Holy Motors

Here’s the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWu9WjEcdbk

Now that you’ve watched that and have absolutely no idea what’s going on, Althusser.
The film follows Le Dormeur (The Sleeper) played by Dennis Lavant, who is driven in a white taxi to various “appointments”. At each appointment, Lavant dons a costume and performs a ritual action. Each action is without context; the intentions orienting the actions appear in the context of the scenes themselves. While the film is, apparently, a exploration of film itself, Lavant is an excellent example of interpellation.

Interpellation is hailing into a system. While it would seem that we draw various ideologies into our lives, it is in fact the case that those ideologies have been calling to us. Socially, psychologically, and politically, we are drawn into pre-existing systems that have been calling to us. Le Dormeur’s movements around Paris are a marvelous example of this hailing. The scenes Le Dormeur creates are Absurd (traditionally Absurd, not so much absurd). He is a businessman, a peddling gypsy grandmother, a stop-action stand-in performing a sensual alien dance. And in each scene, bystanders eventually play into the construction as though it were a reality. Dressed as  a made gnome dashing about a graveyard, Le Dormeur stumbles upon a fashion shoot. The photographer responds with horror and fascination, asks to photograph Le Dormeur, and has his assistant’s fingers bitten off. Each time, bystanders believe they are organically responding to unfolding events, when they are in reality playing the part that has been built for them. They are actors in a drama designed by Le Dormeur. Interpellated!