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Climax (new Gaspar Noé)

Started by zomgmouse, December 24, 2018, 11:00:33 PM

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zomgmouse

Set over one night at an end-of-rehearsals party for a dance troupe where everything goes horrifically wild.

This might just be the film of the year for me. I haven't seen any of his films beyond the first two but this was just astounding. You're never let off the hook for a moment.

Curious to see what people think as I've read reviews where people hated it. It was certainly an experience.

rjd2

I assume their is no way to watch this legally?

zomgmouse

Quote from: rjd2 on December 25, 2018, 03:35:30 PM
I assume their is no way to watch this legally?

I saw it in a cinema here - otherwise unsure.

grassbath

QuoteThe all-night celebration morphs into a hallucinatory nightmare when they learn their sangria is laced with LSD.

Not at all surprised to read this, given that Noe seems to need his characters to be on drugs so he can hide behind a load of nauseating lighting and camerawork.

This sound flippin bonkers! Again!

Twit 2


The Bumlord


Junglist

It feels like Noé's masterpiece. He incorporates the switch that he uses in I Stand Alone where the flow and tone of the entire film shifts after a clear 'alert' point, at which it becomes a descent into insanity, chaos and a study of degradation.

Outstanding performances all round and, as ever with his work, its a tough watch at multiple points. Quality choreography for the dance section too. Trippy, mesmeric cinema at its best.

At its heart, the latter half reminds me most of Mother's rapid fire ending section

What a fucking film.

bgmnts

Is this basically pretentious porn?

ToneLa

Quote from: bgmnts on February 07, 2019, 10:27:45 PM
Is this basically pretentious porn?

Porn is people having sex. It's all pretentious to moi

Junglist

Quote from: bgmnts on February 07, 2019, 10:27:45 PM
Is this basically pretentious porn?

Nah, that's basically Love, his previous work.

hedgehog90

Has it had a proper release yet in the UK or has it already come and gone?

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: hedgehog90 on February 08, 2019, 11:12:09 AM
Has it had a proper release yet in the UK or has it already come and gone?

Come and gone, and it's now leaked online. To say I didn't like it would be something of an understatement. Warning, spoilers are below.

The first 45 minutes is just a group of dancers hanging out and having a bit of a dance, and it goes on for way too long, as does the sex based banter between the various men which is pointless and tedious. At the halfway point they realise the alcohol's been spiked with LSD and it's not long before everything goes horrendously wrong. One of the worst films I've ever seen, it has nothing to say other than that in certain circumstances human beings are fucking horrible and surely that's something everyone already knew? Watching them suffer is grim stuff, and there's no point to this existing at all. Irreversible is the most fucked up film I've ever seen but at least it's also a celebration of the beauty of life, this is just cunts being cunts and it's shit, I'm actively angry that I've seen it and there's no way I'll ever watch another Gasper Noe movie after this. 1.4/10

Cuntbeaks

I downloaded this some time ago but only watched it this evening. Still reeling to be fair.

Other than the masterful one take dance routine, the first 45 mins was a bit flat, but i suppose we needed some sort of platform from which to tumble from.

The camera work, lighting and soundtrack was superb. Everything combined to create a real sense of doom and claustrophobic horror. Lots of long takes that drew you further in to the action than you may have wanted.

As had been expressed earlier in the thread, it really isn't an oblique love letter to life but more of a window into the potential horror we all have inside ourselves.

An grimly mesmerising 4 trips out of 5.

garbed_attic

I'm with SMBH... I found it dull and uninspired with a surprisingly mediocre soundtrack. Soft Cell??

If you're going to explicitly draw comparisons between the film to come and Possession things better be going to get seriously, shatteringly unhinged. And they got nasty, but not weird.

hedgehog90

I wrote a response to cuntbeaks last night but deleted it before posting because because in the end it was just an overly verbose way of saying 'I thought it was quite shit actually'.

I thought it was quite shit actually.

garbed_attic

Mike, the fella who hosts The Evolution of Horror podcast, utterly loved it and found it joyous! I was just surprised to be underwhelmed by a Gaspar Noé film... I thought at least I'd hate it like I did Aronofsky's Mother!

hedgehog90

Good to reference a film like Possession, gout, which is a film that confounds ones expectations like nothing else. I was expecting something outrageous and crazed, but all I got was a bunch of cunts going waaaaah.
I liked the first half for what it's worth, the build up was effective, but the 'CLIMAX' was like an old man opening their trench coat exposing their withered cock and bollocks, when I was expecting the meaning of life or an explicit rape scene.

hedgehog90

Quote from: gout_pony on June 30, 2019, 11:17:07 PM
Mike, the fella who hosts The Evolution of Horror podcast, utterly loved it and found it joyous! I was just surprised to be underwhelmed by a Gaspar Noé film... I thought at least I'd hate it like I did Aronofsky's Mother!

