Holy Motors (2012)
Art used to mean something.
Presentation:
Another experimental French art house film attempting at avant-garde storytelling. This is a symbolic film about filmmaking and the performative aspects of it. One thing is for certain, it’s not boring, but it’s also not meaningful either. With 9 different stories, the abstraction feels utterly pointless and unfocused under the guise of cinematic creativity. Basically each arc represents an established cinematic trope and by the time the film got to musicals I was completely done. Maybe the social commentary would hold more merit if the picture looked or was shot better, but with such mediocre cinematography it’s hard to subscribe to the love letter and fall in love with decaying cinema. Like how are you gonna complain about small digital cameras when this was shot on a Red Epic?
Conclusion:
Torturously enigmatic, this film had the opposite effect on me. This type of film is just abstracting for the sake of abstracting with not as much substance as it thinks it has. I do like some of these French enigma style films like Red Rooms and Titane, but this one completely falls on its face. Metaphors are only of value if there’s something worth comparing to.
Recommendations
Phil Tippett’s nightmare fuel.