Holy Motors (2012)

Every so often a film comes along and provides you with a sharp jab to remind you why you watch movies in the first place.  2012 has been an exceptional year in film, at least in my opinion, but one has to admit that there hasn't been a lot of inspired cinema.  Then along comes a director like Leos Carax to slap you in the face with what is surely the most audacious film released this year.

There is no simple way to describe the plot of Holy Motors, but all you really need to know is that it concerns Monsieur Oscar (Denis Lavant), a man who rides around Paris in a limousine and dons several disguises.  First he's dressed as a beggar woman, then a motion capture performer, then a weird troll/leprechaun.  Lavant is a modern day Lon Chaney, and what makes the movie work so well is his total commitment to all the characters he plays.

More so then that, though, this is a film that, if you go in cold like I did, you cannot possibly predict whats going to happen next.  There is no solid narrative structure, and while that might frustrate some, it delighted and entertained me to no end.  I was at first apprehensive about the film's strange open, which features Carax himself unlocking a door with his finger that leads to a balcony of an old movie house, but I was soon swept into the world of this picture, and was eagerly anticipating what would happen next.

A lot has been made out of what this film actually means.  Some point to an ode to film's better days, when cinema was still fresh and new.  Some will say it is about the art of classic film dying out, and the old methods of making them as digital technology absorbs all aspects of the craft.  Carax himself has admitted that the film is little more then an amalgam of scenes from other features he's been trying to get off the ground for the past decade.  Each segment does feel like a snippet of a larger film, but Carax's work coalesces and never feels disjointed.  It's similar to the Wachowski's Cloud Atlas earlier this year, except better.

Whatever the case may be, Carax achieves a level of pure cinema that few other auteurs can match, the pinnacle of which is an accordion interlude in a church, that builds on itself until it reaches an ecstatic climax, then continues on.  Eva Mendes has her most bizarre role as a model that Lavant captures whilst in leprechaun/troll form, and Kylie Minogue breaks out into a musical number, though it is the weakest point of the movie for me (the lyrics are not very inspired: "Who were we, who were we, when we were who we were.")

Rarely have I been so delighted by everything in a film all at once.  It should be noted that the film does contain some graphic nudity and violence, but for those that aren't annoyed by that this film should be a feast for the eyes.  Rarely do I say this, but Holy Motors floored me, and is one of those films I will buy just so I can sit down with friends and watch their reactions to it.  Long after 2012 is past, when the dust settles and we've forgotten Les Miserables, Zero Dark Thirty, and many other awards-bait films, this one will be remembered.