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manic-maniac-man · 6 days ago

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HUgE May 2013

The front row 01

Leos Carax

He is a guest filmmaker, but his silence has been too long. The Alex trilogy, in which he entrusted his true self to the lead actor Denis Lavant, and "Pola X" is based on a beloved novel. With just four films, he left an everlasting mark on film history. This precocious genius, who enthralled young people of his generation, was even rumored to be dead. No one believed it, and the return of director Leos Carax seemed like an unexpected surprise. With his first feature film in 13 years, "Holy Motors."

"I want to make a long film quickly. It will stop after I've photographed the long piece, and ten years have passed. I've gone crazy."

"HOLY MOTORS, I think it's a film constructed with the form like the automatic writing of surrealism."

To Enfant Terrible

haunted nightmare

"The enfant terrible," "the reincarnation of Jean-Luc Godard," "a dangerous perfectionist," "a cursed filmmaker"... When talking about Leos Carax, such taglines are always attached, and it must be said that they are certainly quite apt when looking back at his filmography.

As a teenager, Carax frequently attended lectures at the Cinemathèque Française and the University of Paris's film department, watched silent films and the works of Godard and Robert Bresson for free, and contributed to Cahiers du Cinema. He finally broke into the world of filmmaking with his 17-minute short film, "Strangulation Blues," in 1980 (he was just 20 years old at the time). Three years later, he managed to secure funding and complete his first feature film, "Boy Meets Girl." The film features Alex, played by Denis Lavant. This marked the beginning of the "Alex Trilogy," a thoroughly romantic story. "Boy Meets Girl" was shown at the Cannes Film Festival's Critics' Week and garnered acclaim. Carax was instantly recognized as a "terrible child" and "the second coming of Godard" in the film industry.

The sequel, "Dirty Blood," can be considered an extremely important film, as it was Carax's first film entirely directed by Carax. Together with Jean-Yves Escoffier, who continued as cinematographer from the previous film, he meticulously prepared color tests and experimental night shots, resulting in a number of sequences that are brimming with vividness that will remain in the history of cinema, and this film solidified Carax's reputation (one could even say he was deified). However, his thorough attention to detail led to overshoots in terms of filming time and production costs, and he developed a reputation for being a "dangerous perfectionist."

The establishment of the image of "the man who is the greatest filmmaker" has become an indirect cause of the difficulties in raising funds that continue to this day. This trend was solidified by the now legendary, nightmarish events leading up to the completion of "The Lovers on the Bridge."

Starting with Denis Lavant, who played the lead role of Alex, suffering an injury just before filming began, everything about this film was thrown into disarray: problems with the construction costs of the huge set, the need to reshoot the extensive fireworks scene, the withdrawal of his insurance company, the bankruptcy of the production company, and the suspension of filming due to lack of funds. (His relationship with his then-girlfriend, lead actress Juliette Binoche, also ended before the film was completed.) Taking three years to complete, The Lovers on the Bridge was a hit, thanks in part to its contraversial circumstances, but unfortunately, it was unable to recoup its estimated 3.8 billion yen production cost. (The gigantic set, for which Carax was unable to raise the funds to dismantle, still stands in the swamps of southern France, like the remnants of this nightmare story.) This incident further earned Carax the label of a "cursed filmmaker," and the cycle between his next films became extremely long. In fact, his fourth feature film, "Paula X," was released eight years after "The Lovers on the Bridge," and now "Holy Motors" is his first feature film in 13 years. The man once known as the "Enfant Terrible" is now 52 years old. What were his thoughts behind his fifth feature film, "Holy Motors"?

"I just wanted to make a feature film as soon as possible. I felt like I would go crazy if I didn't. When I joined TOKYO! in 2008 and made Meld, I had a few projects in mind. For example, a project to film in the UK using British actors. But in the end, That didn't happen. When I realized that wasn't possible, I came up with a way to shoot it quickly and on a low budget: shoot it digitally, cast Denis Lavant in the lead role, and shoot it on location in Paris. I didn't want to shoot a film in Paris again, but the budget meant I had no choice."

