Pun-loving TIFF programmers call Gaspar Noé (Irreversible) a “provoke-auteur” for his dedication to mainstream discomfiture.
Like his fellow Frenchman Jean-Luc Godard, he’s dedicated to the proposition that there is no cinematic rule too sacred to scorn, or at least to play with.
Enter the Void might more accurately be deemed only partial provocation, since it’s actually the most audience-friendly of Noé’s three features — the caveat being that the audience must be a mature one, not like the sexually stifled ninnies of America’s MPAA film censor board.
The hallucinogenic swirls of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey find bold expression in Noé’s depiction of the drug-induced fantasies of junkie protagonist Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), whose afterlife experiences in Tokyo literally float across the screen. Few recent films can match the visual intoxication of what Noé and cinematographer Benoit Debie have concocted.
Extras include deleted scenes and trailers.
