Enter the Void

I saw things in this movie that I never thought I would see.  

Within the first 10 minutes of Enter the Void, my girl B and I were already wigging out.  Watching this movie is moderately similar to being smacked in the face.  This french psychedelic melodrama was written and directed by visionary, Gaspar Noé - director of Irreversible.  Told through the eyes of the main character, Enter the Void is a story about life, death and reincarnation.  Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) is an American drug dealer living in Japan.  When a narcotic delivery goes wrong, Oscar, who is high on drugs, is shot by police and dies in the corner of a small nightclub bathroom.  His soul continues to ascend out of his body as to observe the impact of his death, via an “out of body experience”.  Trippy…  Backdropped by the brilliantly colorful Tokyo-- this movie is less about the story, and more about the visual adventure.  

I was not surprised to learn that Noé spent 15 years planning this film.  Initially, the concept was conceived when a young Noé viewed Robert Montgomery’s Lady in the Lake (1947) -- which is shot exclusively in point of view takes.  Enter the Void mimics the first-person viewpoint, only seeing the primary character alive once while he is looking at himself in the mirror.  We see Oscar’s lengthy drug-induced hallucinations -- depicted through flashing lights, bold colors, organic patterns and experimental music.  Noé designed this effect by studying the star gate sequence in Stanley Kurbrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey; as well as the drawings of biologist, Ernst Haeckel.  

Once Oscar departs from his body, we resume seeing through his eyes -- as he floats above the city, looking into buildings from a bird’s eye perspective.  He has flashbacks from his adolescence, and occasionally re-lives life experiences while staring over his own shoulder.  A few times, Oscar chooses to see inside the other character’s bodies as well.  So I’ll give you fair warning -- if you’ve ever wanted to see intercourse from an internal view, this is your lucky day.   

Overall I enjoyed Irreversible more.  Both movies had a tendency to be chaotic from the start, and dramatically lighten more and more before the finish line.  None the less, this movie scared me shitless.  Gaspar Noé is a true idealist.  

Unless you want to lose your mind, I suggest NOT watching this movie while on drugs.  

#13 -- Enter the Void

You can stream Enter the Void on Netflix Instant, or purchase on Amazon Video, Apple iTunes, Google Play and Youtube.