Enter the Void (2010)

Title: Enter the Void (2010)

Director/Writer: Gaspar Noe

Cast: Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy

Review:

I don’t know if Gaspar Noe set out to do the “quintessential drug trip movie” with Enter the Void, but that’s exactly what he made. Enter the Void can stand along side other drug related films proudly. What tends to distinguish these films is the fact that they show us the negative effects of drug abuse and in the case of Enter the Void, we also see the negative effects of entering the world of drug trafficking. The film shows us how once you enter this world, this void, your life is constantly in danger of coming to an abrupt, ugly, bitter end.

And make no mistake about it, this movie is about death. To start things of, the main character of the film is a young kid named Oscar. He lives in Japan with his sister Linda. He doesn’t do much with his life except selling drugs. His the kind of person who is happy to just zone out in a drug trip all day, and then hang out during the night selling drugs to his clients. But he sadly lives his life in complete denial. “Im not a dealer” he tells his friend as they are on their way to another client. “I am not a junky” he says as he takes a drag of a drug called DMT. When he inhales, that’s when we first experience what its like to use DMT. On this film, Gaspar Noe decided to use the first person point of view through out the whole film. So whatever Oscar experiences, we experience it first hand as well.

To me this is one of the films strongest assets. The first person perspective puts us inside the film, we experience the whole film as if we were Oscar, the drug dealer, the junky. This is something that has been done before in films, some only do it for a moment, like in Katheryn Bigelow’s opening sequence in Strange Days (1995), other films use it through out their whole duration. Enter the Void does it for its whole running time. Some might think that this type of filmmaking can distance the audience from making a connection with the main character, mainly because we hardly ever see Oscar’s face, save for those few times when he looks at himself in the mirror. But whatever, I think this actually makes the whole experience of watching Enter the Void that much more immersive. Because of the first person point of view, you actually feel you are living this persons life. Therefore, whatever happens to Oscar, you feel is happening to you. To me, the film has more of an impact in this way. The first person point of view works wonders especially when Oscar is going through one of his drug trips, because we can experience the whole thing with him without having to indulge in actual drug use.

DMT is short for Dimethyltryptamine, Oscar’s poison of choice. DMT is a drug that when smoked will make you hallucinate heavily. After smoked, the hallucinogenic effects can last anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the dosage you take. When Oscar takes DMT, the hallucinations he sees take the film into 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969) territory, Gaspar Noe’s favorite film. Suddenly the film goes on this surreal trip filled with abstract hallucinogenic images. I liked the fact that like Kubrick in 2001, Noe really dwells in these abstract images, for minutes on end, making sure you’re going on the trip. Problem is that Oscar mixes his drug use with drug trafficking and eventually in one of the most intense moments in the film, Oscar gets caught by the Japanese police in a night club.

One thing you should have clear about this movie is that Oscar dies very early on in the film. I don’t really see this as a spoiler, because the films entire premise rests on what happens after he dies. And this to me is where the film really takes a drastic turn because suddenly, it’s not only a drug trip movie, now it turns into a film about the afterlife. Or is it about the afterlife? You are never really sure if the whole thing is a DMT trip he is on or if he really has become a ghost. You see, before he dies, Oscar had been reading The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a book that focuses on the idea of re-incarnation and what happens to you after you die. So after Oscar dies, he turns into a free floating spirit, hovering around Japan becoming a voyeur. In this sense the film reminded me a lot of Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire (1987). On that film, angels hover above Germany for the whole film as voyeurs, observing and taking notes on human behavior. How much of an influence was Wings of Desire on this film? Theres a scene in which Oscar’s spirit wonders into a plane as it is flying! Same exact thing happens in Wings of Desire. Enter the Void functions in the same way by having Oscar become a voyeur, seeing people for who they really are, when they think no one is watching them. This is where Gaspar Noe takes the opportunity to explore human nature and show these characters true colors.

