Enter the Void

I simply have to appreciate Gaspar Noé for his innovative approach to filmmaking, presenting viewers with something completely new and not shying away from depicting explicit content, especially sex, although the same goes for violence in his films. Unfortunately, in terms of content, his films just don't resonate with me much. (16/11/2016)

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)

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)

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)

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)