10 Weird Movies That Purposely Tried To Confuse You

5. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

Holy Motors is one of the most bizarre entries on this list (which is saying something), but it actually provides a reasonably accessible entry point for anyone looking to explore experimental narrative cinema for the first time. Leos Carax's critically lauded visual masterpiece is simultaneously a comment on performance and identity and a vehicle for the eclectic acting of Dennis Lavant. The plot revolves around Lavant's character, whose job is seemingly to carry out appointments for the service of others by donning wigs, makeup and costumes and travelling in a limousine to various locations around Paris. At different times he becomes a father picking up his daughter from work, an accordion player in a church, a Chinese gangster tasked with killing his doppelgänger, an old woman begging in the street, a troll-like figure that kidnaps a model and, in the film's most incredible sequence, a stuntman in a motion capture suit. All of these tasks, and more, take place over a 24 hour period. On one level, this is Carax providing a platform for the multi-talented Lavant. He is exceptional throughout the film, and every one of his multiple personas is utterly believable. But the film can also be seen as Carax's study of acting and performance. It opens with a sequence featuring the director himself, as he walks from (presumably) his own bedroom and into a movie theatre. He then watches a film-witinh-a-film (Holy Motors, the feature that the audience is also watching). This opening sets the tone - the viewer is supposed to remember that everything they are viewing is a performance, a carefully scripted narrative played out by a professional actor. Lavant is taking on multiple roles in the film, with the director's overtones being fairly clear - as one goes about his or her daily life, they too play multiple roles. Nobody has a singular solid identity. Everybody watching the film is many people at once, much like Lavant. Although, of course, Holy Motors exaggerates this theme, the study of constructed and performed identities is a fascinating and pertinent one. The "story' may not make sense in the conventional way ("H ow can this one guy be this many people?" is the inevitable question), but Carax's statement is that life and human identity are just as convoluted and changeable.