Enter the Void

Gaspar Noé tried to make something like “2009: A Life Odyssey” in his typical psychedelic fashion. After the (very) decent start with the key plot twist, however, the film descends into boring, protracted and aimless flicking from one “before and after” episode to another, which doesn’t develop said key event in any way. It’s the same visually and narratively original style he used to spice up and enhance the story in Irréversible, but misused for self-serving pseudo-intellectual masturbation. (02/01/2011)

I would be hard-pressed to find a more psychedelic, experimental and depressing picture in the world of cinema, and in this respect it is certainly an exceptional achievement. I was most impressed by the last flashback to the traumatic experience of the tragic car accident when both siblings lost their parents. I'll probably have the images of Linda screaming in terror in front of my eyes for a long time. Otherwise, however, it was sometimes a bit too drawn out for my taste and, paradoxically, in some respects a bit cheesy. (65%) (09/05/2022)

An incredibly smooth film trip. At the end I felt like I was falling into absolute emptiness. Although the 140 minutes are far from flawless and do leave you shaking your head in places, this mixture of hallucinogenic trips, porn and existential hangovers is simply one of the highlights of this year. I agree with those who would rather not see what happens when the first circle closes... but it doesn't change much about the mental crater. (29/04/2010)

Without a doubt one of the most original films I've ever seen. An absolutely intense experience and right from the start – the opening credits "alone" are really legit. Plus, Enter the Void is not even completely EMPTY on a psychological level:))) As Oskar's soul wanders and returns to his childhood and recent past, the viewer has the opportunity to get to know his personality better and hopefully understand his future direction. Still, it's not up to full marks with me, because after the excellent first hour (the opening drug bust in perfectly stylized and psycho images is perfect, and the scene of Oskar's death is no less mesmerizing) you start to get the feeling that Noé is repeating himself in some ways, and those insanely long shots of him flying over the city can start to get boring. But of course that doesn't change the fact that it's an unforgettable experience. Plus, despite the aforementioned overlong shots, the cinematography is obtusely beautiful:))) 90% (05/10/2010)

The entire film fluctuates between opening and closing title sequences, between two Tokyo bars, between life and death - and between Enter and the Void. In the average middle position between these almost three-hour amplitudes lies (although not in the middle of the runtime) the central sentence of the film, which states that drug XY (I don't remember the name) has the same effect as death. Noé therefore embarks on a deep drug trip, but here a problem arises - three hours need to be filled with some type of material and content on the basis of which the trip can take place. We must not be fooled: although the trip is in its visual effects a pure form and abstraction, in a drug-induced frenzy the "content," the "meaning," and what "was so beautiful" is always somewhat present and inevitably attached itself to the hallucinogenic audiovisual experience without being “just” it. In other words, a (film) trip also requires a screenplay that enables the trip, and here Noé falls short - banal thoughts about reincarnation (legitimizing camera techniques and the plot of the film), pathetic parallels between children and death, etc. Oh, how the film would benefit if it could rid itself of these literalities and story crutches as much as possible, if it let itself be carried away by its own greatest advantage, i.e., the smooth pulsating atmosphere of a psychedelically mad city, captured in an experimental film form, precisely fulfilling the thesis of the unity of content and form. In short, if the whole film were like its opening title sequences, in which the original content is injected into the viewer's veins in such a way that in the newly created psychotropic form, all forms of readability are distorted to such an extent that they become unreadable in exchange for pure enjoyment of colors, movement, and sound. (21/09/2015)