A story of one day that condenses all emotions and life, "Holy Motors" is a science fiction film (as Carax himself states). Denis Lavant plays the mysterious man "Oscar," who cruises around Paris in a white stretch limousine, "playing" various "professions" in each location: a wealthy banker, a beggar woman, a motion capture specialist, Meld (the same Meld from "TOKYO!"), a father to a girl, an accordion player, a murderer, a victim, a dying old man, a househusband... Why is he doing all this, and what are his employer's goals? These are never made clear in the film. How did the character of Oscar come about?

"I just came up with a job that doesn't exist. No one in life has a job like Oscar's, a job that involves moving from one life to another. I imagined such a job in the world of science fiction. So I tried to condense the common events that everyone experiences into one day, from dawn to dusk. So I think this work contains love, death, mourning, sadness, and joy. In addition, I had two emotions as the starting point for the concept. One is the fatigue of being oneself, and the other is the desire to reinvent oneself completely. To do this requires courage and strength, but not everyone is necessarily successful in reinventing themselves.

"Digital, there are no more pictures, there is no more image, just a fluid."

However, if we don't continue to reinvent ourselves, we won't be able to survive."

Speaking of the exhaustion of being oneself, after finishing one job and driving to his next, Oscar asks his driver (played by Edith Scob, who made a brief appearance in "The Young Lovers on the Bridge"), "Do you have any appointments in the forest this week?" Learning there aren't, he murmurs, "I miss the forest." The forest, like the sea, is a source of life, and Oscar may simply be expressing his desire to recharge, tired of being himself. On the other hand, when I hear the word "wood" (in English), I can't help but associate it with the title and imagine a "movie capital." This leads me to suspect a double meaning: "Are there no film offers this week? Can't a film be made with foreign capital?" What was Oscar's intention in saying "I miss the forest" at that moment?

"I wondered the same thing when I was editing. Why did I have Denis say that line? And even more so, why did I paint a forest on the wall of the room that appears at the beginning of the film? I wondered about this myself when I was editing. Speaking of forests, there is a long forest scene in 'Polas X'. To me, forests probably represent inner chaos. Another thing that occurred to me was that it is similar to the opening of Dante's 'Divine Comedy.' Halfway through life, a man gets lost in a dark forest. That is the opening of 'Divine Comedy.' I thought it might be that forest, but I don't have a definitive answer."

As this statement shows, Carax did not watch any rushes during filming (the primary reason was to save time, and therefore costs). Filming proceeded in a way that was like going through a tunnel in one direction, and he discovered the "cinematic parts" of the film during the editing stage after filming.

"So it was only during the editing stage that I realized what I had done and what I was trying to do. In that sense, this is the work that remains the most mysterious to me. I know almost nothing about surrealism, but I think that 'Holy Motors' is a film that was made in a way that is close to surrealist automatic writing. I tried to bring order to the automatic writing-like chaos that occurred during filming during the editing stage. There were many things I discovered during the editing stage, but they are so deeply personal that I can't talk about them here."

Reclaiming the power of motion pictures

Another major feature of this work is that it was shot digitally rather than on film (the cinematographer was Caroline Champetier, and the camera chosen was a RED EPI C). Carax was a man with a particularly strong attachment to film, as seen in his previous work, "Stained Blood," in which he deliberately set a high-sensitivity film to a low sensitivity and then under-developed it to express intense colors. What are his thoughts on the transition to digital?

"For me, movies are simply moving images, or motion pictures, and it's only natural that there is black between each image. You could say that this black is like an abyss. However, with digital, there are no longer any pictures; all that remains is flow. You could say that it's a world where you can no longer blink. If you can't blink, your eyes become dry and painful, and eventually you go blind. That's what digital means to me."

However, Carax, who had already been shooting digitally at the time of "TOKYO!", said he would never go back to film.

