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Holy Motors: Hilarious Bizarre French Movie

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tino

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Ok there is no way to describe this movie. This movie is batshit insane. If you are a jaded movie fan, you want to check it out. Its....a hell lot of energy and a hell lot of fun. I enjoy it very much.

If you think I am trying to sell you a artsy film, it's not really. It has its own internal logic and the "plot" is consistent, I will get to it later.

There are many ways to explain this movie, the two analysis of the movies I have came across are:

* Traditional cinema is dead

* "Resume wheel for actor Denis Lavant"

And here is my theory of the movie, if you can watch the movie, try to watch it first. I think its more fun going in blind. Although I did spoiled myself part of the movie before I checked it out.

My theory of Holy Motors is that this is the French version of "Gantz".
If you don't know Gantz, its a pretty damn violent Japanese Manga. In the beginning of the story the protagonist was killed and then mysteriously transfer to a room. The power that be in the room (a black sphere that flashed bad Japanese) basically assigned missions to dead people who are transferred to the room.

In every mission, the main characters were transported to a "stage" and have to kill some "aliens" in a set time. In every stage, the aliens were completely different and you could see the artist made reference to other popular movies and shows. The aliens were never explained and after 10+ years of weekly serialization, the black sphere was never been explained. The main characters just went out and used awesome weapon to kill aliens in awesome action sequences. The amount of supporting characters that got unexpectedly killed off were more frequent than Game of Throne!

The reason I like this manga so much is that the manga basically throw out the plot and go straight to the best part of action shows: the action sequences. Sure the writer can throw a McGuffin in the plot and give you an explanation. But it won't make the story better. That's not the reason I follow this series and enjoy the sensory overload.

In the movie Holy Motors, the "power that be" was also an alien. That's the the only way to explain the death revivals. But this is a french film we are talking about (not made by Luc Besson), so instead of sending people out to kill shit, the alien sent out people to act out scenes.

The reason to act out various scenes is never explained, just like Gantz. But its possible that there was invisible cameras filming the scenes. There are two comments about "old cameras were big" and people "like invisible machines" in the movie.

The alien theory can also explain the last few scenes in the movie nicely. Personally, I can do without the last two scenes (limo going back to the garage). I think they don't add any value to the film and the film maker was basically going for broke for bizarre's sake.

Of course it was entirely possible I missed a few things and the fucking chimps had significant meanings, but I doubt it.

Any way, I haven't figured out the relation between the scenes yet, that's why I want to make this post. There may be a running theme connecting the few "love stories".

If you haven't watched the movie, go watch it. My post hasn't touch 1/10th of the weirdness of the film.

edit: pic for tease
Holy-Motors-photo-13.jpeg
 
I don't think it all worked, there were one or two assignments that I was bored rigid of, but for the most part I was extremely entertained. Fucking nuts, but entertained. Lavant was incredible, best performance I've seen all year.
 
I wanted to see it but it only played for about a week in local theatres.

I don't know if its the same in the USA as it is here in the UK, and I don't know if its still available, but for a small fee we could stream it through the Guardian and Curzon websites. Might be worth having a look around for something like that.
 
Just watched it.

Okay, so Holy Motors is extremely abstract in some ways but as OP said, it also has its own internal logic. I don't know if director Leos Carax had a clear idea of how the universe he created works exactly, and I don't know if he wanted the viewer to come up with crazy theories or just sit back and enjoy the absurdity for absurdity's sake, but here goes nothing:

Basically, what I got from the film is... we are now living in a world where everyone can make a movie, and everyone can see that movie, so the frontiers between cinema and reality are becoming more and more blurry. At some point
Oscar mentions the cameras getting smaller, which made me think of the ubiquity of phone cameras and how every moment of our lives can become its own little movie. I don't have a concrete theory on what the fuck was going on throughout the film though, and I'm hesitating between coming up with a sci-fi or fantasy interpretation.

One of my favorite parts was Oscar entering the limo after the "father" scene. He looked like he wasn't over what had just happened, indicating for the first time that perhaps his amazing jumps from one role to the next perhaps weren't as clearcut as previously suggested. Or, the job was taking a toll on him.

I'll be honest, I didn't think I would enjoy Holy Motors and was planning on skipping it but curiosity got the best of me. And for awhile as I was witnessing Oscar's bizarre acting jobs unfold, I was ready to file it under the "brilliant but not for me" category. However, several key moments kept my interest and as the movie progressed, the gradual introduction of a mythology surrounding the company Oscar worked for (as vague as it was), his past life, and the increasing feeling that Carax was telling a story and not merely a series of disconnected ones won me over. Of course the fascinating visuals and great use of music didn't hurt either.

Also, I have a feeling that mindfuck of a last scene will have me ruminating for awhile.
 
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