Holy Motors

Written and directed by Leos Carax, Holy Motors is the story about a man who travels throughout Paris inhabiting many personalities in the course of a day. The film is an unconventional story that revolves around cinema and a man changing from one personality to another in order to play a role in what is needed in life. Starring Denis Lavant, Eva Mendes, Edith Scob, Michel Piccoli, Elise L’Homeau, and Kylie Minogue. Holy Motors is a strange yet intoxicating film from Leos Carax.

The film is essentially the story about a man named Mr. Oscar (Denis Lavant) who spends his entire day inhabiting many personalities as part of his job. In this day, he spends his time in many different stories in very different genres as if he’s recreating moments or doing something as part of his job. In these different assignments, he meets various people in the course of a day as he’s often accompanied by his driver Celine (Edith Scob). It’s all part of a world that Leos Carax is creating where it blends fiction and reality where nothing is as it seems. Particularly as he transcends many different genres from comedy, romance, musical, film noir, the gangster film, and everything else in between for what is certainly an unconventional story.

Part of Carax’s approach to the screenplay is the fact that it doesn’t have a structure nor does it reveal anything into whether or not this story about a man inhabiting many personalities is real. Especially as the film opens with a different man (Leos Carax) opening a door in his apartment to enter a cinema where the audience is watching King Vidor’s The Crowd. It adds to the ambiguity that is part of this story where it asks many questions into what is happening. Is Mr. Oscar playing these personalities to fill something that is lost in the world? Are these personalities that the people encounter all part of an act or to create something shocking? Are the people part of the act that is happening?

These are the many questions that is happening in the course of the film as its narrative is approach in an episodic manner. Yet, it works as each personality that Mr. Oscar plays does manage to get people up in the air as the moments start to become more overwhelming and much crazier. Notably as there’s brief breaks where Mr. Oscar has to do something where it adds more question to the job that he’s doing. It’s all part of the schematics that Carax is creating where he raises the stakes for each adventure that Mr. Oscar is encountering. What become more intriguing as the story progresses is the people he’s meeting where they could be part of this strange agency.

Carax’s direction is definitely stylish in terms of the presentation that he’s creating for the film. Shot largely on location in Paris and nearby towns, it’s a world where things aren’t very real where it’s all about the world these personalities inhabit such as a gravesite, a film studio, an abandoned hotel, a suburb, and all sorts of places. Part of which takes place inside a big limousine where Oscar does all of his makeup work and prepares for each assignment he takes part on during the day. Carax has a stylish intimacy for these scenes where it feels large but also small at times while Mr. Oscar is always looking at a TV screen where he talks to Celine. Celine’s role is really that of a companion who ensures that he does his job and returns to his limo as she often shows maternal concern for him.

Since this is a film where reality doesn’t really exist, it’s also a film that features a lot of references to films as it is in some ways a tribute to cinema. In the middle of the film, there’s a break where Mr. Oscar plays the accordion with a bunch of musicians as a camera follows them in a tracking shot where they’re playing inside a church. It’s part of that idea of what cinema once was where there is a lot of fantasy and everyone is playing something. There’s also an element of the musical where it is clear that Carax is aiming for something that harkens back to times when cinema was about a whole lot more. Largely as Carax employs a lot of stylistic shots to create something big as Paris itself is a character in the film. Overall, Carax creates a very exhilarating yet strange spectacle that is a real love letter to cinema.

Cinematographers Caroline Champetier and Yves Cape do excellent work with the film‘s very stylish photography from the colorful look of the locations in Paris in day and night to some of the more weirder shots to explore Mr. Oscar‘s troubled mind. Editor Nelly Quetier does brilliant work with the editing by utilizing lots of stylish cuts to play with the film‘s rhythm as well as creating unique transitions for the film to move from one story to another. Production designer Florian Sanson and art director Emmanuelle Cuillery do amazing work with the set pieces in the film such as the limousine that Mr. Oscar lives in to some of the places like the abandoned hotel, the studio set, and the cave that his personalities inhabit.

Costume designer Anais Romand does wonderful work with the different costumes that Mr. Oscar wears along with some of the clothes of the people he encounters in his journey. Hair and makeup designer Bernard Floch does terrific work with the hair and makeup work that Mr. Oscar puts into all of the personalities he creates. Visual effects supervisors Yoann Berger and Alexandre Bon do nice work with some of the film‘s minimal visual effects which is most notable in the motion-capture scene that Mr. Oscar participates in. The sound work of Emmanuel Croset and Erwan Kerzanet is superb for the atmosphere it creates in the different locations that occur as well as the intimacy in the limousine.

The film’s soundtrack features an array of different music ranging from classical pieces by Dmitri Shostakovich, a score piece from the movie Godzilla by Akira Ifukube, and other music pieces by R.L. Burnside, Manset, Sparks, and Kylie Minogue. Minogue also sings an original song written by Leos Carax and Neil Hannon that is for the film’s lone musical number as it serves as a great tribute to cinema.

The casting by Elsa Pharaon is phenomenal for the small ensemble that is created as it features noteworthy performances from Jeanne Disson as a troubled teenager, Elisse L’Homeau as a nurse caring for her uncle, Geoffrey Carey as an obsessed photographer, Annabelle Dexter-Jones as the photographer’s assistant, and Leos Carax as the mysterious man in the film’s opening scene. Michel Piccoli is excellent in a small but memorable performance as a man who is probably Mr. Oscar’s boss as he questions about the status of his appointments. Eva Mendes is wonderful as a model that one of Mr. Oscar’s characters is infatuated by where Mendes is mesmerizing. Kylie Minogue is terrific as the mysterious Jean who joins Mr. Oscar in a very memorable scene where she sings a song.

