Holy Motors (2012)

UNKNOWN

Various

83%

2012, Fantasy, 1h 56m

RT Critics’ Score: 92% (BIAS DETECTED)
RT Audience Score: 71%
Awards & Nominations: 29 wins & 71 nominations

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Critics Consensus

Mesmerizingly strange and willfully perverse, Holy Motors offers an unforgettable visual feast alongside a spellbinding — albeit unapologetically challenging — narrative

Audience Consensus

Holy Motors is a wild ride that will either leave you feeling like you’re in a dream or make you scratch your head in confusion. But one thing’s for sure, you’ve never seen anything quite like it. With its unpredictable sequences and brilliant stand-in, Denis Lavant, this film is a stylistic snake that wriggles from one cinematic mode to the next. It’s a self-reflexive, funny, goofy, and touching ode to cinema that wants to stamp a metaphor about human nature. So buckle up and get ready for a cinematic experience that’s full of dazzling moments, surreal and often disturbing scenes, and a grand definition of the cinema that’s one of the best and most mesmerizing that a movie has ever offered.

Storyline

A mysterious man is driven around Paris by his loyal driver, dressing up in costumes and playing a number of strange, semi-scripted roles in the mesmerizingly strange and challenging narrative of Holy Motors.

Production Company(ies)
Decia Films, Amazonas Images Solares Fondazione delle arti

Distributor
Indomina

Release Type
Theatrical

Filming Location(s)
Grand Magasin de la Samaritaine, 17-19 rue de la Monnaie, Paris 1, Paris, France

MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated

Year of Release
2012

Technical Specs

Color:

Color
Black and White
Sound mix:

Dolby Digital
Aspect ratio:

1.85 : 1
Runtime:

1h 56m
Language(s):

French, English, Chinese
Country of origin:

United States
Release date:

Release Date (Theaters): Oct 17, 2012 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 19, 2013

Genre(s)
Fantasy

Keyword(s)

Box Office Details

Worldwide gross: $1,954,125
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $2,519,306
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,357
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 274,733

US/Canada gross: $641,100
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $826,522
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,232
US/Canada opening weekend: $18,866
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $24,323
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,443

Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA

Cast & Crew

Denis Lavant

Édith Scob

Eva Mendes

Kylie Minogue

Elise Lhomeau

Mr. Oscar

Le Banquier

La Mendiante

L’O.S de la Motion Capture

M. Merde

Denis Lavant – Mr. Oscar, Le Banquier, La Mendiante, L’O.S de la Motion Capture, M. Merde, Le Père, L’Accordéoniste, Le Tueur, Le Tué, Le Mourant, L’Homme au Foyer
Édith Scob – Céline
Eva Mendes – Kay M
Kylie Minogue – Eva Grace
Elise Lhomeau – Léa
Michel Piccoli – L’Homme à la tache de vin

Leos Carax

Martine Marignac

Albert Prévost

Maurice Tinchant

Director

Writer

Producer

Director(s)
Leos Carax

Writer(s)
Leos Carax, Leos Carax

Producer(s)
Martine Marignac, Albert Prévost, Maurice Tinchant

Film Festivals
Cannes

Awards & Nominations
29 wins & 71 nominations

Academy Awards

Top Reviews

Robert Levin

Ginette Vincendeau

Mick LaSalle

Ryan Gilbey

Richard Brody

Newsday

Sight & Sound

San Francisco Chronicle

New Statesman

New Yorker

HOLY MOTORS
All Critics (196) | Top Critics (66) | Fresh (181) | Rotten (15)
You’ll either run with it or you won’t, but you can be sure you’ve never seen anything quite like it.

April 29, 2020 | Rating: 3/4

Robert Levin
Newsday
TOP CRITIC
The film makes up for… lapses with dazzling moments.

April 29, 2020

Ginette Vincendeau
Sight & Sound
TOP CRITIC
Cinema is full, life is empty. Cinema is easy, life is mysterious. Perhaps that’s Carax’s message. Whatever it is, he has our attention.

April 28, 2020 | Rating: 3/4

Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
As wild and wayward as Carax’s vision might appear… it touches recognisable human experience at enough points to sustain an emotional connection.

April 28, 2020

Ryan Gilbey
New Statesman
TOP CRITIC
These images and sounds that reveal the mind in matter and the soul in bodies suggest Carax’s ultimate definition of the cinema, and it’s one of the best and grandest that a movie has ever offered.

April 28, 2020

Richard Brody
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
Surreal and often disturbing and sometimes poignant and always mesmerizing. Mission accomplished.

April 28, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/4

Rick Groen
Globe and Mail
TOP CRITIC
Episode 34: Relaxer / A Scanner Darkly / The Beach Bum / Holy Motors

September 14, 2021 | Rating: 94/100

Taylor Baker
Drink in the Movies
This is what dream-logic looks like. Holy Motors comes about as close to making me actually feel like I was inside of a dream in anything since Inland Empire.

July 6, 2021 | Rating: A

Jason Adams
My New Plaid Pants
I’m pretty sure I won’t see anything more audacious this year than Leos Carax’s self reflexive, funny, goofy and touching ode to cinema.

February 28, 2021

Dustin Chang
Floating World
The film is a stylistic snake, wriggling from one cinematic mode to the next through a loose cannon series of utterly unpredictable sequences which all feature the auteur’s brilliant, amorphous stand-in, Denis Lavant.

November 16, 2020

Jordan M. Smith
IONCINEMA.com
Holy Motors wants to stamp, more than a message, a metaphor about human nature. [Full review in Spanish]

June 25, 2020 | Rating: 7/10

Yasser Medina
Cinemaficionados
An ideal show. [Full review in Spanish]

April 29, 2020

Jordi Costa
El Pais (Spain)…

Plot
A mysterious man is driven around Paris by his loyal driver, dressing up in costumes and playing a number of strange, semi-scripted roles in the mesmerizingly strange and challenging narrative of Holy Motors.

Trivia