"Of course there is the issue of budget, but even if you shoot on film, it will no longer be screened on film. So I had to say goodbye to film. I had to do the work of mourning. But you can't just wallow in nostalgia and mourn. Film has reinvented itself many times. Since the invention of film, there have been many technological advances, and with each advance, efforts have been made to recapture the original power that film possessed in the first place. The original power of film is the same power as that possessed by the sequential photographs by Etienne-Jules Marey shown at the beginning of Holy Motors. When film was invented, cameras were very large. For example, in one work by F.W. Murnau (a German film director acclaimed as a master of the silent film era), a camera is following a man, and "There is one shot. When we watch it, we feel as if the eyes of God are watching the man. However, today, when we watch videos on YouTube of a man being followed, we never feel that there is an eye of the camera behind him. This is why I believe we must make an effort to recapture the original power of film. It was the same when talkies were invented, and when color was invented. However, today's digital revolution is perhaps the biggest change that film has ever experienced. It is precisely because we have entered a new digital stage that we must recapture the original power of film. That is what I am attempting to do with this work. I want to somehow recapture the power of motion pictures, which was what first made me fall in love with film.

"There's no more film. I can't stay nostalgic and sad all my life. I continue to make films with digital technology. Because cinema advances every time technology advances."

I wanted to bring it back.”

To achieve this, Carax says, "action" is essential, and action requires the human body. He adds that only through this process can a love for film emerge. "For example, creating the final motion-capture sequence in 'Holy Motors,' where the CG monsters have sex, was a very enjoyable experience. But my love for film doesn't come from that. Action, that is, moving bodies, are essential to film. Even if you like watching cars explode, what people ultimately like to look at are human bodies and human faces. Walking, running, crying, having sex. Whether you like action movies or cigarettes, cars, or guns, you always need the human body. However, I want to emphasize here that taking action comes with responsibility. Are people still prepared to take responsibility? Do they want to live real, non-virtual experiences? If they don't, I think that's very dangerous. Isn't it very dangerous to live in a world without action, real experiences, or responsibility?"

Fear and virtuality in a world that rules

This issue was brought to light through the film "Holy Motors."

I think this is extremely important in grasping the essence of the film. This is because two major changes occurred in the world during the 13 years that Carax did not (could not) make a feature film: the emergence of complex and asymmetrical conflicting emotions, symbolized by 9/11, and the widespread availability of broadband, which allowed people to receive video content on the Internet.

I feel that this work contains Carax's own response to these two events: the emergence of an audience that can accept film;

"It's true that even during the time I wasn't presenting my work, I was constantly observing the changes in the world, and I think that this is reflected in my work to some extent. What became particularly noticeable after 9/11 was the phenomenon of regression among all people, a return to childhood. This is triggered by fear, and this regression can be seen not only in individuals, but also in those in power, i.e., governments, and even among terrorists. The character Meld was created as a satire of this fear-induced regression. I also think that the Internet functions in part as a device that exacerbates this regression. A few centuries ago, childhood ended at age 7 or 8. That generation was already working in the fields. Fortunately, the introduction of compulsory education has extended childhood a little. But now, thanks to the Internet and virtual reality, we can remain children forever. When young people confine themselves in the bubble of the Internet, it's like confining themselves in the cocoon of the home, and in either case, it allows them to refuse to face life." I have no reason to criticize that, but at the very least, I don't think it will give rise to the power to "create a new self" that I mentioned earlier."

"Holy Motors" was made with various thoughts, including "a longing for film," in mind, in order to bring back the original power that film once possessed. This "science fiction" work asks the audience to "suspend disbelief," and those who have completed this tuning are the first to be able to enjoy the work.

It can be said that this film is a testament to its rich history. There are many highlights, and the sequences are open to multiple interpretations. However, there is one scene that clearly quotes "Dirty Blood." It is the scene in which Alex (Denis Lavant) runs down the street with David Bowie's "Modern Love" playing in the background. This famous scene, a clear outpouring of bodies and color, which remains in the history of 20th century cinema, is revived "in a humorous form" (Carax) in "Holy Motors." It is certainly worth seeing this film just to see this.

#my scans #denis lavant #filmmaking #leos carax #holy motors #juliette binoche #france #pola x #divine comedy #film #film maker

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