Une Expérience d'Hypnose...

A televised hypnosis experiment in Gaspar Noé's career


Made in 1994 and broadcast on Canal+ as part of the program L'Œil du cyclone, Une expérience d'hypnose télévisuelle (A Television Hypnosis Experiment) is an experimental short film by Gaspar Noé. It is a marginal work in his filmography, but revealing of certain aesthetic directions that would later mark his work.

At this stage of his career, Noé had not yet directed a feature film. He worked primarily on short and experimental formats, of which Carne was his most acclaimed piece. A televised hypnosis experiment was part of this period of formal exploration.

The film does not rely on a traditional narrative. It presents itself as an audiovisual experience built around the idea of ​​hypnosis, using editing, sound, and the repetition of images to produce an effect of focus and perceptual distortion. The aim is not to scientifically demonstrate hypnosis, but to offer a visual and televisual interpretation of it.

This short film foreshadows several characteristics of Noé's cinema:

  • a primary focus on sensory effects rather than narrative,
  • the use of sound and editing as tools of disorientation,
  • interest in altered states of consciousness.

These elements would be further developed in his feature films, notably Irreversible (2002), Enter the Void (2009) and Climax (2018), where the viewer's experience becomes a central issue in the directing.

While not a key work or widely distributed, Une expérience d'hypnose télévisuelle (A Television Hypnosis Experiment) occupies a place as a laboratory film in Gaspar Noé's trajectory. It testifies to an approach already oriented towards an experimental, sensory and deliberately destabilizing cinema, which would later become his signature.


Technical specifications


Original title: A Television Hypnosis Experiment
Director: Gaspar Noé
Screenwriter: Gaspar Noé
Genre: Comedy / Experimental
Format: Short film / TV movie
Running time: ~26-27 min
Country of origin: France
Broadcast date: January 1, 1994 (L'Œil du Cyclone program, Canal+)
Produced for: The television program L'Œil du Cyclone on Canal+
Production: Le Village / Canal+


Casting


Alain Ganas (Pierre Carnac)

Marie-France (Pierre Carnac's assistant)

Hélène Vauquois