The Gaspar Noé movie that encouraged viewers to exit the cinema: “You have 30 seconds to leave!”
When you go to the cinema to watch a Gaspar Noé movie, you shouldn’t be surprised if you leave with a headache, nausea or the feeling of complete shock. The filmmaker constantly challenges his audience, both visually and thematically, utilising bright colours, strobing lights and intense displays of violence and sexuality.
His most infamous work is Irréversible, a movie so controversial that several hundred people walked out of its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, with a small handful even fainting at the sight of what was being displayed on screen. From a man getting his skull caved in with a fire extinguisher to a ten-minute rape scene, all set to highly disorientating electronic music, Irréversible established Noé as a force to be reckoned with, a man who was unafraid to confront us with the darkest depths of humanity.
The movie helped to establish Noé as one of the most provocative and boundary-pushing filmmakers of his generation, existing firmly outside of Hollywood as a true experimental auteur. Following Irréversible, Noé made Enter The Void, which is shot from the perspective of a man who has been killed by police, experiencing life from an otherworldly perspective as he navigates neon-drenched Tokyo nightlife.
Just like his previous film, Enter The Void received mixed reviews, but it remains a firm favourite among his fans. Love came next, which features lots of real sex and even a 3D cumshot, before Climax, arguably one of his best works. Noé really demonstrated his directorial talents here, instilling a sense of pure revulsion and dread in the audience through continuous, uninterrupted shots, sickly lighting and pounding music.
Noé’s experimentalism hasn’t gone anywhere with his most recent efforts, Lux Æterna and Vortex, with the former using intense strobing and the latter featuring a split-screen format. Both are striking in their ability to grasp the audience and pull them into the narrative, with these formal devices making the weighty content practically impossible to consume passively.
Yet, one of Noé’s lesser-known films is I Stand Alone, which he made before Irréversible. It was his debut feature, acting as somewhat of a sequel to his short film, Carné, although it (excuse the pun) stands alone. It follows a troubled butcher who becomes overwhelmingly protective of his daughter, to the point that he betrays his feelings of care and gives in to incestuous fantasies, which eventually manifest into real abuse.
The film is quite hard to watch, even if you’re familiar with Noé’s later work or a fan of more transgressive cinema. Scenes of incestuous abuse are hardly casual viewing, something that Noé is more than aware of, and he playfully warns the viewer with title cards which read: “ATTENTION” and “YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS TO LEAVE THE SCREENING OF THIS FILM” with the number of seconds left counting down to zero before “DANGER” flashes on screen in flashing red and black colours.
Noé then presents us with one of The Butcher’s fantasies, which sees him shoot his daughter in the head after reckoning with his feelings in the mirror. It’s a challenging watch that is made even more tense because of the warning beforehand. Bringing attention to the artificiality of cinema, the film is one of the earliest examples of Noé’s tendency to use unconventional formal techniques to provoke viewers.
Although some have labelled the choice to include a warning pretentious, it brings a level of humour and self-reflexivity to an otherwise brutal film, highlighting Noé’s awareness of his own position as a daring, contentious filmmaker – a title he has retained for over 25 years.