Like previous Noe films (all of them actually) this film is sexually graphic. There is one scene in which Oscar travels (as a spirit) to this motel and he jumps from room to room seeing everybody having sex, an awesome scene, but some might find it too graphic. In various scenes Oscar possesses a person as they are having sex! But whatever, Gaspar Noe has never been one to hold back with imagery in films, he likes to show us the crude, real, dirty things no one likes to talk about. I applaud him as a director for that, most people like to ignore the ugly side of life, while others like to show it to us so we can learn a thing or two about what is happening out their in the real world. To learn about ourselves as human beings, we need to look in the mirror. See how we’re doing. What we are looking like. And though Enter the Void is a fictional film, I am 100% sure that stories like this do happen in the real world.

Technically speaking, the film is flawless. Aside from the fact that the whole film was shot from the first person point of view, the film does offer us other interesting technical achievements. First, the film feels like a kaleidoscope of colors, every square inch of the film is filled with neon colors and strobing lights. Noe chose to alter the images in the films with computer effects, so every single moment of the film is digitally altered somehow in terms of colors and lighting. And speaking of camera moves, since we are Oscar through out the whole film, the camera is always in constant movement. We walk along with him wherever he goes. When he turns into a spirit the camera is always floating around. So Enter the Void is a kinetic film, always in constant action.

For me Enter the Void was an amazing film; an experience. It feels as if you were living someone elses life, and afterlife. Right from its opening title sequence you know this movie is special. The film has one of the most amazing opening credit sequences ever. Enter the Void is an astounding pounding of the senses, from the visuals, to the music to the story which focuses on a drug dealer and his sister, who also happens to be a stripper. Noe is a filmmaker that is constantly trying to break new boundaries in cinema, always trying something new, always breaking rules and making new ones. Testing the limits of what you can take as an audience. It is a film that is not for everyone, the way it divided critics and audiences is a testament to that. When we come down to it, it’s a love it or hate it picture. Enter the Void is an art house picture because it is art. And like many good works of art, it deserves more then one viewing. The only negative thing I can mention about this film is that it’s got a lengthy running time, and many critics and test audiences have complained about this. My advice is to watch the film in two viewings, this movie has so much greatness in it, that half an hour will have passed and you feel like you’ve seen a whole film. It’s that condensed. But rest assured, the film is visual coolness for its entire two and a half hours of duration. I agree with Peter Bradshaw’s review for The Guardian. In that review Bradshaw mentions “Love him or hate him -and I’ve done both in my time- Gaspar Noe is one of the very few directors who is actually trying to do something new with the medium, battling at the boundaries of the possible” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Rating: 5 out of 5

That's Gaspar Noe (extreme right) with part of his cast

Gaspar Noe's I Stand Alone (1998)

Title: I Stand Alone (1998)

Director: Gaspar Noe

Review:

French film director Gaspar Noe always makes films that have this acid bleakness to them; they portray this unfiltered view of the world that is raw, powerful and ugly. He makes his films without any apologies whatsoever. It seems that his moto for making films is: you can’t take i? Then don’t watch it. I find this kind of film refreshing in its rawness when compared to the kinds of films made in America because there are no limitations as to what Noe will talk about. He has the benefit of not having to deal with a restrictive ratings system like the Motion Picture Association of America. And that’s just fine by me because in this way, foreign films can talk about things that don’t often get expressed, but need to be talked about. The themes explored in these kinds of films aren’t necessarily pretty, or uplifting, but then again, life isn’t that way all the time either. There are ugly, nasty things that happen in our world, not everything can have a happy ending, with the main characters riding on their horses, galloping towards the sunset.

I Stand Alone tells the story of an aging working class man (a Butcher to be precise) who has just lost his job. He has been trying non stop to find a new one, but the economy is so bad, and the unemployment rate so high, that he’s had no success. Plus, he isn’t exactly a young pup. Age is catching up with him. On top of that, he has to go back home to a wife and a mother in-law that he absolutely despises. Basically, this guy’s life is a living hell. One day, when he can’t take it anymore, he goes absolutely bonkers and runs away. How will he survive without a job? And just how dangerous will he turn under such strenuous living conditions? Can he retain his humanity, or will his wild savage human nature be set loose?

