TIFF: Gaspar Noe hates circumcision, loves Michael Bay movies

Professionally provocative directorGaspar Noe has a knack for attention-grabbing filmmaking, and his latest, “Love,” is sure to turn some heads. The sexually explicit 3D drama, which comes to the Toronto International Film Festival after premiering at Cannes, depicts the sexual history of a pair of relationships in graphic detail.

Why did you decide to use 3D for this?
I think it adds to some weirdness and intimacy to the whole movie. You feel even more than if it was in 2D that you’re spying on the real moments of the couple. Maybe the act of using glasses also adds a tunnel vision effect and you disconnect more from the people who are around you. And also the fact that there is some depth behind the screen makes you get in kind of a dream state that’s not usual. But if you want to succeed with that feeling, you have to be conscious while you’re shooting not too cover the scenes in a way that you have to edit it. If the images are still and they last long, you create a space that is a kind of a puppet theater. Mostly all the 3D movies are action movies, and they go from one take to another take every three seconds, so they don’t take advantage of that weirdness of the 3D. The only movie that I’ve seen that really uses the depth of the space inside the screen was “Gravity.” That’s my favorite 3D movies.

Michael Bay actually complained about having to wait a full three seconds before cutting when shooting in 3D.
I like Michael Bay. When I’m on planes I enjoy “Transformers.”

What was the thinking for having the main character be American?
Actually I didn’t care if the character was American, Canadian, Irish or South African. It’s that probably the American way of speaking English is the most universally understood. But the Irish accent is kind of clean. For sure, I didn’t want to have a British character because it happens to me that when I see British films, sometimes I don’t understand one word out of the three — especially if they talk with the cockney accent.

I guess deciding between an American or European character, the question of circumcision would come up.
Yeah. I don’t understand why in this country they keep on doing that to all the babies. It’s not true that it’shealthier to circumcise the kids. If you see the rate of sexual infection where men are not circumcised, it’s almost the same. I think the thing about circumcision comes from a patriarchal society, and America is a patriarchal society. It’s like taking control of the younger generation by touching their penis. But mostly, the truth is — onscreen in my movie, for example — when a penis is erected, mostly you can’t tell if it’s circumcised or uncircumcised because once it is hard, they all look alike. And I was not thinking showing un-erect penises in this movie.

Follow Ned Ehrbar on Twitter: @nedrick