It was a wannabe Holy Mountain that missed the point. The title implies that it's supposed to be a modern version, but it seems as though the director thought The Holy Mountain amounted to nothing other than "derp so random and weird". The main actor was fantastic, but the film itself was absolute garbage aside from some impressive cinematography here and there. The few amounts of symbolism and social commentary were embarrassingly obvious and forced ("beauty! weird!"). The musical scene was absolutely horribly delivered. It was a good movie for the first 20 minutes or so, but it wound up getting so much worse as it went along. If it wasn't clearly trying to be a Holy Mountain remake then I might have liked it better, but either way it wouldn't be anything that I could recommend.
I really don't know what to think about this movie. I don't even know if I liked it or not.
WTF did I just watch? This was the stupidest piece of "artistic" crap I've EVER seen.
This movie was randomly selected. With no idea what to expect, it provided a substantial amount of what the fuck moments. I would recommend it, without going more into details, to everyone open for strangeness.
Strange movie, I liked it a lot but I feel it's very personal, give it a try...
A dreamy journey into the consciousness of a human being. We are unable to distinguish the real from the fictional, and Carax plays with our expectations in a Lynchian way (e.g., the Club Silencio in Mullholand Drive). In the end, we are left with the possibility to connect emotionally with the various masks, a task I found hard, unfortunately.
Holy shit!
I can't say that I understood the meaning of every single thing, theres to many symbolisms hiding in it and sometimes can be so bizarre! Above all it's a film about great performances.
I am sure that Holy Motors will definitely have an impact on you and at the end you can take your own interpretation of the story, if there's one...
Like Last Year at Marienbad it is something that can't really be described and isn't for everyone. I can't remember another film where an actor was asked to play such an incredible range.
Some thoughts: This movie is illogical. This movie is artistic. This movie is engaging in the way you're grasping for logic, but almost justifiably frustrating in how it gives you no clarity. But maybe I'm just looking too hard. In any case, I can't really rate this movie, or artistic movies like it because the standard I use for ratings is based on logical plot and characters. This movie is in a category of its own, but I did enjoy the experience.
Review by manicureVIP 3BlockedParent2021-05-01T14:07:13Z— updated 2022-04-09T07:48:50Z
Carax can say whatever he wants in his interviews, but this is obviously a film about cinema. It opens with the director himself waking up after a long slumber (this is his first feature film in 13 years) and finding out that cinema as he knew it has either died or fallen asleep. Then we are taken to some kind of dystopian world where actors are constantly in a hurry to perform different roles in front of invisible cameras, with huge limousines acting as the “holy” motors of cinema that move people from one life to another. One can be unsure about the purpose of playing a part for no audience, but all we can do is to keep going to honor the “beauty of the act”.
Inadequacy and the inability to catch up with the digital age are recurrent themes in the film; even the limousines seem to fear being disposed of in a world where technology has to be invisible. While cinema used to be the most accomplished way to create new worlds, and actors had the privilege to become someone else, anyone can play different roles on the internet.
Far-fetched interpretations aside, Denis Lavant’s stand-out performance and the wide variety of genres and atmospheres we manage to visit make “Holy Motors” a unique and engaging cinematic experience. It might feel a bit cold the first time, but will keep growing under your skin afterward.
There are also tons of references to both the directors’ and the cast’s previous works: Denis Lavant reprises his role from “Tokyo”, Edith Scob wears a mask like in “Eyes Without a Face”, Wilkinson from “Bad Blood” gets mentioned, we get to see the now-gone Samaritaine department store from “Pont Neuf”, Kylie Minogue’s songs get played at parties, etc. Jean’s wig also looks dangerously similar to Jean Seberg in “Breathless”.