Enter The Void

ENTER THE VOID
France 2009

Sometime, in the past, or in the future, you are bound to see a film, that defies description, and you struggle to say anything about it. But, there is always, something about that film that will stick in your mind and you not only wonder what it might have been, or what it meant ... and of course, this is the area where too many film critics will trash a film, for what it isn't.

Saying there is a story in this film, means to bring it down to a Hollywood level and making an attempt at describing things that are ... just a visual trip ... and have nothing to do with one's thoughts ... they have to do with one's vision, and what it happens to see.

Simplified, this is the story of Oscar, and his friendship and decision to help and watch out for his younger sister. Unfortunately, Oscar is shot and dies, and the rest of the film is taken from his spirit, hovering everywhere, even around Tokyo from place to place and seeing things that it can not understand. In the middle of it, he also takes a look at his past life and his desire to take care of her sister, which one will (inevitably!!!!) think that it involves some kind of incestuous relationship.

However, if that is all we look for, then the film will disappoint.

Amidst a drug fueled trip, if colorful and trippy sights are an indication of such, this film has moments that are dizzying in many aspects and then it has some parts that has other critics stumped ... why is the dialogue so crass, and not Shakespearean or some haute couture type of exchange? ... because all of these characters are ... street people. Plain and simple. There is no glorified anything for us to see.

And then, the film takes a dizzying and unexpected turn. The main character is shot, and his spirit floats away and the rest of the film is his spirit seeing things and being "helpful" to his sister, down right to the most intimate detail, the part that in the middle of the psychedelic trip, we will certainly look at it, and go ... wow ... is that sick or what?

There is a part of the film, that is also visible in "Irreversible", and that is you are floating from place to place, and nothing makes sense, but then, you don't have the brain facility to do so, either, and it just floats ... everywhere that it can see and can not make sense of. Here, instead of someone on a gurney and totally out of it, and seeing things that they can not comprehend or make sense of, it is a wider shot ... way wider, and capable of seeing the street and its psychedelic lights, and the whole city at night, all the lights, all the "life" and capable of coming down and watching the sister, and make sure that things are "safe" as if he could do anything about it.

And towards the end, you get the feeling that his time is up and he is losing the control, and the film enters an insane trip that culminates in a most unusual shot that will have a lot of people uncomfortable, something that is par for the course in Gaspar's films. Needless to say, this trip lists insanely well amidst the best ever done in film, even with Bach music on top of it, to culminate, yet another extremely original film design for this director.

It's really difficult to rate actors in this film ... because it's like this is no film ... you just turned on a camera downtown and you caught all this, to the point that making a call on how well the film went, is difficult ... this is not a film about the "story" or its "actors' ... this is my book, an imaginary look at the world ... from an out of body style of perspective, and even Robert Monroe would have appreciated this point of view and delight in it to no end.

It is, a very odd film, difficult to watch, specially for people looking for "action". The only action in this film is the kind that alerts and spikes your mind with so many thoughts, that a day later you are still thinking about this film. It is magnificent in that sense, but it does have some moments of the typical brutality found in many of Gaspar's films. Again, think of these as "not a movie" ... and there is some really tough "reality" that you can gleam for all this ... and the whole "trip" side of it, lists amidst the best defined ever, by any of your favorite slew of mystics!

Directed by Gaspar Noe
Written by Gaspar Noe and Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Cinematography by Benoit Debie
With Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy, Ed Spear

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