...and these images + the trailer below for Leos Carax's "Holy Motors," which premiered in competition at Cannes to beaucoup d'WTF, are all I need to know. Aaron Neville songs seem the appropriate framework in which to contain my excitement & intrigue in seeing this obviously beyond-out-there mind fuck.
I've never seen Carax's debut, "Pola X," but it has plenty of cult cred & the fact that it's been 13 years between the director's first and this, his second picture.
I've also never seen anything quite like this, of that I am sure, though it does call to mind certain elements of "Mulholland Dr." and bears the markings of a Kubrick scholar. The film is French and so are most of its actors, with the notable exceptions of Kylie Minogue (who sings on screen in the trailer, and not as herself but in a movie musical manner) and Eva Mendes. The Aussie pop icon plays against type despite performing at least one musical number, appearing to figure here in a sophisticated, city-lit romance that shows the film's more formally composed components.
Eva Mendes, who appears to play a junkie prostitute or some such rough trade, is an underserved actor whose centerfold beauty and string of pigeonholed roles as token homewrecking hottie have hardly served to back up my assertion. That Mendes is part of "Holy Motors" is an encouraging portent that the actress may live up to her potential yet, a limitless prospect, really, given that Mendes was written off ago as that home-wrecking hottie from before and is roundly underestimated by audiences.
It has to be said, it took me a half dozen or so surprising performances in mediocre films and a lot of resistance on my part to finally see Mendes as the slyly gifted actress she truly is, despite perpetual typecasting; "We Own the Night," directed by James Grey, is the best example of Mendes wielding a disarming subtlety while embodying an underwritten character, an uncanny ability to convey interior life without speaking.
Denis Lavant is the lead here, playing shadowy noir protagonist Monsieur Oscar on a long journey through night from one life to the next. The film also apparently features a significant presence of postmodern dance, with motion-capture-dotted bodysuits slithering through darkness during interludes away from what's assumed to be the main narrative trail of "Holy Motors."
WTF doesn't even cut it. This shit is going balls-to-the-wall straight to the upper ranks of my most anticipated list for 2012. Oscillating between what look like a few separate realms that comprise the central story and execute the larger cinematic vision of Leos Carax. One look at even just these few threads from the fabric of "Holy Motors" and it's clear Carax is a dark visionary without limits.
This handful of images and the trailer below are the most promising promotional materials I've seen for any film so far this year, and curiosities are piqued, so I expect news of a U.S. release date sometime soon. Indomina Releasing is handling the stateside release of "Holy Motors," and the tiny indie's biggest hit so far is, appropriately, "Tiny Furniture," which briefly set the box office afire in hipster metropolitan markets for a weekend or two some November back, but certainly never crossed over, failing to clear even $400,000 before becoming an inevitable cult classic thanks to Netflix and now, HBO's "Girls," which is currently fingering the zeitgeist with no signs of slowing down.
In any case, time will tell how carefully Indomina handles this "Holy" release, with a reasonable measurement coming July 13 once buzzy doc "The Imposter" begins its rollout. Back in across the Atlantic where crazy shit like this actually turns a profit, "Holy Motors" opens in France on July 4, and should light up Euro art houses with a confident blaze.
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