Q&A: Leos Carax Explains ‘Holy Motors’ and Why He Wants to Make a Superhero Movie

After watching Holy Motors I like many others have an abundance of questions. What did I just watch? What does any of it mean? Why was this movie made the way it was? The best and worst part about these many different questions is that there is not an answer. Or maybe there is, or maybe it’s wrong, or maybe it’s something you have to make up to help yourself sleep at night. The point of experimental films is to be confused at the lack of answers and use that to create meaning.

I researched and discovered an interview director Leo Carax did with IndieWire, that did not seem to help. Each question within this interview felt left unanswered and tossed into the garbage. Many questions the interviewer asked were answered so carelessly. When asked about interpretations of the film Carax notes, “I spent so little time imagining the film. The whole thing took two weeks…Although I don’t make films for anybody, I do make films, therefore I do make them for someone: I make them for the dead.” After reading many of these interview answers like this it’s hard to not feel defeated or even annoyed at the lack of substance. These questions and half-baked answers leave you questioning whether he even wants to be there or not, and the funny thing is he doesn’t. Within the interview Carax admits he doesn’t like doing interviews, “I mostly don’t submit to talking about my work because I would like another talk about real life. I don’t think men were meant to be interviewed.” Reading further when asked about the totality of the film he gives the first answer that I felt had any true meaning, “In this world I invented it’s a way of telling the experience of life without a classical narrative, without using flashbacks. It’s trying to have the whole range of human experience in a day.” It was here I started to understand what the movie might’ve been trying to say and begin to think critically about the movies ‘meaning’.

Though it is important to note that most experimental films do not have meaning or true narrative, it is entirely possible for the viewer to use the lack of story to create one for themselves. I felt for Holy Motors specifically the lack of sense or story is the Epitome of what the director wanted to do. By showing such chaotic sequences of someone who is acting out as a person, we can start to connect our chaos with his, even if we aren’t going around and biting people’s fingers off. Existing in an age where you are always perceived poses its challenges and a lot of the time forces us to ‘act’ just like Mr. Oscar does, often leading to a chaotic environment that makes absolutely no sense. Going back to the interview, though frustrating, I think by giving such confusing answers it gives us as the viewer a way to reflect and make our own thoughts instead of waiting for an answer to appear. A lot of times real life isn’t a narrative that makes sense and Carax reflects this not only in this interview but in Holy Motors.

After reading, yes, I still have questions, some that may never get answered. But I think that is the beauty of studying experimental film, that it doesn’t always need to make sense and even when it does it can be completely ‘wrong’. Though I didn’t have all my questions answered with this interview, as much as I would’ve liked them to be, it helped me better understand the chaos of experimental film and how much it may reflect real life. I can’t say I particularly liked the film, but I can recognize how thought provoking it is and the significance of studying it in Film 101.