Holy Motors – Review

There are movies that experiment with experimental concepts and surrealist moods, and they succeed wonderfully. Things are often not explained and left to the viewer’s own interpretations. Holy Motors is one of those movies, except I feel like it didn’t quite succeed. This is a beautiful movie to look at and it is wonderfully acted, but I’m missing what all the hype is about. To me this was a pretentious movie that only exists so that director Leos Carax can flex his film making muscle.

 

Oscar (Denis Lavant) is a mysterious man. He leaves his home early in the morning and gets into a limousine with his driver Céline (Edith Scob). Céline makes mention of nine appointments that Oscar is going to make by the end of the day. We soon learn that these aren’t average meetings. First, Oscar dresses like an old female beggar and asks for change on a busy street. Then, Oscar dresses up like a crazy vagrant who lives in the sewers and abducts an American model (Eva Mendez). These types of events continue through the rest of the day, sometimes getting violent, but Oscar always seems ok and he is just doing his job.

This is what lies on the surface of Holy Motors. Obviously, there’s a lot this film is trying to say and it gets it across ok enough… I guess. By then end of the movie, I felt no connection to the characters nor was I really interested in the “story” but I did understand what Carax was saying about the evolution of film making and how technology is moving us away from the more personal films of the past. To me, this is sort of a good message but I can’t help finding it pretentious. Is this to say that Carax is the only film maker who still understands the medium? Like I said, he’s flexing his muscle, and his views on film making are spotty and only have some good points.

 

Denis Lavant is the best part about this movie, and if it wasn’t for him, I really wouldn’t have any interest at all. This man is incredible, and most of his role require a lot of acrobatics, dancing, and other physically demanding tasks. This is why he is perfect for the role of Oscar. Oscar has to become many different people on this movie, each one of them significantly different from the last, and some of them demanding true dramatic performance. Lavant hits all of these characters on the head, and I would almost recommend Holy Motors solely to see Lavant at work.

Holy Motors really is a beautiful movie and Carax knows how to frame a shot, but that isn’t enough to pull this movie from the mire. I felt so distanced watching this movie because I didn’t connect with anyone or anything. This isn’t supposed to be a character driven movie, but I feel like I should at least feel something. That’s just it though. This movie didn’t make me feel anything. Everything that happens in this movie is artificial, which is kind of the point, but it made me feel like I was watching a movie instead of feeling like I was watching someone’s life play out like a movie.

I have a strange kind of respect for Holy Motors, but that’s not to say I could enjoy this at all. Denis Lavant is amazing, and one scene involving a symphony of accordions is great. The rest of this movie is Leos Carax saying “Look what I can do! Don’t I have so much to say?” It might have been that I didn’t like the distance I felt, or how little is explained. To me, Holy Motors is a cold exercise in surrealism that I just couldn’t get into. I did like seeing Edith Scob don the white mask from Eyes Without a Face, though. It wasn’t necessary, but it was pretty cool.

Eyes Without a Face – Review

When a movie from as early as 1960 has the ability to give me the willies, I will hold it in the highest regard. A fine example of this would be Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face. Franju never actually considered this a horror movie, but described it solely as a “tale of anguish.” While I definitely agree with that, one simply can’t ignore the horror aspects that are present all throughout the film, from the gothic settings and architecture to the mad scientist archetype. While Eye Without a Face is unsettling and, at times, gruesome, it still maintains a poetic flow which can only be seen to fully be understood.

From an outsider’s perspective, Dr. Génnesier (Pierre Brasseur) appears to be a respectable surgeon who serves the community well. If you take a closer look, however, you will notice that he isn’t such an average doctor. Génnesier is actually on a very personal mission of redemption, and by his side is his assistant, Louise (Alida Valli), who goes into the city and lures women of a very specific age group and appearance back to Génnesier’s mansion. The whole reason behind these string of kidnappings is that the mad surgeon is trying to graft another woman’s face to that of his daughter’s, Christiane (Edith Scob), who lost her face in an accident cause by her father. As Génnesier keeps attempting and failing at these grafts, suspicion begins to arise in the town and his best kept secret may be brought to light.

If I were given the task to describe Eyes Without a Face using only one word, I’d call it “mystifying.” The way people move from scene to scene along with the continuity of the mise en scène can easily put a trance on the viewer. It’s tranquil in the most gothic sense of the word, with dark roads lined with naked, twisted trees and the beautiful mansion is just as easily destroyed with unapologetic scenes of gut wrenching imagery. Without giving too much of the plot away, there is a scene where the audience gets to be present when Génnesier is performing one of his surgeries, and we see the scalpel going under the skin and other icky things in full graphic detail. Definitely made me cringe.

I will admit that the first time I watched this movie, I wasn’t too impressed. I recognized that it was beautiful, but I was really expecting a straight forward horror movie and was disappointed when that wasn’t what I got. I wasn’t the first either. When this movie was first released in the U.S. in 1962, it was titled The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus and was paired with a Japanese schlock horror film, The Manster. Could you imagine going into that double feature expecting goofy, mindless trash and getting this? Upon this second full viewing, I have really come to appreciate and enjoy how phenomenal this movie is.

The graphic scares of this movie are actually very sparse. The real horror comes from the entire eerie atmosphere. First of all, the white human-ish mask that Christiane has to wear over her disfigured face is straight up creepy. I always found things that are almost human, but not quite can  be more unsettling than the most out there movie monster in the history books. While the gross scenes involving disfigurement and surgery are memorable, I’m surprised that Christiane’s mask and entire outfit isn’t more iconic. While Pierre Brasseur gives an excellent performance as the doctor, I feel like Edith Scob’s ghostly movements and acting with her eyes when behind the mask are just haunting.

 

If you’re in the mood for mindless horror that only can supply you with jump scares and gore, than Eyes Without a Face is the antithesis of what you are after. There is enough gore for it to be impressive for the time, and it really was a ballsy movie, but that’s not what makes the movie great. The beautiful gothic atmosphere, constant feeling of dread, and performances is what really makes Eyes Without a Face a classic that, despite being restored and released on the Criterion Collection, isn’t as well recognized and known as it really should be.