Edith Scob is amazing as Mr. Oscar’s limo driver Celine as she makes sure he comes back from his appointments while worrying about his well-being after each assignment. Finally, there’s Denis Lavant in an incredible performance as Mr. Oscar and the many personalities he inhabits. It’s a truly riveting performance that has Lavant take on so many things including the Mr. Merde character that he played in the Merde segment in the anthology film Tokyo! It’s also a performance that allows Lavant to showcase his range from comedy, drama, and all sorts of things as it’s definitely one for the ages.

Holy Motors is an outstanding film from Leos Carax that features triumphant performances from Denis Lavant and Edith Scob. Along with top-notch supporting work from Kylie Minogue, Eva Mendes, and Michel Piccoli, it’s a film that is truly a true love-letter to the art of cinema as well as a film that dares to be unconventional and uncompromising without giving any kind of answers or meaning. In the end, Holy Motors is an extraordinary yet out-of-this-world film from Leos Carax.

Leos Carax Films: Boy Meets Girl - Mauvais Sang - Les Amants du Pont-Neuf - Pola X - Tokyo!: Merde - Annette - The Auteurs #36: Leos Carax

© thevoid99 2012

Jack & Diane

Written and directed by Bradley Rust Gray, Jack & Diane is the story about two teenage girls who fall in love with each other as their romance intensify until one of them has to move away leading to all sorts of issues. The film is an exploration into young love as well as its complexities at such a young age. Starring Juno Temple, Riley Keough, Dane DeHann, Cara Seymour, Haviland Morris, and Kylie Minogue. Jack & Diane is an interesting but very messy film from Bradley Rust Gray.

After losing her cell phone, Diane (Juno Temple) wanders around Brooklyn trying to make a phone call as she enters a store where she meets a tomboy named Jack (Riley Keough). The two eventually go to a club where they kiss for the first time as their relationship starts to blossom. When Diane’s aunt Linda (Cara Seymour) finds out about the relationship, she isn’t happy as she revealed to Jack that Diane is leaving for Paris in two-weeks to attend school there. Jack is devastated where the two briefly break up until Jack learns something about Diane’s twin sister Karen. The two reunite as Jack and Diane spend their time together before Diane leaves for Paris where eventually, the two would make an encounter with strange things around them.

The film is essentially a love story between two teenage girls in Brooklyn where they spend their summer being together as one of them is set to leave for Paris to attend school there. Meanwhile, there’s some strange things happening as one of the girls has been having nosebleeds as she’s been going into some weird transformations that would shock both of them. While the premise is interesting, the screenplay ends up being meandering in terms of its plot schematics where it’s not sure where to go or what to do. There’s also some awkward writing in the dialogue while there’s also a lot of strange sub-stories regarding some things inside Diane’s body that would eventually be unveiled in the third act.

Bradley Rust Gray’s direction has some engaging moments in the way he builds up the relationship between Jack and Diane with some interesting shots as well as shooting it on location in Brooklyn. Yet, Gray seems unsure in what kind of film he wants to make where the screenplay really doesn’t do much to make the relationship more intriguing as the film progresses. Throughout the film, there’s these strange animated inserts by the Brothers Quay that establishes a lot of the things that’s happening to Diane. By the time the film reaches its third act, things start to drag when it comes to the eventual reveal about Diane and Jack’s encounter with it as it leads to very over-drawn moments concerning the film’s ending. Overall, Gray creates a film that had an interesting idea but falls flat in its inability to define itself as what kind of film it wants to be.

Cinematographer Anne Misawa does nice work with the photography from the wonderful look of the Brooklyn exterior settings to the array of lights at the club Jack and Diane attend. Editors Bradley Rust Gray and So Yong Kim do terrific work with the editing to capture the intensity of the relationship through some stylish cuts along with fade-outs for the transitions. Production designer Chris Trujillo and art director Matt Marks do some good work with the set pieces such as Diane‘s room as well as the club she and Jack go to. Costume designer Audrey Louise Reynolds does excellent work with the costumes from the tomboyish look of Jack to the more colorful clothing of Diane.

The creature design by Gabe Bartalos is quite good for its sense of horror although it just adds to the confusing nature of the film. The animation by the Quay Brothers is a highlight for the way it looks though the inserts they put in doesn‘t really seem to help out the film‘s narrative. Sound designer Kent Sparling does superb work with the sound from the way the music is heard on location to the atmosphere of the locations the characters encounter at. The music by the group mum is a major highlight of the film for its ambient textures and space-like tone to convey the sense of longing between the two protagonists. Music supervisor Rachel Fox creates a wonderful soundtrack that features music by Jonsi, Shellac, the Dillinger Escape Plan, some electronic music, and a great cover of Yazoo’s Only You by the Flying Pickets.

The casting by Sig de Miguel and Stephen Vincent is stellar as it features some cameo appearances from pop queen Kylie Minogue as a tattooed lesbian that Jack hangs out with, Lou Taylor Pucci as a guy in a web video, Haviland Morris as Jack’s mom, and Dane DeHaan as Jack’s co-worker Chris. Cara Seymour is good as Diane’s aunt Linda though it’s a character that doesn’t get much to do. Finally, there’s the duo of Riley Keough and Juno Temple in their respective roles as Jack and Diane. Keough brings a restrained yet calm performance as the tomboyish Jack as she tries to figure out about Diane. Temple is more outgoing as Diane as well as the way she goes into awkward moments as their performances are a real highlight of the film despite its weak script.

Jack & Diane is a really underwhelming film from Bradley Rust Gray despite the lead performances of Juno Temple and Riley Keough as well as terrific film soundtrack. It’s a film that really has no idea what it wants to be where it ends up meandering throughout and leading the film to drag at times. In the end, Jack & Diane is a terribly incomprehensible film from Bradley Rust Gray.

© thevoid99 2012