Enter the Void reviews
Review by on 20 Sep 2010
In 2002 Gaspar Noe gave the world IRREVERSIBLE, surely one of the most disquieting films ever made, earning himself an instant reputation as a misanthropist with a desire to distress. In relative terms, ENTER THE VOID is remarkably restrained. There’s constant drug huffing, (unfulfilled) incestuous desire, unsettling childs’ screams following a violent car crash and relentless sexual encounters including an excessively creative money shot, but the film is first and foremost a lovingly-crafted visual spectacle.
The neon landscapes of Tokyo are a pleasure to behold, as are the exhilarating opening credits. For the first half an hour dialogue is languidly droll, and lead character Oscar’s ongoing muttered monologue quite brilliantly conveys the struggle to reason and argue with oneself whilst the worse for wear.
Oscar’s untimely death follows, but the narrative continues to be focussed through his hallucinatory and solipsistic visions. The story jumps from early childhood to kaleidoscopic 3D images to the film’s other players in varying degrees of ecstasy and strife. Long intervals of white light or pitch black convey the uneasy limbo that Oscar, the other characters and the audience have entered. The sum of all these parts makes for a disjointed yet distinctive experience.
ENTER THE VOID falls into the ‘difficult but interesting’ category; I wouldn’t exactly recommend it or choose to watch it again, but it’s a daring and unparalleled film that confirms Noe as a dysfunctional maverick of film.
Sarah Chorley
The neon landscapes of Tokyo are a pleasure to behold, as are the exhilarating opening credits. For the first half an hour dialogue is languidly droll, and lead character Oscar’s ongoing muttered monologue quite brilliantly conveys the struggle to reason and argue with oneself whilst the worse for wear.
Oscar’s untimely death follows, but the narrative continues to be focussed through his hallucinatory and solipsistic visions. The story jumps from early childhood to kaleidoscopic 3D images to the film’s other players in varying degrees of ecstasy and strife. Long intervals of white light or pitch black convey the uneasy limbo that Oscar, the other characters and the audience have entered. The sum of all these parts makes for a disjointed yet distinctive experience.
ENTER THE VOID falls into the ‘difficult but interesting’ category; I wouldn’t exactly recommend it or choose to watch it again, but it’s a daring and unparalleled film that confirms Noe as a dysfunctional maverick of film.
Sarah Chorley
Review by on 18 Sep 2010
This wasn't (pun intended) deVoid of interest in its visuals, but it really was far too long (unless, of course, one's notion of time was as blurred by artificial means as that of most of the 'characters').
I have put that word in inverted commas, because they were largely so banal in what they thought or had to say to each other that to maintain any interest or for them to have any credibility was, for me, difficult, and I tended not to care what happened to them. The fact that those feelings carried over to the male lead, and that he was highly lacking in any impulse that wasn't related to incest, was not a good point in that respect. Having said which, the write-up clearly stated that this was a sensual experience, not an intellectual one.
That being said, some of the dialogue was both so lacking in any spark of imagination and so poorly acted that it was just embarrassing, but perhaps that was down to the presence on both occasions of an actor playing a son who had found out that a friend had had closer relations than he liked with his mother: although he was singularly worse than everyone else in both scenes, their delivery of some truly dire material was hardly compelling, and just made one laugh despairingly at what one was seeing, or even cringe (even if no one can see you with the lights out).
The visuals, including some editing tricks and morphing that were highly effective, redeemed the 2 h 25 mins that were taken up by this event, but there was still a lot of predictability and redundancy that just had me looking to see what the time was, and hoping that it wouldn't be much longer before I could get to the bar.
I have put that word in inverted commas, because they were largely so banal in what they thought or had to say to each other that to maintain any interest or for them to have any credibility was, for me, difficult, and I tended not to care what happened to them. The fact that those feelings carried over to the male lead, and that he was highly lacking in any impulse that wasn't related to incest, was not a good point in that respect. Having said which, the write-up clearly stated that this was a sensual experience, not an intellectual one.
That being said, some of the dialogue was both so lacking in any spark of imagination and so poorly acted that it was just embarrassing, but perhaps that was down to the presence on both occasions of an actor playing a son who had found out that a friend had had closer relations than he liked with his mother: although he was singularly worse than everyone else in both scenes, their delivery of some truly dire material was hardly compelling, and just made one laugh despairingly at what one was seeing, or even cringe (even if no one can see you with the lights out).
The visuals, including some editing tricks and morphing that were highly effective, redeemed the 2 h 25 mins that were taken up by this event, but there was still a lot of predictability and redundancy that just had me looking to see what the time was, and hoping that it wouldn't be much longer before I could get to the bar.
Review by on 18 Sep 2010
This may have a silly story & ridiculous dialogue, but it is a curious & even at times interesting cinematic experience.
Film details
Enter the Void
MAIN FEATURES
Director: Gasper Noe
Actor: Nathaniel Brown
Actor: Paz de la Huerta
Actor: Cyril Roy
Actor: Nathaniel Brown
Actor: Paz de la Huerta
Actor: Cyril Roy
France, Germany, Italy, 2009.
155 mins. English and Japanese with English subtitles.
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