Director
Gaspar Noe’s 2010 film, Enter the Void,
follows a drug dealing teen Oscar, after killed by police in Tokyo, watches
over his sister from the “otherworld.” This French film which is written and directed
by experimental artist, Mr. Noe, stars Nathaniel Brown, Cyril Roy, and Paz de
la Huerta. Set in the neon-lit nightclub environment of Tokyo, Enter the Void calls for some pretty
amazing special effect work. In itself, the film is an experimental journey of
a brother, sister, drugs, and faith and the afterlife. All of these attributes
are seen through Gaspar Noe’s vision, the music selection, cinematography, and
especially the special effects.
One of the
most intriguing and perplexing special effects medium is the fact that most of
the film is shot from Oscar’s (the brother and protagonist) eyes. And I don’t
mean that the film is shot from a mostly first person narrative camera angle,
but literally the film is shot from his point of view. As one is watching the
film, you can see his vision get blurry as he quickly looks at of his peripherals,
his vision get hazy and hallucinogenic while he is on a high, and you can even
see him blink periodically throughout the film. Now, I have no earthly idea how
the production and camera team went about producing this piece of movie magic,
but they certainly did, and quite successfully, I might add. There was not one
second that I did not believe that I was looking at this dirty, bright Tokyo
suburb through Oscar’s own two eyes.
This film
makes huge leaps cinematically with its use of experimental cinema, graphic
design, computer generated effects, and scenery. Gaspar Noe dubs the film in
his own words as, “psychedelic melodrama.” Noe’s dream project for years, he
quickly grabbed up French effects publishing company, BUF Compagnie, to jump on
the project to administer and create the special effects for this extravagant,
avant garde, and experimental film. Emotionally, the film itself is
breath-taking. It is not everyone’s “cup of tea,” and not many people will
probably like this film, but just from its gigantic undertaking and leap in
cinema history, should be greatly appreciated. There is a scene where Oscar is
watching his sister from the alternate universe that he now lives in. He can
float over Tokyo and to different locations and inside of rooms, it seems. Near
the end, he is watching his best friend and sister have sex in what appears to
be a Japanese “hotel” established for this very act. His view cuts from room to
room, and you see different couples engaging in intercourse, but the odd thing
about it is their genitals are bright with neon colors. Then Oscar begins to
see his sister having sex again, but through the eyes of her partner. This
movie is all about pushing the limits of storytelling and cinema. There are
some things I cannot even mention in this paper because they are very liberal,
free thinking ideas and scenes that might seem inappropriate. But that is what
this film is about: experimental journey, adventure, and the journey that
crosses social standards and lines.
Looking into
the logistics of how this film was made, I came across several interesting ways
of building these shots and effects. There were helicopters used, and months of
computer editing, and the rebuilding of sets and scenes via 3d animation. In
our text, Everything’s an Argument, it states that “effects can tell a
story without the actual story; it is a whole story of its own.” Logically, one
must appreciate this movie for what it is, not what your personal taste in film
is. This is a whole different category of its own. There really is not much
more that I can say. That should tell you that you have to see this film to
really understand what special effects and creative genius are.
