Enter the Void

[Gold Trumpet]

Stefen,

Yea, it's polarizing. I have read some negative reviews and for me, they tend to nitpick the film and over embellish things which mount more to gut rejection by the reviewer. This film will strike some people the wrong way no matter what. I try to check myself against overpraising any films. My youth has done it before and if a film has a good watch-ability on first viewing, it's easy to do so. However, with this film, I was thinking of many major films and how this film notches up so many things to a higher degree. The film is fully realized in pushing the style envelope, but the visual themes are there as well.

Gaspar Noe isn't subtle with themes. Irreversible wrote the themes on the wall. The story made the visualization way too understandable, but the visuals here cloud everything. Some points and scenes are understandable, but the film topples those easy ideas by constantly doubling back to add a thorn or unexpected wrinkle into the plan. The strategy is similar to vertical storytelling methods. The film has a logical plan which makes it go from point 1 to 2. I can identify themes, but Noe details the visuals so much that I cannot do justice to the deft of the film by just describing my best ideas of its intentions. It's a full experience film which is outside of easy critical notions. For me, Noe needs to be in full visualization mode all the time. Unless he goes full silent, I don't know how he gets beyond this film. I hope I am proven wrong.

[modage]

Made it about an hour in, gave up.  Xixax 2003 really triumphed getting this one into the Awards.

[Pozer]

^ditts

[Stefen]

Sheeit, some of you have gone soft.

Ya'll used to be beautiful. Wha happent?

[polkablues]

I can understand loving the movie. I can (sort of) understand people hating the movie.  I can not understand someone feeling indifferent towards it.

[socketlevel]

Sheeit, some of you have gone soft.

Ya'll used to be beautiful. Wha happent?

did you just quote jackie brown?

and 2003 xixax awards was one of the worst years. too much gushing.

[Gold Trumpet]

I just contributed 2,000 words to my blog about this film. All I talk is the style of the film and how Gaspar Noe developed something he began earlier in his career to something that feels fully realized now. It's a part 1 piece and in the second part, I will look at the film itself and bridge a lot of the story to the filmmaking and the themes. I re-read this thread and I noticed a lot of complaints about the film actually play into its major themes so I want to look into that more. I will try to make an argument the suspected misgivings are essential to the film. There also may be a third part. Who knows.

Anyways, back to original point: http://filmsplatter.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/entering-the-void/

[Alexandro]

nice article.

saw it a second time last night. better.
don't know what to say to the naysayers. there's just too much stuff going on in this movie to turn it off one hour in. that's just depressing.

let's go back to discuss the casting of the new spider man movie.

[Pubrick]

let's go back to discuss the casting of the new spider man movie.

In sequel making, the first thing noticed is the repetition and similarities between each movie. However, as the observer sees when they look further, there are many more lines of variance. Technically, the spider man franchise only can do so much by relying on its inbuilt audience, but they find so many ways to gradually re-exploit the lines of geeks that like the repetitive turning of paper. Like with a painting, the viewer feels the breath of spidey's constantly moving swings over the city. Throughout the series, the film manages to repeat, contradict, and invert itself all the while expanding because the circumstances of its basic situation of a spider man trying to find his way back into life through rebirth. When we all finish watching the next film, it will feel fuller and deeper than any other we have seen in some time. It's a basic reaction on our part since the film goes deeper into a story than what we thought was possible, but what we realize is that for the first time in living film history, a film managed to stand aside from the referential library and be only about one stylized vision and it felt as large as any other film which had every advantage ahead of time. Not a bad feat. Also Andrew Garfield is a dreamboat.

[socketlevel]

let's go back to discuss the casting of the new spider man movie.

oh come on, that's polarizing it. Someone can be a naysayer and still appreciate the efforts it made for the diversity of cinema.

[Alexandro]

let's go back to discuss the casting of the new spider man movie.

oh come on, that's polarizing it. Someone can be a naysayer and still appreciate the efforts it made for the diversity of cinema.

I was talking about stopping / leaving the the film before it ends. We're not in a totalitarian regime here.

[cronopio 2]

i feel like writing a 100 page rant about why the video involved in the link i'm about to share is so wrong, but i'll summarize it with the following phrase: is nothing sacred? not to kanye west.

http://justjared.buzznet.com/2011/02/19/kanye-west-rihanna-all-of-the-lights-video-premiere/


i prefer my cultural omnivores welsh and fat.

[cinemanarchist]

i feel like writing a 100 page rant about why the video involved in the link i'm about to share is so wrong, but i'll summarize it with the following phrase: is nothing sacred? not to kanye west.

http://justjared.buzznet.com/2011/02/19/kanye-west-rihanna-all-of-the-lights-video-premiere/


i prefer my cultural omnivores welsh and fat.

It also obvious that Hype Williams hasn't done nearly as many (or as good) drugs as Gaspar has. It is pretty much everything that's wrong with music videos and Kanye West, rolled into a nice little package. Steal whatever images they think are pretty, regardless of context and run with them, but never take the time to actually make them mean anything.

[Derek]

Repetitive, boring, trying to pass itself off as AAAHHHHHRRRT and you know....IDEAS MANNN!!!

Liked it better when it was Smack My Bitch Up.

[Alexandro]

Repetitive, boring, trying to pass itself off as AAAHHHHHRRRT and you know....IDEAS MANNN!!!

Liked it better when it was Smack My Bitch Up.

I think this says more about you and how you resent certain types of people you've encountered in life (I'm assuming some stoners who have long discussions about IDEAS MANNNN!!!) than the film itself.

I don't know in what moment this film is trying to pass itself as art, actually I don't know what that means, it might be another instance where you're talking about yourself and how you resent some people in the world for trying to "pass themselves" as artists.

But you're right about it being repetitive, I think is part of the point. Although on second viewing it felt less repetitive because each now "repetition" had something else going on.