In the publicity for Holy Motors, the new surreal drama from ex-film critic turned director, Leos Carax, the film from France is described as the director’s love letter to cinema.  I beg to differ.  If anything the film appears to have nothing but contempt for cinema, at least contempt for the cinema of today.

The plot is almost unexplainable and will drive the literal minded crazy.  You either surrender to its off-beat rhythms or you run the risk of going insane. 

Holy Motors opens with a shot of a packed audience staring up at a screen.  From the looks on their faces they’re either bored or half asleep, it’s difficult to tell.  Presumably what follows – though we’re never quite sure – is an invitation to watch the film that they are watching.  A man known as Oscar is picked up in a long, white limousine and driven around the streets of Paris to meet nine business appointments throughout the day.  His ‘appointments’ take him to various locations throughout the city where he takes on new personas.  The back of the limo is really his theatrical dressing room where he applies makeup and new costumes for his next appointment/character, which range from an old beggar woman begging on the Parisian streets for money, a grotesque sewer troll who repels everyone around him, to an artist in a motion capture film.  

“I miss the cameras,” Oscar states at one point from the back of his car.  It’s a rare moment where we feel the true intention of the director’s lament for the cinema of the past.  “They used to be heavier than us,” Oscar continues, referring to the studio cameras.  “Now they’re smaller than our heads.”

At one point, Oscar meets up with Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue who appears to be engaged in the same activity as him, driving around the city assuming new characters as she arrives for each new ‘appointment.’  Her moment reflects a musical, and she actually sings, but while her lyrics may be in English, the sad, poignant style of sound is most definitely French, something akin to a Jacque Demy musical.    

We’re even treated to an Intermission complete with Entr’acte music supplied by Oscar himself acting out the persona of another character who plays the accordion.

As you can tell, the whole affair is bizarre to say the least, and there’s a good chance that the only person reading the review this far is someone who either loves French cinema or someone who has already seen the film and is hoping for a fresh insight in order to make sense as to what they have already seen.

Despite its intentionally ambiguous nature, the film admittedly never bores.  There’s a strange fascination to watching Oscar purposely morph into these characters, but it’s neither an entertaining nor a satisfying sense of fascination.  It’s more like an annoying hypnotic spell that holds on and refuses to release its grip. 

Even though the film has already earned kudos from many critics both here and overseas, Holy Motors is a film that only someone interested in the movies will enjoy.  It’s the kind of film that can keep you waxing philosophically all night with friends without ever reaching a solid conclusion as to its real meaning.  When Kylie Minogue’s character throws herself off the roof of a high-rise at the conclusion of her song and plunges to her death there’s a good chance you may feel like throwing yourself with her.

 MPAA Unrated    Length:  115 minutes    Overall Rating:  3 (out of 10)