Climax

Aggressive, provocative, controversial and boundary-pushing, Gaspar Noe delivers his best work and it is once again an original, fresh and uncomfortably steamy spectacle. The film is even based on a true story, about thirty dancers finishing their American tour and intending to celebrate properly, but the evening goes awry when LSD is mixed into the Sangria and unfortunately not everyone makes it to the morning. This dance horror drug musical is one of a kind and compelling enough to keep you interested, though it's good to know the director's previous work beforehand so you have an idea of what you're getting into. The opening dance number is absolutely breathtaking and enthralling and the witty sex references suited me just fine, but once the party gets underway in full swing the hallucinogenic trippy ride begins, with everyone involved experiencing a nightmare you wouldn’t believe. There are a couple of uncomfortable scenes, though the violence is slightly skimped on, but it makes up for it with solid music, dance numbers, very racy girls, sex scenes and original cinematography with a filter at the end albeit too chaotic for some. Sofia Boutella rocks again and since I first saw her in Kingsman she has only surprised and shocked! Solid for me. 80%. (03/02/2019)

Engaging provocation by Noé which to a great extent tests the endurance and patience of the viewer. I’m not sure I would want to watch it at home on the PC, but in the main theatre of Hotel Thermal, at the KVIFF, thumbs up. Already at the beginning, when Noé serves the closing scene and the opening credits of the film that is about to follow, it is clear that this is not something that plays strictly by the rules. The dancing number at the beginning is brilliant. The following garrulous passage lost me, but then Climax got me back once the Sangría with LSD started to hit. The last half hour is a stress test for the senses of the viewer; a descent into utter darkness and a state of altered consciousness that made my head spin. The experience, in the strict sense of the word, is pleasant, but heavy. (15/08/2018)

Gaspar Noé dances an extremely dirty dance, and with his help, this manages to entrance and fascinate you for quite some time. And yet during the excessively stretched-out dialogue, a feeling arose that someone was stretching me out. And that was before the anticipated barrage of purposeless violence and annoying antics accompanied by the spinning of the camera was even on the program, and the fact that the stubborn director refused to move from one spot even a little bit after so many years almost made me laugh. And I had already lost my patience with works presented to the clever audience long ago. (31/10/2018)

The best dance film since Dirty Dancing! The cinematography is just incredible. The camera revolves around the characters, makes long zoom-ins, somersaults and flips, crawls upside-down, peers down vertically… until you start feeling dizzy. Noé playfully makes fun of the viewer, for example with the end credits not being at the end at all, or by the means of editing – at some point, you get insanely long scenes in a single take, to then better contrast with a succession of short scenes and a generous amount of really eye-catching and aggressive cuts. In short, the structure of this film is totally polymorphic and completely deviates from the established conventions. And, certainly as Noé intended, Climax has the ability to enthral, entertain, disgust, disturb and frighten the viewer. [KVIFF 2018] (07/07/2018)

Dirty Dancing meets Trainspotting in ultra-hardcore mode. I'm convinced that Gaspar Noé is not entirely normal; that said, in the vast majority of cases, it's rather to the benefit of the cause, because films this intense simply aren’t made every day. Actually, Climax starts quite unobtrusively and for a long time gives the impression of a visually appealing "party movie", of course with the exception of the last approx. 40 minutes. From a certain point on it becomes such a mess that I couldn't help but shake my head and allow my strong negative emotions to flow towards all the characters. It's definitely not a date movie or an otherwise similarly oriented romantic evening, but the experience is intense and evocative. And the predatory, neurotic, and slightly epileptic directorial style still amuses me a lot. (22/06/2019)