ENTER THE VOID
France, 2009, 165 minutes, Colour.
Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy, Emily Alyn Lind, Jesse Kuhn, Masato Tanno, Ollie Alexander, Sarah Stockbridge.
Directed by Gaspar Noe.
The Void, for Gaspar Noe, who experienced quite some controversy over frank, violence and sexual films as Seul Contre Tous and Irrrreversible, is life itself. Noe has talked about his atheist upbringing and his drug experiences. He says he started to ask questions about significant issues of life, life after death and considered reincarnation, influenced by The Tibetan Book of the Dead (which influenced the LSD experiments of Timothy Leary), floating outside oneself and looking out and down on the world. Noe calls Enter the Void a psychological melodrama. It is.
At over 160 minutes, it is a long, long (very long) experience. Minimal classic film-making here. This occurs in some flashbacks to the US childhood of Oscar and Linda, the brother and sister , who are central to the plot. The first part of the film is subjective camera, all from Oscar's point of view (though we do see his face in a mirror). After 30 minutes, he dies but does not disappear from the film. Most of the rest of the film is still Oscar's point of view, but flying, floating, peering, observing, hallucinatory swooping over the lives of others, prying on sexual and drug activity, gliding the night skies over neon-lit Tokyo. This point of view often plunges down on and into circles (of which there are so many images through the whole film) which become fire and light and move the audience to the next episode.
Early in the film there is a long psychedelic sequence, emulating in colour and design the experience of drug consciousness.
Which means that, technically, the film is often a tour-de-force of camera work for the subjective point of view and the floating as well as special effects for psychedelia.
Thematically, the film is very pessimistic, veering towards nihilism: the devastating accident killing their parents, the brother and sister (twin souls) separated as orphans, the descent into the Tokyo drug scene and the strip clubs and Love Hotels. While the film ends with conception, gestation and birth, this might indicate that there is another chance, but for Oscar and Linda, they have been swallowed up and destroyed in in the void.
Grim films which still call for redemption can be De Profundis films ('Out of the Depths, I cry to you, O Lord). But, with films like those of Noe, is there any possibility for redemption apart from reincarnation since he does not believe in afterlife? There seems to be little or no redemption, 'Out of the Void'.
1.The work of Noe, frank, violent, sexual, blunt, hard? Controversies?
2.The use of Japan and Tokyo? Interiors and exteriors, the lights, aerial views, the hotels? Seeing the model for the city, the hotel – used as the reality? The ethos of Japan? Characters, the drug culture, the strip clubs, the sex hotels, the police, the streets? The musical score? The effect of the Japanese atmosphere – different had it been filmed elsewhere?
3.The technical aspects of the film: the point of view for Oscar, the subjective camera, fluid movement, seeing him in the mirror? The classic style for the flashbacks, the US, the childhood experiences? The shock of the accident scene, the editing – and its being repeated? Oscar’s death, the subjective camera as his soul leaving the body, his floating over the action, soaring, swooping, gliding? Observing, prying? His presence for his sister? Watching the sexuality and sensuality? The symbolic circles, their frequency, light and fire, the audience entering with Oscar into these circles for a new sequence?
4.The special effects for the psychedelic experience, the drugs, the length of the experience, the brightness of the colours, designs? The special effects for the finale and sexual activity, conception, birth? The hovering over the aborted foetus?
5.The cumulative effect of this technical bravura, the visuals?
6.The stolid performances by the cast? The dialogue, stilted delivery, banal? The reliance on four-letter anger for emotional experiences?
7.The narrative, the children, their love for each other, twin souls, the effect of the accident, the shock? The memories of their mother, her fondness for them, the bath sequences, the pain of separation?
8.Oscar going to Japan, Linda criticising him as a junkie? His taking another fix, the DMT (and the explanation of its effect on the brain, the release of the drug, the psychedelic experiences)? Alex as the contact? Victor as the customer, Bruno as the supplier? Oscar telling in the voice-over that he wasn’t a junkie? His going to the club, in the toilet, the police raid, saying he had a gun, his being shot, his death?
9.The use of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, issues of reincarnation, a second chance, the descriptions of the soul floating, the nature of reincarnation?
10.Linda, in the US, Oscar getting the ticket for her to go the Japan, the meeting at the airport, going out to the clubs, her sexual encounter, with Mario? Getting the job, the girls working as strippers, with their clients? The girls amongst themselves, especially for Linda? The effect on her, Oscar’s reaction? Her pregnancy test, asking her friend for the translation? Going for the abortion, the clinical intensity of the abortion sequence, the hovering over the foetus? Her regrets? Her life in chaos, did she find the right man, with Mario? Or not? Her future?
11.Victor, addict, his relationship with his parents, the story of his mother, the stripper, the father and the drugs? The affair with Oscar? Victor confronting his mother? Her clash with her husband? His phoning the police, the reason behind the raid?
12.Alex, his art and paintings, drugs, friendship with Oscar, Linda, his trying to help after Oscar’s death, his roommate and the construction of the models of Japan?
13.Bruno, drug dealer, sexual orientation and behaviour, talk, supplier, his companions, his fear after the police raid?
14.Oscar, and his circling Tokyo, the title Enter the Void, the club as the void? Oscar and his perceptions of life in Tokyo, Linda and her behaviour, relationships? His looking at the sexual activity? The circles, the bright lights?
15.The visualising of conception, incarnation, the baby crying? The child entering the void by entering into life? The possibility of a better life than Oscar’s and Linda’s? Was the film completely pessimistic or not?
