Holy Motors - notes
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These ongoing notes point to motifs and themes within specific episodes and to connections between episodes. |
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Images from Etienne-Jules Marey's pre-cinema experiments with photography interrupt the opening credits three times and return three times, at the beginning of the Entr'acte, at the beginning of the last encounter (with the chimpanzee family) and in the closing credits, just before the credit for Léos Carax:
The images of the naked boy running, jumping and playing with a ball are from 1892, as are those of the naked man throwing a brick and pulling on a rope; the two hands are from 1893.
(There may be other flashes of Marey in the film that I have missed.)
(There may be other flashes of Marey in the film that I have missed.)
M. Oscar plays 11 rôles; Le Banquier (episode 2), La Mendiante (episode 3), the game character in the Motion Capture sequence (episode 4), Merde (episode 5), Le Père (episode 6), l'Accordéoniste (episode 7), Le Tueur 1 (episode 8), Le Tueur 2 (episode 9), Le Mourant (episode 10), himself (?) in his encounter with Eva Grace (episode 11), L'Homme au Foyer (episode 12).
1/ Prologue
- spaces and places: studio interior (?) - a hotel bedroom near an airport; real interior - a theatre (Le Trianon, 80 boulevard Rochechouart, 18e)
- motifs and themes: three dogs; dream; image on the laptop; vision (peep/key-hole; sleeping audience in the theatre); cinema (what film are they watching? - traffic; someone is shot in an interior; then maritime sounds); artificial image of nature - pattern of bare trees on wall
- connections: episode 10 (le Mourant's pyjamas, his dog); maritime film links to ocean-liner-style house in the next episode
- other things: Léos Carax is the sleeper who awakens; prosthetic finger/key
2/ Le Banquier
- spaces and places: Mallet-Stevens's Villa Paul Poiret, Mézy-sur-Seine
- motifs and themes: home, family; architecture; bodyguards; young girl at the window (see other young girls of different ages in episodes 6, 10 and 12)
- connections: le Banquier is killed by M. Oscar in episode 9; the architecture of the Villa is echoed in that of the houses in Trappes, episode 12
in the limousine, 1
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Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991)
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3/ La Mendiante
- spaces and places: the pont Alexandre III
- motifs and themes: language (what language is she speaking?), subtitles; bodyguards
- connections: the only other photographer is Harry T-Bone in episode 5
- other things: a wedding party, photographed; the only time he changes gender; landmark Paris (bridge, Seine, Tour Eiffel, Tour Montparnasse, Trocadero...)
in the limousine, 2
- places: avenue Pierre Mendès-France, viaduc and gare d'Austerlitz
- motifs and themes:
4/ l'O.S. de la Motion Capture
- spaces and places: exterior -La Syctom, Ivry-sur Seine; studio interior
- motifs and themes: the couple (sexual); levels (up); cinema (post-cinema: games); weapon
- connections: the pattern of lights is echoed in the 10th limousine section, just before episode 12
- other things: at La Syctom there are two other people in the same garb, coming the other way
in the limousine, 3
- places: place de la Nation, 12e, and boulevard Voltaire, 11e
- motifs and themes:
- other things: he eats his lunch
5/ Merde & Kay M.
- spaces and places: the Père Lachaise cemetery
- motifs and themes: the couple (sexual); levels (down); beauty; photography; vision (Merde's eye); home - Merde's lair
- connections: 'M. Merde' in Tokyo! (2008); Kay M. sings Calexico's 'All the Pretty Little Horses'; Kay M.'s name anticipates the appearance of Kylie Minogue in episode 11, where her character's name Eva Grace echoes that of the actress who plays Kay M., Eva Mendes.
