F I L M G H O U L

Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)

One-man anthology film in which Carax imagines the death of cinema and the lives of its lonely, hard-working, reality-bending architects (Lavant, Minogue, Scob and whatever this Holy Motors organisation is about) in a not-too-distant dystopia where “we can’t see the cameras anymore” and everything is a performance, Holy Motors is the stuff dreams, swan songs and, ironically, pure cinema is made of. To simply call it Lynchean or surrealist would be a simplification: this is a beautiful, and enchanting odyssey you should embark on if you so please. As far as I’m concerned, it was the best (and worst — but I embrace that for the moment) place to start my exploration of Carax’s work.