Still haven't seen Enter the void (and not interested about Love) but I did see every other Gaspard Noé movie. And I must say that, even though I really like " Seul contre Tous " (" I stand alone " for english speaking folks) I'm not a huge fan of his style, especially in his later effort, Climax. " Wow look at me, beautiful camera works and sequence-shots eh ? Wow this is brutal, do you see ? I am brutal. Doesn't matter whether the movie is about nothing and the actors are mediocre, there is a cool music and a cool choreography".
I was hoping Lux Aeterna wouldn't be as awful as Climax ; maybe this time Gaspard Noé would have something to say ? And indeed this time Gaspard Noé want to talk about cinema, and more particularily the chaos surrounding the creation process of a movie.
The first third is a dialogue between a film director played by Béatrice Dalle and an actress played by Charlotte Gainsbourg. It really sounded and was filmed like some kind of interview but it allows the characters to extensively discuss about cinema. Sober but sharp directing, interesting discussion. Didn't expected that from Gaspard Noé but it really worked quite well. After that it's the downfall until the end.
The second part of the movie show the gradual dive into madness during the shooting of Béatrice Dalle's movie. It's not a bad idea by itself but it is actually done with no subtelty whatsoever. You get the point after 5 minutes and then it just drags on forever. Didn't expect I could think a medium-length film is too long.
Finally, the last act of the movie is pure chaos. But. Stroboscopics lights. This is what I hate the moste about this movie and Climax. " Style " over substance . And what I hate even more is that Gaspard Noé fans will tell you there is some deep meaning behind this choice of using intense stroboscopics lights. Welp it highlights the chaos of the shooting, yeah sure we got that. Does this justify to put the spectators through 10 minutes (not sure exactly but it was really long) of pain ? And even the man himself told in an interview that a knew the spectators would like stroboscopics lights, that's it. He just knows how to please his fans. Not sure this a really " artistic " way of creating a movie.
So yeah, the first part was great, I liked the direction Gaspard Noé took but then he came back to do the worst that he can do. I don't really recommend this movie, except if you are curious to see this really, really painful ending or if you are looking for a reliable way to diagnose epilepsy.
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