France looks kind of bleak in this movie

I cant honestly say that watching this movie was an enjoyable experience, because it wasn’t. Much like Noe’s Irreversible (2002) or his most recent film Enter the Void (2010), I Stand Alone is as bleak and as bitter as movies come. We follow a main character that is constantly narrating his acid outlook on life. Through a series of scattershot, lightning fast voice overs, the main character spits his hatred of the world onto us. And honestly, most of the time, the guy is right on the money as to how messed up the world is. He is a product of the system, the way things are set. In a way, the film is saying, our world is so messed up that it can create individuals who ooze hatred for the world out of every pore. What we have through out this whole film, is a guy who one day snaps and decides that it’s him against the world. This goes perfectly in synch with the films original French title: “Alone Against All” And I loved the fact that we could hear the guys thoughts through out the whole film. Normally, this is something that is shunned at in the world of filmmaking, but there are also those films in which a voice over is necessary, and I Stand Alone was one of them. As the butcher walks we hear him complaining, when he takes the train, we hear him talking about the crazy people on the train. When he is about to kill himself, we hear his mental battle not to do it. Noe manage to turn the voice over into a valuable tool to tell his story in a gripping manner.

The butcher tries making connections with old friends, to see if at least one of them has some money they can lend him, but they are as poor as he is, struggling with what little money they do have to survive with. When the butcher sees the world closes one door after another on him, he turns so bitter thatl finally, he contemplates suicide. As you can see, the film just goes deeper and deeper into the sadness of this lonely, mentally unstable and completely desperate man. He tries to remain cool, but when faced with the prospect of being homeless, his actions turn even more desperate. So desperate will his actions turn, that the film actually gives you a 30 second warning near the ending of the film, letting you know that you still have thirty seconds to stop watching the film, because what you are going to be seeing next will be a bit tough to watch. This of course will make you want to do the complete opposite.

"You have 30 seconds to abandon the projection of this film"

Gaspar Noe is a very special director for me because he has a very strong voice, he says what he wants to say through his films, and it’s always going to be something extremely off putting about society. I have to give him respect for that. Aside from his awesome technical abilities as a filmmaker, he exposes the ugliest nastiest themes that nobody wants to talk about. Irreversible for example, explicitly explores rape. I Stand Alone explores the bleakness and desperation in the life of a jobless desperate man. Enter the Void explores the life of a junky, and the pitfalls and dangers of choosing to live this kind of life. To top things off, we also get a good look at the junkies twisted sex life. And speaking of twisted sex lives, I Stand Alone also explores its main characters sexual desires. It seems Noe wants to expose just how crazy us humans can get when it comes to sex. The crazy things that sexual desires will make people do. Bottom line is, if you can’t take movies that deal with incest, then don’t bother with this one. But hey, the way I see it, this kind of thing happens in the world more often then we’d like to think. It’s an ugly part of human behavior that needs to be talked about, openly. Other films that talk about uncomfortable subject matter are Oldboy (2003), which explores incest, Happiness (1998) and Little Children (2006) both of which explore the theme of pedophilia.

This was Gaspar Noe’s first feature film and with it, he demonstrated right from his beginnings that he was going to be a unique filmmaker that would explore themes and situations that are normally kept in taboo or secret, exposing and analyzing them so we can learn from them. Gaspar Noe would go on to make more amazing films after this one. His latest one, which has yet to be officially released, is called Enter the Void (2010). And let me tell you my friends, that is what I call a movie! Enter the Void was one of the most original cinematic experiences I’ve had in quite some time and I urge anyone out there who has a way to get a hold of it to get it as soon as they can! It’s the kind of film that will blow your mind! The innovative camera work Noe uses in all of his films blows me away every time. I Stand Alone has a couple of these innovative ways of telling a story, and it keeps the experience of watching I Stand Alone interesting. Ultimately, I Stand Alone isn’t an easy movie to digest, but it is a rewarding watch in the sense that it moves you, it shocks you and it will undoubtedly make you think. It might be an extremely bleak film, but it will most likely get an emotional response from those who venture to watch it.

Rating: 4 out of 5