I avoid the episodes that discuss films made in the last 20 years, I listened to a few and found he was far too complimentary to the new stuff.

Cuntbeaks

Best use of relentless screaming in a film since Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

garbed_attic

Quote from: hedgehog90 on June 30, 2019, 11:24:21 PM
I avoid the episodes that discuss films made in the last 20 years, I listened to a few and found he was far too complimentary to the new stuff.

In a way that's Mike's central flaw as a host - he's so dang eager and all but never contradicts guests - it's kind of adorable, but something he reminds me of Gregg Turkington in his desire to do right by the movies! At the same time, that sheer enthusiasm and love for the horror genre is probably what gives the podcast its momentum and popularity.

grassbath

Just watched this. Really wanted to extend my goodwill as the opening dance was spellbinding, but it quickly confirmed itself as another mean-spirited husk of a film with absolutely nothing to say about people, sex, race, culture, dance, film or in fact anything, the equivalent of somebody gratuitously adding '...on acid' as an epithet to communicate the most tOtAlLy CrAzY thing their small mind can conceive of.

This is the kind of film that people should be railing against when they are sick of 'unpleasant' filmmaking. Noe's entitled misanthropy is grotesque, thinking he can get away with any old shit if he tells you his characters are on LSD and turns his camera upside down. Watching this, I'm so much more convinced of the difference in complex and thought-provoking stuff like Holiday which is getting bashed in its own thread by people who haven't even seen it.

garbed_attic

Quote from: grassbath on August 24, 2019, 12:19:53 AM
Just watched this. Really wanted to extend my goodwill as the opening dance was spellbinding, but it quickly confirmed itself as another mean-spirited husk of a film with absolutely nothing to say about people, sex, race, culture, dance, film or in fact anything, the equivalent of somebody gratuitously adding '...on acid' as an epithet to communicate the most tOtAlLy CrAzY thing their small mind can conceive of.

This is the kind of film that people should be railing against when they are sick of 'unpleasant' filmmaking. Noe's entitled misanthropy is grotesque, thinking he can get away with any old shit if he tells you his characters are on LSD and turns his camera upside down. Watching this, I'm so much more convinced of the difference in complex and thought-provoking stuff like Holiday which is getting bashed in its own thread by people who haven't even seen it.

Glad to see some agreement on this as I really was baffled by the affection for it when it's such a cold and nasty piece of work (which can be interesting if like Haneke you're at least saying something).

Bence Fekete

The LSD thing is really annoying isn't it? So patronising, like finding out Kurtz had a drinking problem. It was the salmon mousse!

Pathos-draining plot construction aside, I thought the film achieved much of what it set out to as far as tone and mood. The use of non-actors was great and I felt genuinely disturbed at times. Just can't help imagining how much better it would've been if they'd bothered to write a (proper) script.   

Verdict: 3.5 extinguishers, must pre-produce harder

greenman

Quote from: grassbath on August 24, 2019, 12:19:53 AM
Just watched this. Really wanted to extend my goodwill as the opening dance was spellbinding, but it quickly confirmed itself as another mean-spirited husk of a film with absolutely nothing to say about people, sex, race, culture, dance, film or in fact anything, the equivalent of somebody gratuitously adding '...on acid' as an epithet to communicate the most tOtAlLy CrAzY thing their small mind can conceive of.

This is the kind of film that people should be railing against when they are sick of 'unpleasant' filmmaking. Noe's entitled misanthropy is grotesque, thinking he can get away with any old shit if he tells you his characters are on LSD and turns his camera upside down. Watching this, I'm so much more convinced of the difference in complex and thought-provoking stuff like Holiday which is getting bashed in its own thread by people who haven't even seen it.

Not seen this and probably won't having not bothered with any Noe for ages but I'd agree it comes down not just to the nature of the story being unpleasant but the style of the film itself. I'v never been a big fan of Hanke or Von Trier either for the same reason, Lathimos is a bit different IMHO having more humour and some empathy for his characters.

Crabwalk

It's on UK Netflix now, by the way.

Whug Baspin

Thanks for the alert Crabwalk. This was great! It was a horrible time, and I was glad to be out the other side of it, but it was vivid.

Zetetic

Liked this from an interview:

"It was based on a true story... Yes, there was a party, things turned sour when they did have their drinks spiked, but nothing really bad happened."

Probably should have just left it at that.

chveik

fucking hell, he really is a cunt. if he wasn't French, I would have been cancelled a long time ago.

Zetetic

This has been cheering me up intermittently over the last few days.

1. I'm never going have to bother watching a Gaspar Noé film.

2. However horrible a picture of humanity they paint, Gaspar had to make it up because real-life was basically alright.