Climax

Gaspar Noé
France 2018 / 95’
Capharnaum Everybody Knows

If Michael Jackson lived and was a young white woman, his name would be Sofia Boutella, one of the world's best dancers. But it's the beginning of the 1990s and they're playing Giorgio Moroder, Soft Cell and Aphex Twin, so time is like a multilevel cake. Above the dance floor hangs a sequined flag of France, and the host of the house party serves pretzels and homemade sangria. There's no way of knowing when the party, complete with its own group of performers, turns into a full-on no-limits trance. The eroticism heats up, though no one is taking their clothes off. Bodies bend like neon lights until they snap like glued glass. The stylized images and poses are just asking for violence, which is why the precisely planned chaos goes off like bloody fireworks in the spirit of psychedelic classics like SuspiriaQuerelle and Possession. If you think of horror as a kind of humor, you're going to be shaking with laughter. If voguing, krumpdance and waaking sound like Chinese to you, you'll learn to eat with chopsticks. 

Adriana Prodeus

awards

Cannes IFF 2018 - C.I.C.A.E. Award

Gaspar Noé

Born in Argentina in 1963, Gaspar Noé has lived in Paris since he was a child. He studied at Louis Lumière College, where he already began to shine with his short fiction films. It was his 40-minute film Carne, however, that first brought him acclaim. The film was continued as a full-length feature called I Stand Alone. His work is characterized by a sense of naturalism, the epicenter of which was the anal-rape scene in the controversial film Irreversible. Noé has won numerous awards at Cannes, as well as at other prestigious events.

Selected filmography

1991 Carne (short)

1999 Sam przeciw wszystkim / Seul contre tous

2002 Nieodwracalne / Irréversible

2009 Wkraczając w pustkę / Enter the Void

2015 Love

Credits

director Gaspar Noé
screenplay Gaspar Noé
cinematography Benoît Debie
editing Denis Bedlow, Gaspar Noé
sound Ken Yasumoto
cast Sofia Boutella, Romain Guillermic, Souheila Yacoub, Kiddy Smile, Claude Gajan Maull, Giselle Palmer, Taylor Kastle
producer Brahim Chioua, Richard Grandpierre, Vincent Maraval, Edouard Weil
production Arte France Cinéma, Rectangle Productions, Vice Films, Wild Bunch
Polish distributor Gutek Film
language French, English