If you loved
Holy Motors
Leos Carax · Film · 2012
You were fascinated by how Holy Motors dissolves the boundaries of the self through a series of shifting roles.
Books on the same thread
Shibumi
Trevanian · Book · 1983
Much like the cold, professional assassin at the heart of Holy Motors, Nicholai Hel navigates a life defined by calculated, shifting identities and the brutal nature of professional performance.
Goddess
Anthony Summers · Book · 1986
This biography captures the same tragic obsession with the divide between the public persona and the secret self that Leos Carax explores throughout the surreal journey of Holy Motors.
City of Masks
Mary Hoffman · Book · 2004
The sudden, disorienting transition between worlds in this story echoes the way Holy Motors forces its protagonist to shed one existence and inhabit an entirely new reality without warning.
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Jennifer Egan · Book · 2011
The non-linear structure and the focus on the passage of time reflect the mosaic of lives presented in Holy Motors, where characters are defined by their intersecting, fleeting experiences.
Series on the same thread
Death's Game
Ha Byung-hoon · Series · 2023
The premise of cycling through multiple lives to face existential consequences mirrors the central conceit of Holy Motors, where a single being is forced to embody disparate, meaningful roles.
Alchemy of Souls
Hong Jeong-eun · Series · 2022
The physical occupation of another body to navigate destiny and power provides a direct thematic parallel to the surreal transformation of the lead performer found in Holy Motors.
Moon Knight
Jeremy Slater · Series · 2022
Sharing a body between multiple identities creates the same psychological instability and fractured sense of self that makes the protagonist of Holy Motors so haunting and profoundly enigmatic.
Sense8
Lana Wachowski · Series · 2015
The way these characters become irrevocably linked across distance and identity resonates with the existential connectedness that defines the strange, shifting reality of Leos Carax's Holy Motors.
Podcasts on the same thread
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman · Podcast · 2026
If the philosophical inquiry into the nature of reality and the human condition in Holy Motors gripped you, these deep-dive conversations offer a similar exploration of existence.
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
Dan Carlin · Podcast · 2025
The examination of moral ambiguity and the construction of power in history aligns with the way Holy Motors dissects the performative nature of human life and social roles.
Keep exploring
Common questions
Is Holy Motors a single continuous narrative?
Holy Motors follows a being over the course of 24 hours as they move between distinct identities. The film presents these interwoven lives as a series of separate roles, ranging from a murderer and beggar to a family man, rather than a single linear story.
How many different lives are shown in Holy Motors?
The protagonist of Holy Motors inhabits a variety of distinct identities throughout the 24-hour period depicted in the film. The being shifts through multiple roles, including a man, a woman, a youthful figure, an elderly person, a monstrous creature, and a company chairman.
Does the main character in Holy Motors have a consistent identity?
The being in Holy Motors does not maintain a consistent identity. Instead, they move from life to life like an assassin moving from hit to hit, possessing an entirely distinct identity in each instance, whether as a worker, a murderer, or a monstrous creature.
What is the timeframe of the events in Holy Motors?
The events depicted in Holy Motors take place over the span of 24 hours. During this timeframe, the central character assumes a series of disparate identities, cycling through various roles as they move through different lives in a solitary, hit-to-hit fashion.