- other things: prosthetic penis?; landmark Paris (sewers, cemetery)
in the limousine, 4
- places: rue Hallé, 14e
6/ Le Père
- spaces and places: rue Dareau and villa Brune, 14e;
- motifs and themes: home, family
- connections: Kylie Minogue 'I Can't Get You Out Of My Head' at party - Kylie in episode 11; Sparks record in car ('How Are You Getting Home')
- other things: the only time he drives (a Peugeot 205 XR)
in the limousine, 5
7/ Entracte - L'Accordéoniste
- spaces and places: real interior - the église Saint Merri, rue Saint-Martin, 4e
- motifs and themes: cinema (pre-cinema: preceded by Marey image of hands)
- connections: 'Trois, Douze, Merde!' - M. Merde in episode 5
- other things: landmark Paris (the church)
in the limousine, 6
- motifs and themes: 'votre victime', 'votre arme'
- other things: music from episode 7 continues
8/ Le Tueur
- spaces and places: Les Olympiades, 13e - underground warehouses
- motifs and themes: levels (down); language (Cantonese); doubles - DL kills DL
- connections:
- other things: rescued by Céline
in the limousine, 7
- places: pont Alexandre III, avenue des Champs Elysées
- motifs and themes: cinema (surveillance cameras); nostalgia; beauty ('la beauté du geste')
- connections: Michel Piccoli is in Carax's Mauvais sang (1986)
- other things: meeting with 'L'Homme à la tâche de vin'; landmark Paris ('regardez comme Paris est beau ce soir'); Oscar rehearses lines from what is supposed to be his next rendez-vous, as Le Mourant
9/ Le Tué
- spaces and places: avenue des Champs Elysées, 8e, & Fouquet's
- motifs and themes: doubles - DL kills DL
- connections: he kills le Banquier from episode 2
- other things: rescued by Céline
in the limousine, 8
- other things: landmark Paris (Arc de Triomphe)
10/ Le Mourant
- spaces and places: Hôtel Raphael, 17 avemue Kleber, 16e
- motifs and themes: family drama - 'Elise' (played by Eise Lhomeau) plays 'Léa', niece to Monsieur Vogan;
- home - hotel (the only other hotel is in the prologue); death; mirrors
- connections: tv screen, pyjamas & dog - as in episode 1
in the limousine, 9
- other things:
- artificial fireplace; jumpcut when Oscar is removing his mask; insert of two forward tracking shots through cemetery, linked by dissolve - the second shot disintegrates - dream?
- Accident with another limousine. Eva Grace's chauffeur has a (bad) London accent.
11/ M. Oscar & Eva Grace
- spaces and places: real interior - La Samaritaine department store
- motifs and themes: levels (up); the couple (sentimental); hotel (La Samaritaine to be converted); language (English); architecture
- connections: Kylie's song here, contrast with her record in episode 6; view of bridge - Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991); the name Eva Grace echoes that of the actress who plays Kay M., Eva Mendes, in episode 5; that name Kay M. = the initials of Kylie Minogue
- other things: landmark Paris (Notre Dame, tour Eiffel, Panthéon, Seine, Pont-Neuf...)
Holy Motors
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Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
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in the limousine, 10
- places: rue Soufflot, Panthéon, 5e
- motifs and themes: the past ('J'ai été danseuse autrefois...'); 'home - votre maison'
- he sings lines from 'My Way' ('and now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain...') and Céline joins in;
- connections: the pigeon references the end of Les Yeux sans visage; the underpass echoes the same or a similar underpass in Les Amants du Pont-Neuf; the sequence ends with the theme of Kylie's song 'Who Were We?' from the previous episode
Holy Motors
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Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
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12/ L'Homme au Foyer
- spaces and places: cité jardin, Trappes-en-Yvelines, 78
- motifs and themes: home, family - wife (Florence) and two daughters (Aude and Luce) - chimpanzees; language, subtitles; architecture
- connections: song 'Revivre' by Gérard Manset
- other things
in the limousine, 11
- places: quai Aulagnier, Asnières- sur-Seine, 92
- other things: only Céline, no M. Oscar
13/ Epilogue
- spaces and places: Citroën factory at Asnières-sur-Seine, 92
- motifs and themes: language (English); cinema (end of cinema: 'silence ... plus de moteur, plus d'action'); 'machines visibles'
- connections: Les Yeux sans visage (1959) - Céline puts on a mask