I see heaps of films, and fairly often I’ll leave the theatre going, “yeah, that was all right.” But sometimes I’ll see something thrillingly original, deeply weird, unexpectedly funny and oddly affecting, reminding me that cinema is capable of sublime things. Holy Motors is a satisfyingly rich ramble through the idea of drawing meaning and catharsis from performance – especially through the movies.
It begins as director Leos Carax finds a secret door into a mysterious theatre whose audience are still and silent. Dead? Entranced? From there, we follow the workday of Monsieur Oscar (Denis Lavant). Céline (Edith Scob, star of Eyes Without A Face) pilots his stretch limousine through Paris between a series of ‘appointments’ in which, meticulously costumed and made up, he acts out vignettes from different people’s lives. Between jobs, he talks to fellow employees, including a manager (veteran French actor Michel Piccoli) and an old flame (Kylie Minogue). There’s also an accordion interlude.
Death is a recurring motif; are Holy Motors employees angels or agents of reincarnation? For me, Lavant’s extraordinarily physical performance signals life’s irony: we cannot simply be, but must perform. As Monsieur Oscar says, it’s about “the beauty of the act”.
WIN
Thanks to Icon, we have 10 dbls! To enter, email
brisbane.win@thethousands.com.au with the subject ‘who were we when we were who we were?’
Australian Competitions Club
