Movie Called Holy Motors

Holy Motors Movie Analysis

Holy Motors: An Analysis

Director Leos Carax has done it again. He has shocked the film industry with an abstract film focusing on the damaging power of our obsession with gazing into another's life. Voyeurism is a destructive force in the 2012 film Holy Motors, one which destroys the life of Oscar, the never-ending actor.

This intense French film was a major shocker in 2012. It is a very unique story told with incredible cinematic genius. Oscar, an actor, constantly drives around to different appointments, where he plays a number of odd roles. Sometimes he plays his roles in front o a large audience, while at other times they seem to be in front of only a few individuals or even no one at all. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to his roles, as he is random characters without much explanation of what is really going on. However, as the plot line progresses, the roles seem to get more intense. He dies more often and the interaction with other characters intensifies as well. When Oscar is finally introduced to someone from his own life, Eva, who apparently has had a child with Oscar, there is a growing sense of despair. Oscar is mortified when he watches Eva jump to her death. Still, Oscar continues on with his charades, as he continues to play more ridiculous roles. Throughout the entire film, Oscar seems to be everyone but himself, which wears on him immensely. The final scene of the film is the limousines discussing their fears of becoming outdated, which is an interesting take on how the real human characters of the play are feeling as the film progresses as well.

This extremely odd film plays into interesting notions of gaze and voyeurism. For many of Oscar's appointments, he is acting out his role for an audience that he cannot see with his own eyes, and often that are not even shown to the audience watching the film either. Oscar never knows exactly who is watching or how closely they are paying attention to his odd performances. Oscar's boss, Michael Picolli, reinforces this creepy sense of voyeurism when he explains to Oscar that cameras could be anywhere and so Oscar must be putting on his best performances at ever waking second. Essentially this is illustrating how mechanical life has become in the sense that someone is always watching. Life has become so much like a strange acting role for so many of us that the human actor never knows when he or she is actually being watched because it can be at any moment, or all moments at once. In this, the film suggests that voyeurism has evolved into an intense extreme. There is a strange sense of passivity to this ongoing gaze, the audience never jumps in but constantly demands the actor to keep up with his roles at all times -- essentially sacrificing his own life for the entertainment and viewing pleasure of an audience that never voices appreciation or affection. It is performing for a machine that constantly demands perfection, but never shows itself.