Gaspar Noé's most extreme nightmare is also his most beautiful film...
Known for his early violent and controversial works such as I Stand Alone and Irreversible , director Gaspar Noé made his grand return to cinema in 2009 with Enter the Void . As eagerly anticipated as it was dreaded, this third feature film fits perfectly within its author's filmography while offering an exciting reinvention of his cinematic style .
While the filmmaker's penchant for shock and provocation remains, Enter the Void marks a surprising shift towards a more spiritual, psychedelic, and sensory artistic approach . In what ways can this film be considered Gaspar Noé's magnum opus? Let's revisit this unsettling and complex feature film, much like its director.
RÉPULSION
True to his reputation as the enfant terrible of French cinema, Gaspar Noé loses none of his provocative and controversial style with Enter the Void . All the shocking elements inherent to his filmmaking are present in this third feature. Between an incestuous subtext, explosions of raw violence, and the traditional cocktail of sex and drugs, the filmmaker repeatedly reminds us that this film is a worthy successor to his previous works.
The heated controversies and scandal surrounding his film Irreversible could have led Gaspar Noé to return with a more restrained, more measured approach. Few French films sparked so much debate in the 2000s. But far from excusing him, this third feature film is an opportunity for him to assert and embrace his artistic identity without the slightest desire to compromise.
Beyond mere gratuitous shock, Enter the Void explores essential themes in its director's cinema. From the beginning, Noé has been fascinated by deviant psychologies . He portrays the misfits, the outcasts. His protagonists oscillate between marginality and monstrosity. They are always filmed with a complex gaze, one that avoids moral judgment in favor of a contradictory approach blending distance and empathy.
This time, the filmmaker focuses on the journey of an orphan living in a fantastical Tokyo, caught in a spiral of drugs and crime. The story unfolds as a psychoanalytic and psychedelic drama . While the psychoanalytic interpretation was already key to understanding Irreversible , the writing of Enter the Void explores this theme in much greater depth.
Gaspar Noé's cinema has always aimed to create total immersion . One can obviously think of the very frequent use of monologues and voice-over narration, starting with Carne and I Stand Alone . The objective of these techniques was clearly to explore the psyche on screen, to plunge his viewers into the minds of his strange protagonists.
With Enter the Void , the director takes his quest for immersion even further. The breathtaking mise-en-scène, conveyed through a subjective camera, literally plunges us into the shoes of the main character. It allows us to perceive, in minute detail, the wanderings of his soul. Not only is it a sensory experience par excellence, but it is also a logical culmination of all of Gaspar Noé's previous works.
NEW ERA
Far more than a simple logical continuation, Enter the Void marks above all a break in Gaspar Noé's filmography. First and foremost, it's a narrative break in terms of length. Indeed, it's the very first time the director has offered audiences a long story that stretches over two and a half hours. This significant choice amplifies the sensory experience offered by his film, as well as its hypnotic power.
After an initial body of work characterized by a nihilistic and disillusioned tone, this feature film takes a particularly surprising spiritual turn . In an interview, Gaspar Noé himself describes his film as an allegorical adaptation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead —the book is even directly integrated into the narrative during a sequence where Axel lends the famous book to Oscar. This spiritual interpretation then guides the entire story.
Thus, Enter the Void explores the mortality of the soul and the possibility of an afterlife. This reflection reaches its climax in the final sequence, which suggests reincarnation, whether interpreted symbolically or physically by the viewer. This represents a completely unexpected transformation for a filmmaker known for his rational approach, who until then seemed guided by a rejection of the divine.
While his early feature films were generally more aesthetically minimalist, this time Gaspar Noé fully embraces the experimental and psychedelic elements he had previously reserved for his short films and music videos. The result is a visually sublime film, a kind of fascinating kaleidoscope that unfolds continuously on screen. Enter the Void could be considered one of the cornerstones of the neon aesthetic that would invade cinema in the 2010s following the release of Drive and Spring Breakers.
PRÉDICTIONS
With Enter the Void , Gaspar Noé could have allowed himself a simple departure before returning to the path of his previous works. But in retrospect, it's undeniable that this third feature film foreshadowed all the filmmaker's future developments . His decidedly more experimental and sensory approach would reach a kind of apogee years later with the striking Climax . Purely technical and technological experimentation would also be found in Love , particularly in its use of 3D.
Spirituality and reflection on the relationship with death would guide Noé towards a paradoxically more sensitive and nuanced style of filmmaking . These two themes would be explored in greater depth in the disarming and heartbreaking Vortex . Only time will tell if this latest feature film heralds a new, radical, and lasting transformation for the filmmaker.
Finally, the psychedelic aesthetic also pervades all of Noé's works that followed Enter the Void . One can think of the nightmarish sequences of Love , the bad trip of Climax , or of course the highly experimental Lux Æterna , which probably reaches the peak of what the filmmaker can produce with its epileptic mise-en-scène .
Ultimately, not only is it an absolute marvel, but Enter the Void seems more than ever to be Gaspar Noé's magnum opus . A work that condenses all of its author's obsessions, renews them, and lays the groundwork for his future endeavors.
By Clément Costa Ecran Large