10 Movies To Challenge Even The Most Hardcore Film Buff

7. Holy Motors

Leos Carax is a contemporary French director who, perhaps more so than any other, embodies the spirit of the French New Wave. Fusing the intellectual sensibilities of Jean Luc Godard with the spiritual musings of the legendary Robert Bresson (who famously held most of cinema in disregard), Holy Motors emerged as one of the most distinct and impressive movies released in 2012. Carax's regular collaborator Denis Lavant stars as Oscar, a strange man who travels around the city inhabiting various roles as the film progresses. He dons a motion capture suit and enters into a strange dance/combat /sex ritual with a weirdly costumed woman; he transforms into Monsieur Merde (translate that if you will), loitering around a park before kidnapping a model (Eva Mendez) from a photo shoot; later, he plays the role of a gangster, shooting his former self. All of this focuses around the limousine which takes him from one location to the next. A commentary on the nature of performance and identity as much as it is a free-wheeling exercise in the absurd, Holy Motors is as enthralling as it is perplexing, with Carax directing with an eye for the spectacular every bit as evocative and thought-provoking as Lavant's awesome central performance. The surprising cameo from Kylie Minogue in the film's final moments is the icing on an unusually delicious cinematic cake.