As near as I can tell, Leos Carax's Holy Motors is about his love for movies. Or something like that. Or perhaps something completely different.
It begins with shots of an audience in a cinema. They are unconscious although the screening of what appears to be an Eadweard Muybridge motion study continues. Next we see a man in a bed in what appears to be a hotel room. There's a dog at his feet and he carefully gets up so as not to disturb the hound. He slowly wanders the room and lights a cigarette. Then he notices a noise – a repetitious mechanical one. It seems to be emanating from behind a wall that is covered in some really gaudy wallpaper with a forest pattern. The man discovers an inset in the pattern which hides what looks like a valve stem. A cut to the man's hand shows that one of his middle fingers has transformed into a socket driver which he inserts into the opening and turns. The wall opens to reveal a hallway. Entering it, the man eventually finds himself in the cinema we saw earlier. A naked toddler makes its way down an aisle followed by a dog.
From here we meet Monsieur Oscar. Clad in a suit, he is bidding adieu to his family as he walks down the driveway of his large modern suburban home. He makes his way to a stretch limo. The driver, an older woman named Céline, closes the door and they are off to the first of nine "appointments" which Mr. Oscar has on his calendar for the day. But instead of reading reports and preparing for a meeting with other rich men in fancy suits, Mr. Oscar applies make-up and a wig. His first assignment is to dress up like an old woman and beg out on a busy sidewalk in the middle of Paris. Then it's back into the limo where he removes that costume and prepares for his next gig.
With the make-up and wig safely tucked away, he puts on a motion capture suit. His next assignment sees him running and leaping against a green screen before a young woman in a similar suit enters. The pair writhe about only to have their mock lovemaking captured, digitized, and projected onto the screen in the room. Other assignments see Mr. Oscar transform himself into a madman who crashes a photo shoot in a cemetery and abscond with the fashion model, become a hit man whose job is to take out a man who is his double, pretend to be a young woman's uncle in a bizarre deathbed scene, and meet up with a former lover (played by Kylie Minogue) who launches into suitably saccharine song lamenting their relationship.
Each of these assignments is a short genre flick unto itself. You've got a musical love story, an action thriller, a melodrama, and a bit of Beauty and the Beast fantasy. At one point Mr. Oscar steps back into the limo to find a mysterious figure seated inside. The man would seem to be his boss and he tells Mr. Oscar that clients are becoming worried that his performances are not up to snuff. Mr. Oscar responds that he has difficulty acting these days now that cameras are so small. However much love Carax has for movies, he also seems to be expressing worry for his chosen medium. This scene perhaps laments the death of film and the rise of digital cameras. The scene where Mr. Oscar and the unknown woman slither around in their motion capture suits features his beastly CGI representation sporting an erection. This is echoed in the later assignment at the cemetery. First we see tombstones advertising the webpages of the deceased. Plus it ends with the model singing to the naked Mr. Oscar-as-beast who is also fully erect. A digital vs. a real phallus.
And let's not forget the opening of Holy Motors with a movie audience either asleep or dead as some of the earliest motion picture images go by onscreen. Is this a comment on the state of cinema today or on today's audiences? I am unsure but it would seem that Carax is looking for something new whether it be new moviemakers to enter the business or a change of mind by audiences when he has that child walk down the aisle towards the screen.
Whatever Carax meant or didn't mean to say about movies, Holy Motors is a lot of fun. Some of the assignments prove quite funny such as when the madman stomps around the cemetery eating flowers. The hit man scenario is oddly thrilling when the blood flows as you wonder whether reality has finally intruded into Monsieur Oscar's world. The scene about lost love with Kylie Minogue was a bit hokey for me as someone who really does not like musicals but it wasn't really overdone and was mercifully short. The poignancy of the situation is highlighted by reality finally intruding as Eva (Minogue) throws herself off of a tall building to her death. (Or was she "acting" too?) Denis Lavant stars as Monsieur Oscar and is a total treat. His performance is at times very physical yet at others relies solely upon facial expressions and tone of voice. He goes from an ornery woman to a dying man and hits all points in between seemingly with great ease.
While Holy Motors is surreal, it's not like getting lost in one of David Lynch's labyrinths such as Inland Empire. Just let the strange wash over you and enjoy the ride.
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