{"id":1148,"date":"2023-11-09T07:03:12","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T07:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/?p=1148"},"modified":"2023-11-09T07:03:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T07:03:14","slug":"an-attempt-to-analyze-holy-motors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/2023\/11\/09\/an-attempt-to-analyze-holy-motors\/","title":{"rendered":"An Attempt to Analyze Holy Motors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0gGLmv4DfNg<\/a>

In this short summary, and even briefer analysis, of Holy Motors (2012), director Brian Trenchard-Smith gives some thoughts on the highly codified meaning of Leos Carax\u2019s film. Though he does not delve as deeply into the hidden messages of the film as other video analyses I watched, I still like this one because it comes from a source close to the medium of film art. Though Trenchard-Smith himself says that he could be completely wrong about his deconstruction of the enigmatic film, I feel that he is generally correct, whereas some of the other breakdowns felt more far-fetched, or at least less plausible (but that is just my personal opinion).

Trenchard-Smith discusses how Holy Motors is in part about how today, in the digital age, where cinema has fallen behind as a form of media consumption, the entire world has become \u201ca reality TV show.\u201d Though I might not have phrased it this way, I generally agree with this point. Mr. Oscar\u2019s entire career appears to be going around and acting in different roles, but there are no cameras present like in a traditional acting role, so he is not acting for a camera, he is acting for the world. One playful nod to this idea I noticed came with the gravestones that Mr. Oscar\u2019s sewer-leprechaun passes by as he munches on flowers. Each had \u201cVisit my website\u201d written on them, rather than the traditional inscriptions associated with gravestones, suggesting how in the eyes of the filmmakers, digital life and media has consumed the world, even in death. A second point made by Trenchard-Smith is that Holy Motors displays the difficult life of an actor, specifically, \u201cthe psychological toll\u2026 that a life of creating illusion exacts.\u201d Though I can not say I have much insight into this (my experience with actors is less than limited) I can say that as a film student and even as a film fan, in the past few years it has become evident to me that serious acting is deeply impactful on an individual’s mental state. Perhaps the most famous example that comes to mind is the tragic death of Heath Ledger after his exceptional portrayal of the Joker. However, another example that is even closer to this film is the death of Carax\u2019s wife Yekaterina Nikolaevna Golubeva, who committed suicide a year before this film was released. Golubeva was also an actress who spent much of her life fabricating torment for the screen. What Trenchard-Smith suggests in this video, which I agree with, is that for an actor sometimes it becomes difficult to separate their true identity from a story they are telling for the camera, and that can be tremendously difficult.

Holy Motors is a film that took some thinking for me to appreciate. When the credits rolled I was perplexed and discontent, but as the contents of the film and their meaning began to ruminate in my head I started to like what I had just seen, which surprised me. It is a film I could undoubtedly watch one or two more times and still be confused and amazed. There is no lack of interesting things to talk about in this film, from the unorthodox storytelling, to the cinematography, to the meaning of talking limos and a chimpanzee family. What did you think? Do you agree with Trenchard-Smith? What did you feel Carax was trying to communicate? What aspects of the film caught your attention?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0gGLmv4DfNg In this short summary, and even briefer analysis, of Holy Motors (2012), director Brian Trenchard-Smith gives some thoughts on the highly codified meaning of Leos Carax\u2019s film. Though he does not delve as deeply into the hidden messages of the film as other video analyses I watched, I still like this one because it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8674,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41,87],"class_list":["post-1148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-searcher","tag-week-10"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8674"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1148"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1151,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions\/1151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}