Back in 2010, director Leos Carax did get in touch with Neil Hannon and asked him to write a song for his new film, Holy Motors.

At that time the casting was far from being decided. While the song was meant for a character played by actress Juliette Binoche; as she declined the role, it was through a mutual friend Leos did get in touch with Kylie Minogue. Despite being a super star, she kindly accepted to play while she was not even paid for her contribution [1].


Neil Hannon probably demoed the song first, and may have helped Leos to write the lyrics of it. They finally all meet together during the filming at La Samaritaine, in Paris, late 2011. Indeed the song was sung live by Kylie in the movie and not lip-synced from a studio recording. [2] It was only after that the proper music was recorded with the Berlin Music Ensemble directed by Andrew Skeet. Andrew said: “It [the vocals part] was certainly recorded on the sound man’s mics on set with Neil’s midi temp track playing softly over speakers. Then I had to fit the orchestra to that vocal in Berlin.” [3]

An instrumental version of the song also ends the movie, and a theme based on it is played every time the main character, Monsieur Oscar (played by Denis Lavant) is getting into a different role.

The lyrics are dealing with the plot, as the title ‘Who Were We?’ is about who the characters (who are having lifes dedicated to the acting) were playing as a role when they first met.


The song has not been released on records, and there is no plan to do so. As the vocals were recorded during the filming, it’s unlikely that the song would be made available out of its original context. But fans can still hope for a release of the instrumental version or the original demo.


[1] CinéObs 03/07/2012
[2] A.V. Club 24/10/2012
[3] Facebook 18/09/2012