Film Review: “Enter the Void” by Gaspar Noé

When the vibrantly coloured opening credits flash frantically alongside the hammering of the heart-throbbing electronic music at the start of Enter the Void (watch above), I know this latest work by Gasper Noé, who is well-known for the highly realistic and controversial rape sequence in his previous effort Irreversible, is something unusual that may suit my palate.

What I did not expect, however, is the film’s irresistible power, which almost defeats me at the early stage, to drag the viewer into the mental state of the protagonist. In an early sequence about his indulgence in the psychedelic drug DMT, the spiral, stroboscopic shooting techniques, the visually dazzling animation depicting the narcotics-influenced nervous system, the realistic drugged-up inner voice, and of course the dark and trippy film score by Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk together weave a dizzy, immersive, and nauseous “super-reality” in such an overwhelming manner that I have to reluctantly take a stomach pill to withstand the effect (read my post about Salvador Dali’s theory on film and photograhy’s “super-reality” here).

Yet as this story about the decadent lives of two Americans – a drug-dealer named Oscar (the protagonist, played by Nathaniel Brown) and his sister Linda (played by Paz de la Huerta), who is a stripper – in Tokyo continues to unfold in a fragmented manner, there are some other occasions that strike me so affectively that I almost join the walkouts.

For instance, when Oscar recalls the car accident of his family, in which he and Linda became two little orphans, the scene of the wreck is severely awful and disturbing. It is indeed less about the ghastly imagery than about the agonising screams of Linda and the hauntingly hallucinatory background music, which together render a traumatic sting, or Punctum in Roland Barthes’ terms, that suffocates me – a difficulty in breathing and an almost intolerable urge to vomit are induced in myself at that time. For me, that is one of the most powerful moments of the film.

Thematically speaking, I am fascinated by the East-meets-West approach – not only is the story set in the engrossing fluorescent cityscape of Tokyo, which couples well with the vibrant psychedelia effortlessly and, as suggested by Noé himself, “emphasise[s] the fragility of the brother and sister”, but it is also harnessed by the exploration of the oriental notions of “the void” and “reincarnation”. The film construes the concept that human beings are trapped in the void of interminable reincarnations, with a series of mundane plot points at midsection effectively foregrounding the hollowness and hopelessness of life in a paradoxical manner. As Noé suggests, “Oscar reconsiders his past and sees that his life has meant almost nothing. In the end, everything has been very meaningless. I guess that’s why the movie is called Enter the Void. At the end, it’s all about emptiness.”

Whilst on my list of favourite films there are a few other brilliantly crafted works which also explore the decadence of human beings through the motif of drugs, such as Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting and Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem For A Dream,  in my opinion Enter the Void has surpassed them with its immense affect and edginess rendered from the exquisite audio, visuals, and concepts. It has been reverberating in my mind since I watched it yesterday, and I’m sure that this repugnantly mesmerising work will top my list for a fairly long time.

*the quotations of Noé are from: http://www.letempsdetruittout.net/gasparnoe/index.asp?v=22

Film Review: Avatar

With its visually dazzling imagery and well paced plot, most viewers have been exhilarated by James Cameron’s new film Avatar. Whilst without question it is meticulously and creatively crafted, whether in terms of themes or filming techniques - how good is it exactly?

The pros of this film are actually quite obvious:

• breathtaking imagery;
• tight plot – the recurrence of motifs, e.g. the reappearances of animals, makes the plot cohesive)
• well-paced plot – tensions and releases are applied appropriately through out the whole duration of 161 minutes
• fluid interweaving of loads of elements – war, fantasy, romance, nature, dream, racial conflicts, tribal religion, etc

Whilst all these strengths seem to guarantee an enormous commerical success, there’s sth missing in the movie actually: the depth of reality

In my post about the relation between Dali’s film thoery and techno (read here)  I talk about how Dali considers film’s focus on ‘things themselves’ as the key to making it the ‘most unreal way to express reality’.

It seems to me that Avatar lacks the quality to trigger affects among the auidences. Yes it does talk about the dark side of human nature in the form of greediness but it is not expressed strongly and precisely enough to cause a kind of prick or sting deep in the audience ‘s  heart (like the punctum that Roland Barthes talks about in his seminal work Camera Lucida).

Indeed it is possible to strike a balance between commercial success and deepness, as Danny Boyle has shown in his popular film Slumdog Millionaire in 2008, whose narrative about the greediness and sufferings of human beings is much more affective and resonating.

It’s exactly this lack of deep reflection of reality in Avatar that hinders the rendering of a universial appeal and confines it to a more commerical realm. That said, the film is enjoyable and Cameron should well be credited for pushing the 3D technology forward. It should be a big winner in this year’s Oscars as well.