Week 4

What I gained from Baudrillard’s “Simulacra and Simulations” is that the human experience has been reduced to a series of symbols (simulations) through media as a result of capitalism. New needs, desires, and icons are created so that someone might profit from it. As time moves forward, new symbols are forged from reappropriation and rehashing of old symbols. New simulations emerge as past simulations are simulated. Motifs and certain visual cues or narrative structures become ingrained into pop culture to the point where they can be inderectly referenced or built upon indirectly, without an explanation provided for the consumer. This creates an alienation between individuals within society and forces members of the society to believe that these simulations are tangible goals that they are able to achieve rather than purely synthetic virtual versions that only have their basis in social interaction many iterations ago. This cycle continues and society becomes less attached to reality (meaning human connection and emotion) over time and the only reality left becomes the image which is purely a simulation of past truths which preceeded mass media (which I believeaccelerated with the spread of television as a fixture in homes around the world, but I guess the true origin would be the printing press).

“Holy Motors” is a film that relates to Baudrillard’s concept of Simulation. The film tracks an actor, Oscar, through many different scenarios, though it is never clear if there is actually a camera crew filming him. He is a part of many different genre oriented shorts or skits. He drifts through scenarios, getting harmed, killing versions of himself, and taking off/re-applying makeup and prosthetics over and over. He is a beggar, a monster, an upset father, a gangster, a dying man, an assassin, etc.  The film explicitly breaks into the territory of metacinema when the actor is riding in his limo and is confronted with a producer character. the producer questions him about why he thinks Oscar might be growing too old to be doing this anymore. Oscar says that he doesn’t feel the magic in motion pictures anymore, that cameras have gotten smaller and that the medium have lost something because of it. But he continues to do what he does because he loves to act. His comments about cameras seem funny or ironic because we never see a video camera during the film. “Holy Motors” never “feels” novel in that it never has a direct point where it feels like it’s simulations and rapid abandonment of different genres is forced. The movie ebbs and flows seemlessly through simulations. Oscar professes that he loves to act and that’s why he continues to do so in a manner which gives the impression of feeling infinite. I get the feeling that Leos Carax (the director) feels the same way about film making. The style and content of the film feel like a series of cliche rehashes of overused film styles. Yet the fearless quickness with which genres are left behind makes the film fun and wild. You can feel a love of cinema puring through the screen.