Enter the Void [DVD]

Gaspar Noe's last film, 'Irreversible', chewed me up and spat me out. By playing the film in reverse, scene by scene, the viewer has little ability to form emotional opinions or attachments to the main characters in that film until its last scenes. By the end, when I finally realised where those emotional ties should be placed and how strong they should be, I was a broken man. I say this because if 'Enter The Void' lacks something, it's the film's inability to draw empathy from you for any of the characters - and I do mean any.

Despite the brother and sister leads having experienced extreme trauma at a young age, I felt no sympathy for them as adults. I concluded that this was intentional, by design, but couldn't fathom why? Was this to ensure I focused on the film's many other creative elements, or it's reincarnation-inspired journey through the death of the Oscar, aka the film's point of view, and the ripple effect that event had on those close to him. Or did the director determine that the characters in the film are the creators and masters of their own misery - was this a statement about the metropolis populous in general?

While the film is psychedelic in parts due to CGI imagery that starts during a drug experience by Oscar at the start of the film, I wouldn't want those thinking of watching 'Enter The Void' to consider the whole film as akin to watching 'Irreversible' while drug-fuelled, through a kaleidoscope. It's not. Tokyo adds much, naturally, in neon - having been there recently I can back that up. Plus there a small number of insertions of Art projects and the likes of the scene in the lighting store. Psychedelic? No, just visually stunning, throughout.

'Enter The Void' is my favourite film of the year. It's an immense accomplishment that has been crafted with a great passion and thus deserves much attention. Gaspar Noe doesn't make films that aim for mass appeal, but then Hollywood rarely makes anything that appeals to me.

If nothing else, you haven't seen the likes of 'Enter The Void' before, from the opening credits onwards.

Watching Enter The Void the film that came to my mind most was Mirror [DVD] [1974], by Tarkovsky. Many film makers have tried to ape Tarkovsky. Most recently Lars von Triers with Antichrist [DVD] [2009], but have failed simply because they concentrate on technical aspects rather than the totality of the Master's approach.

Gaspard Noe has succeeded in creating a masterpiece. And it is a masterpiece that, like Mirror, sets it apart from any other cinematic experience. And he has done this by adopting an approach that is tied to a philosophy. It is irrelevant whether you agree with Noe or not: it is the end product that counts.

Against all my expectation, I found Enter The Void to be a film of sheer beauty. It also put his previous films in perspective and also suggests why, as with Tarkovsky, he takes his time over making his films.

If one looks at I Stand Alone [DVD] [1999] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] (only available on US import so far) one sees how Noe uses the camera to hammer away at the individual and see the world through his eyes. Ultimately I Stand Alone is concerned with the individual. Irreversible [DVD] [2003] took the process one step further and the camera is used, in that film, to make sense of the narrow environment. The scenes that stand out, the rape and the beating, take place within enclosed environments. But in Enter The Void Noe find the drama in the wider world: Tokyo. It is difficult to see where Noe can take this in a new film unless he decides on a science fiction, which seems like the obvious step to me.

As with Tarkovsky, it is impossible to appreciate Noe's films as straight forward storytelling. The story and, in this film, the characters, are incidental to the film as a whole. Much of the film reminded me of those inventive psychedelic films of the sixties and early seventies, especially in the imagery.

Some of the camera shots, especially near the begining, when the camera is used as the eyes of Oscar and the way that the camera explores the city itself, are mind-blowing (if the DVD has a `making of' documentary, then it might be best to avoid it and just wonder at the creation). And though Noe falls back on the camera use that he employed in Irreversible it is still amazing to contemplate in this film.

If Noe is seen as controversial it is only because he stands out from other artists who, in these times, rarely rise above banal and are either scared or incapable of being revolutionary in their art.

Finally, the music used in the film plays a very important role. The use of the Bach orchestral suite (commonly known as Air On A G String) played on (I think) a glass piano fits with the films theme of questioning aesthetics. The music itself sounds simple to our contemporary ears and this is reinforced by the playing of it on the chosen instrument (a glass piano is simply a selection of wine glasses filled with different amounts of water to a particular pitch) but Bach's music is supremely cerebral and still has the ability to sound inventive. Yet the instrument makes it sound innocent and this ties well with the repeated referral to Oscar and Linda's childhood and the act that seemed to determine their future and loss of innocence and the incestuous relationship that develops.

Here again we see the genius of Noe in that he refuses to bow to moralisers and does not portray the act other than something that arose out of events.

And perhaps this is what Noe is getting at: our environment is such a determining factor in shaping us as individuals. But there is also the recognition that nothing is certain, and that we as individuals also shape our environment. There is none of the determinism that we hear so much about these days (a misanthropic view that poisons our everyday relationships, whether through social policy or the arrogance of others). Noe doesn't appear to be fatalist and Enter The Void stands as both a triumph for Noe and for a mankind that allowed the space for this film to be created.

I just finished watching this film about ten minutes ago. I knew absolutely nothing about it before watching, which is a good thing. Therefore; I don't want to give any of the plot away. I will say that it's absolutely stunning from a technical point of view; horrifyingly disturbing at times; incredibly beautiful and joyous; terrifying, sleazy, psychedelic, difficult, long, arduous, and completely unforgettable. For me personally, it's one of the most intense cinematic experiences I've had since seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you don't like experimental or unconvential films, avoid this; but if you're interested in what I said above, avoid spoilers and watch it immediately.