Hold On Tight America, ‘Enter The Void’ Is Coming Your Way
Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff. Enter The Void is easily one of my most anticipated movies for 2010, and with good reason. Every review I’ve read from the festival circuit, whether good or bad, has agreed on one thing; Gaspar Noe’s three hour long psychedelic mind trip is one of the most visually impressive films since 2001: A Space Odyssey (anyone who knows me also knows my unbridled and excessive love for this movie). I’ve been waiting patiently to hear news of this flick getting some sort of distribution, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure it ever would. The reviews have been mixed, some praising its gorgeous imagery and flawless cinematic technique, while others calling it juvenile and pointless. At this point in Noe’s career, he’s allowed to be juvenile and pointless.
Noe has yet to craft a masterpiece, but anyone as controversial and as talked about as him is bound to do great things and be sought after for years to come. In 2002, the young director made waves on the festival circuit with his uncompromising vision of brutality and violence in Irreversible, a film which many critics hailed as one of the most disturbing to ever premiere at Cannes. Roger Ebert began his review for it by stating that “Irreversible is a movie so violent and cruel that most people will find it unwatchable.” Regardless, the film used a lot of the same cinematic techniques that I’ve seen on display in Enter The Void, and much like he is now, Noe was praised for his revolutionary camera work and stunning aesthetics. I can forgive pointlessness if having a point is not your goal. It seems to me that Noe aims to take his audience on a visual journey in every single one of his films, and this time around, dialogue and character have taken a backseat to literally tripping balls while staring at a movie screen. This isn’t to say that Noe’s films don’t have substance though. Irreversible gave viewers a disgusting look at the dark side of humanity, and just how messed up things can get when we expose ourselves to that world. The films theme of “Time ruins everything” may seem like some commentary on the idea of fate. However, it seems more likely that Noe inserted those title cards at the beginning and end to remind viewers of what they just watched, and how it was watched. The reverse chronology of the film immediately exposes viewers to some of the most graphic and unimaginable violence ever seen on screen, and then goes on to give us a playful and intimate love scene between the two main characters, in which it seems that nothing could possibly go wrong. The pay off is not the violence in this film, like so many others that are plaguing megaplexes today, and this is the major point I think Noe was trying to make. So to a director like this, character and story are there to support the cinematic technique, not the other way around. This is why, despite plenty of bad reviews, I hold out hope for Enter The Void being one of the most astonishing spectacles ever witnessed in the cinema. From what I hear, it certainly won’t disappoint.
Now after months of anticipation, and watching the short teaser trailers over and over again, I can finally announce, with great rejoice, that Enter The Void is coming to the US. It will premiere at Sundance this weekend, but has already been picked up by IFC Films for limited distribution across the states; all three hours of it. There are only a few IFC theaters across the country, but anyone lucky enough to be close by should definitely catch this flick on as big of a screen as possible. No news yet on possible release dates, but it should be within the next couple of months. The best part of all this is IFC’s recent deal with criterion. I’m hoping and praying that we will see a Criterion DVD or Blu Ray of Enter the Void in the coming year. It’s up to all of you to spread the word and get this movie seen so the chances are even better. I’ve included a synopsis of Enter The Void below, and one of the trailers for the film with links to the other two.
Oscar’s a small-time drug dealer. One night he is caught in a police bust and shot. As he lies dying, his spirit, faithful to the promise he made his sister—that he would never abandon her—refuses to leave the world of the living. It wanders through the city, its visions growing ever more distorted and nightmarish. Past, present, and future merge in a hallucinatory maelstrom.
-William Gutheil
