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Gaspar Noe

Enter The Void * Gaspar Noë (2009)

The latest film of Noë is pretty hard work to watch! The beginning is great with the most insane opening titles I ever saw and then there is a scene with Oscar smoking something, having a psychedelic trip, which is wonderfully done. Pretty soon it becomes clear, though, that Noë uses constantly moving cameras, from handycam views, so high-and-low flying twisting and turning stretched shots (towards the end even with effects). After about 5 minutes my stomach was upside down and I developped a pounding headache and that did not go away (it still did not!). With such a tiring view, 2,5 hours is way too long. Moreover, the visual spectacle completely overrides the drama in the film, even two extremely devastating scenes towards the end had no effect on me whatsover. Besides the sickening camera work, Noë stuffed his film with filmographic experimentations. Extremely bright and extremely much neon, computerised drug-tripping scenes, Lynch-like light-and-dark and close-ups, out-of-focus shots and almost no music, but just Throbbing Gristle and Coil’s constant rumbling. The story is of a brother and sister living in Tokyo flushing down the drain of the sex and drug scene. A heavy story that is ingeniously told in flashbacks interwoven with the present and with dreams. Paz de la Huerta gives all playing Linda; a fragile part that goes from sexy shots in the appartment to stripclub-, sex- and even an abortion scene. The story is not too original, but well-told, the experimental montage is very interesting, but the unsteady camera makes me to discourage you to watch this film on the big screen. A very interesting film, but I do not like the physical reactions…

Destricted * various directors * 2006

“Destricted” consists of seven short films that supposedly hold the middle between arthouse and pornography. This description may be applied to two or three of the films, but not to the rest. I had noticed the film at the rental, but put it back every time until the last. The box has some nice images, the idea could interesting, something different from those boring ‘right-on’ films, but would it really work? Well, there is a film about a man with a machine fetish, which is interesting from a cinematographic viewpoint. Also there is very fast compilation of images accompanied with fast drumming music. A weird pulsating film with very busy filming and montage that shows a man’s weird sexual preference and now and then a very nice girl. All alright, but nothing too interesting. Worse than that are downright pornos or a simple film of a man masturbating in the desert. Actually there is only one film that I found interesting both as a film and for the content. It is called “Balkan Erotic Epic” (by Marina Abramovic) which is presented as some sort of documentary about some very strange Baltic erotic folklore habbits (no idea if they are factual). The film has very bright colours, nice settings and a lot of humour. Another documentary contains interviews with young men who grew up with pornography (because their parents posess films or because they started watching the films with friends at an early age) and in the end, one is picked out to choose an actress to do something with which he wanted to try. Perhaps this one is interesting for sociologists and it shows a few things around the whole subject, but like almost any other of the films, it is just of a minor level and not too good a watch. Not knowing what to expect, the project still disappointed me. I don’t know for what audience the film is, since some films are too explicit for an arthouse audience and most others are not straight forward’ enough for people who enjoy the other genre. I will leave it to you if you are interested enough to go and see it. With seven very different films, there could also for you be one that is enjoyable.
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