Enter The Void (2010)

Enter The Void is one of the most astonishing films I’ve ever seen. This is a piece of work that throws out the book and creates it’s own rules, bending the boundaries of narrative and delighting in taking you to places you never thought you would go. It’s a terrifying, beautiful, erotic and disturbing motion picture that proves Gasper Noe to be the most creative director working today. Enter The Void is easily the equal to Noe’s previous masterpiece Irreversible, and almost defies definition in contempory cinematic terms. It will struggle to find a regular audience or even a distribution prospect without severe censorship, but Noe has built himself a loyal audience and DVD is where this movie will live. An instant cult classic that will be revered by lovers of the underground and the offbeat, held in esteem alongside the best of Lynch and Cronenberg, and maybe used as an accompaniment for drugs by the truly adventurous.

Beyond anything else, it is the technical aspect of this film that initially delights. The camera weaves in and out of buildings, streets, up and over rooftops, even through bodies and planes of consciousness. If you can imagine DePalma and Argento on acid being told to go wild with a steadycam then you maybe have some idea of the visuals on display. Noe’s use of crane shots over the streets of Tokyo, model work and the studio is mind-blowingly original. Film-making is a collaborative medium, but this film is such a singular vision that it almost seems like a direct projection of the director’s imagination onto the screen. This is pure art, made with all the tricks and skill available to the modern filmmaker, and Noe constantly gives us moments that will make you question how it was done.

Enter The Void follows Oscar, trying to win his place on the streets as a drug dealer. Literally following him, as the camera stays with his first-person vantage point the entire time, the camera even ‘blinking’ every few seconds. His sister Linda leaves their apartment for work and he starts to experiment with DMT, a drug which occurs naturally in the cranium on or near the point of death. Heavily in mid-trip (which is fully realised with strobes, spirals and insane CGI) he gets a call from his friend Alex asking him to bring drugs to a local bar called The Void. He does, but the deal is a sting, and the police chase him into a toilet and shoot him dead. Following this Oscar’s spirit can only observe as Linda slips into depression following his death and Alex goes on the run from the police. But we also learn more about Oscar’s childhood (Noe playing with time as he did in Irreversible), learning of his parents death in a car crash and of the days leading up to his death, and the reasons behind it. Toward the final act the film loosens the strings of the plot and turns to explore sexuality and creation. A long sequence takes place in a wild, neon-drenched hotel-brothel where the camera lazily explores couples in states of varying sexuality, with Noe actually showing the penis ejaculating into the vagina - creating new life, or entering the void? The question isn’t answered.

While plot is always apparent, it becomes more of a secondary element to the experience of the film itself. At over two and a half hours the length far exceeds the narrative but the real worth of the picture lies in Noe’s vision, rather than the story or even the meanings behind it. Enter the Void often provides pure, uncut exhilaration - some of the most cinematic experiences I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. And that is what the film is - an experience. A hallucinatory descent into heaven and hell that is uses ambitious techniques and technical achievement to chronicle a young man’s death. This film will divide audiences - the headache-inducing visuals, extreme violence and graphic sex won’t suit casual viewers, but for those who delight in strapping themselves down and being submerged into other worlds then Enter The Void is a wonderful mindfuck to be experienced time and again.

Rich Wilson