From dawn to dusk, a few hours in the life of Monsieur Oscar, a shadowy character who journeys from one life to the next. He is, in turn, captain of industry, assassin, beggar, monster, family man...
A surreal head-scratcher that’d make Luis Buñuel smile, it may not be perfectly formed, but there’s no denying its fierce originality.
What all of this is supposed to add up to is anyone's guess, but the film's melancholy take on the nature of performance is oddly affecting, and on a scene-by-scene basis it's surely the most surprising, imaginative and hilarious picture you're likely to see for some time.
It’s by no means a classic, but Holy Motors is strange enough to remain watchable, and different enough from any film you’ll have ever seen to keep you talking about it for years to come.
All achingly pretentious or super cool depending on your tolerance of such wannabe cult movies.
You may struggle to wrest unified meaning out of this entirely irreducible movie, but like Kylie’s other featured song, you can’t get it out of your head.
It's not a film so much as a spell, and however enigmatic or opaque it becomes you feel it working – worming – its way into your head.
A journey you’ll need to take over and over to truly discover its beguiling depths.
It's pure pleasure.
Splashing around in the same mad puddle as Lynch but a good deal funnier, this tale of a man with many faces is an exhilarating, audacious, lunatic rocket-ride. Hop on board.
Holy Motors is accessible and fun, but Carax pulls the rug from under you whenever you think you have it worked out. You won't be sure what to make of it, but you will be sure that it's the most ambitious and stimulating film you've seen in quite a while.
Wildly imaginative, incomprehensible but at times so visually stunning you may just want to stick with it to figure out what the heck is going on.
It's a happy return to the cinema for Carax, and likely to prove the classic he has been hoping to make.
Leos Carax’s sublime film raises pertinent questions about the state of humanity conveyed through the seductive warmth of liquid dark chocolate.
Holy Motors
An examination of Leos Carax's Holy Motors
Holy Motors: the weird world of Leos Carax
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Friday September 28, 2012, until Thursday October 4, 2012. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com
Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow from Friday September 28, 2012, until Sunday September 30, 2012. More info: http://www.glasgowfilm.org/theatre/
Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee from Friday October 5, 2012, until Thursday October 11, 2012. More info: www.dca.org.uk
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