Leos Carax’s Holy Motors begins with a man who is half asleep, waking and opening a door with his finger, which happens to be a key. After this scene, it then cuts to Monsieur Oscar (Denis Lavant) leaving a big house and getting into a limousine. From the beginning, Carax purposely omits details about Monsieur Oscar, except for the fact that he has nine “appointments” that day. Shifting from storyline to storyline, the movie rejects a concept of a narrative, but rather opts for a series of absurd and unpredictable stories. While forcing the viewers to make sense of the film, I think the film highlights that art does not have to make sense for it to be entrancing.

Throughout Holy Motors, Monsieur Oscar transforms into multitudes of personas, while also adopting their personalities. With each and every character that Monsieur Oscar adapts, there is a real emotion that is evoked from the viewers through the randomness of the film. For example, when he transforms into a mad man walking through the cemetery and eats the woman’s fingers, I was horrified. On the other hand, I was also happy to see that he was playing the accordion with that band. Carax utilizes the film’s whiplash of emotions he evokes from the viewers to portray cinema. Monsieur Oscar is playing parts and is completely invested in all of his unique roles. It gets to the point where the audience is unsure of who the “real” Monsieur Oscar is because he comes back to life multiple times, and he even ends his night in a house with chimpanzees. Monsieur Oscar has also transformed himself far beyond his true self that his identity does not exist. He only know performance.

However, I also thought that it was interesting that Monsieur Oscar becomes mournful as he reaches for a true relationship with characters like Eva Grace (Kylie Minogue) and Léa (Elise Lhomeau). While there are constant hints that he looks tired or that Monsieur Oscar attempts to create a reality for himself, Carax utilizes this emotion to pay homage to cinema and how actors embody whichever character they are given.