended in New York at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, an elderly couple seated in front of us left after the Eva Mendes scene. And shortly after, a few other couples found the exit doors too. It is not easy storytelling, exactly because the story is outside of the film. You are not witnessing a traditional linear plot for 115 minutes. You are on the fringe, where it can be a bit more interesting sometimes.

As an analogy, think of a farmer’s market as a movie. The beginning, middle and end of the farmer’s market is a linear story. You are engaged in the traditional structure of the story. Then go to just one vendor and witness a single player (or actor) of the farmer’s market as a man, a husband, a father, a son, a brother, an activist, a farmer and so on. This human being is all of these things. Yet, when you pass his or her stand, you see only the farmer selling vegetables as part of the greater whole of the “film” that we have constructed. In "Holy Motors", you are seeing the actor embody the man, the farmer, the husband and so on. There is no edifice. There is no place to be something other than the role, the part, the gig, the performance. If you love the construction of movies, as I do, you’ll appreciate the edifice coming apart at the seams and revealing something humorous, playful, and spry. And as you witness this, remember what actors do, what kind of risks they're willing to take at the beginning of a career and how they make decisions about a particular role. And then think about aging actors who have fewer and fewer parts and want to take less and less risks towards the end of a rambunctious and creative career. You can tell they did a movie just to take the money and run. If you need help, imdb Nicolas Cage.

Acting is a curious art. When I’ve met actors, I notice that they don’t have much to say, they don’t take up very much room psychologically and they have the ability to blend in quite well, if they are not overly famous. When an actor is really good, it’s as if they have that magical and temporal ability (mixed with a tremendous amount of insecurity) to be a form that is ready and willing to be filled by a story, a character, or a fictional personality for a brief moment in time, perhaps just long enough for a director and confident personality like Carax to capture what it’s like and share it with us, the audience in the dream.

As an aside, there were moments of transcendental filmmaking for me in "Holy Motors" that can't be explained in a review because they had no beginning, no middle and no end. They existed and were gone - all for no apparent reason except to celebrate the freakish and wonderful moments that happen when people move from one space to another.

Go see the "Holy Motors" when it plays at IFS and let me know what you think! umorera (at) gmail dot com.