#gnoe

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HONESTLY 2018 really is my year. Sure, Love came out in 2015 but seeing as it was sort of terrible (yes it's Gaspar's most beautiful film but let's be real the dialogue and the acting were atrocious) that means the last time my favorite writer/director released a good movie was Enter The Void in 2009. That's basically a whole fucking decade meaning it's been too long.

Gaspar took the hit for Love, learned from it, went back to the drawing board, and came back with what most people are calling his best film yet and frankly in a year that already added Disobedience to my Top 10 list of favorite movies I can't wait to see what else is getting bumped down for this. I'm genuinely so excited. You don't understand. To me no one makes movies like this man and he just won the Director's Fortnight at Cannes with Climax. That means the movie is FUCKING BRILLIANT even by his standards. The anticipation is killing me because y'all know how much I love dance and choreography. This is a Gaspar Noe movie with dance at its core and seemingly plenty of choreography. He cast some of the best dancers in France for this. It's almost like someone went inside my brain and shot my dream movie. It's perfect already.

Just look at this trailer: https://youtu.be/gNp0jlfbgqM

Look, you can absolutely say “I couldn’t handle the content of the movie” and I would totally respect it. Gaspar’s movies aren’t for everyone. That’s a fact and I’m well aware of it. He’s aware of it too. He doesn’t make movies for the masses. YOU can personally hate his work and that’s fine. Everyone has an opinion and different tastes. What you can’t say is that Irreversible is objectively a “terrible” movie. You just can’t. Irreversible is a cinematic masterpiece no matter how you look at it. Throw anything from that movie at me and I will explain how and why it’s in a league of its own. 

Yes, the rape scene makes people uncomfortable. Of course it does. That’s the ENTIRE point and it’s one people miss often. Sexual assault isn’t a pleasant experience. It’s invasive, it’s violent, and more poignantly it’s intolerably long for the victim experiencing it. Tell me that isn’t exactly the way in which a lot of viewers describe that scene in the movie. At least that’s how I’ve seen it most often. One of the biggest complaints I’ve come across is that the scene is too lengthy. Ok, yes…it is. That isn’t an accident??? How do you think Alex felt about it while she was experiencing it? We stay with Alex and Le Tenia the WHOLE time. We see the assault happen from start to finish. Gaspar wasn’t going for implied here. Of course it’s hard to watch. Absolutely. Claiming that scene is difficult to sit through is like saying ice is cold when you touch it. Duh! 

Gaspar likes to center his work around the raw, honest, and real stories of broken humans. His work is gritty and he doesn’t sugar coat things. Ever. A lot of detractors call Gaspar’s work “gratuitous” and “too much” but they’re wrong. What Gaspar does in his movies is depict true life and the way he individualizes things that might otherwise feel mundane is that he portrays them in ways that only he can. People seem to have this misconception that there’s certain topics you just can’t talk about or situations you can’t show in media. Usually that’s right where Gaspar comes in and does an extreme close up then we spend two hours right there, up close, staring directly at it. It’s why his work makes viewers uneasy. He always goes for things most other storytellers are afraid to touch AND he does it in really fucking creative and visually breathtaking ways. 

Listen, I’m going to stop talking about him and his work because we’d be here all day but I’ll tell you this though. If you genuinely think CFAU isn’t heavily inspired by Gaspar’s work and that the way I would shoot it wouldn’t be an ode to his films you are so off base. 

Non-linear structure: Irreversible

The mundane life of a couple grossly in love and how tragedy immediately changes that dynamic: Irreversible

Chapter 8′s first person POV: Enter The Void

First hand access to the character’s most inner thoughts on Chapter 24: I Stand Alone, Enter The Void, & Love

BROKEN main characters dealing with the weight of their inner demons: Carne, I Stand Alone, Irreversible, Enter The Void, Love, and I’m sure Climax will be the same thing. Basically everything Gaspar touches.

I could keep going but you get the point. Gaspar’s influence is ALL over this story as he is in everything I do because his work has molded my own in innumerable ways. I’d be an absolutely different writer and director had I never found Gaspar’s work in 2003 so…no, CFAU would not be ruined if I shot it the way I intend to shoot it. 

Matter of fact, if I had zero restrictions when it came to how I would want to approach the shooting and the way I would put it on screen then I’m sure a lot of people would find it “gratuitous” with it’s violence. My rebuttal? Bullets making contact with a human body doesn’t exactly sound like an idyllic moment and watching your child die in front of your eyes isn’t supposed to be a lovely experience. Yes, it’d be uncomfortable for the audience but just like I asked before…how do you think it felt for Wila in that moment? What I would want to convey is what my characters are feeling and that wouldn’t be a nice and fuzzy situation. It’d be messy, it’d be bloody, it’d be violent, and it’d be devastating but that is all the things that scene should be. Shying away from any of that would be a disservice to this story and I think that’s exactly why Gaspar approaches his films the way he does. He pinpoints what he wants to put on screen and there’s always a reason why. People will like it or they won’t but he’s doing what’s best for his story and that’s all he cares about. People’s reaction to it is out of his hands at that point and it’s exactly how I would approach the most sensitive parts of CFAU were it ever to end up on screen. 

Will the Top 5 for each one do?

Overrated: Tarantino, Anderson, Burton, Lucas, and Malick (this one particularly kills me because throughout my career I’ve gotten “your work reminds me of Malick” so many times from so many different people in the industry and it’s just…no)

Underrated:

Gaspar Noe: My favorite director of all time. Everything he touches is something no one else but him could ever make. If there is a person whose career I would want, it’s his. He makes some of *the* most fucked up movies ever so if you have trigger warnings of any kind, I’d recommend staying away because I have a feeling at least one of them will be touched upon at some point. It’s hard to pick which one of his movies I like best, but I’d have to say his 2002 film “Irreversible” takes it by hair above “Enter The Void”. It usually makes it onto every list of most fucked up movies but honestly it’s sheer brilliance. It’s just…incredible. It was in Sundance, Cannes, Telluride, etc etc etc. It’s one of those films that critics for the most part rated simply with one word, because really it’s all you can say about it. If you want raw, human, gritty, gut wrenching dramas you watch Gaspar’s movies. They’re not “fucked up” for gratuity’s sake. The things he depicts are things that happen in real life and that’s what makes people uncomfortable. He brings the audience confront the shitty things human beings are capable of doing. He takes you to the point where you almost want to look away but you can’t because not only does he tell incredibly well written stories but he finds a way to portray them in a creatively unique way. His films are utterly fucking powerful and so very devastating and not one of them is even remotely similar as any of the previous ones. 

Sean Durkin: Won “Best Director” at Sundance 2011 for his masterpiece “Martha Marcy May Marlene”.

Debra Granik: I’ll go with the obvious, picking multi Oscar nominated and winner of 2010 Sundance’s Jury Prize for “Best Picture” and “Best Screenplay”. Yes, of course “Winter’s Bone” is on my list. It was the film JLaw should’ve gotten the Oscar for instead of Silver Lining’s but that’s a rant for another day. One of the most thought provoking, brutal, and expertly crafted films of the decade, possibly ever…and written/directed by a fucking woman. She’s the living embodiment of the fact that a man can direct a shitty mediocre movie and then get hired to direct seventeen tentpoles back to back, but a woman takes makes one of the best films in cinema history and fades into obscurity never to work again. 

Mike Cahill: I’ve talked about at length about Mike and his work with Brit Marling before. It’s absolutely sublime and the stuff you need to experience if you love sci-fi and quality movies. He’s always making waves at Sundance and other huge festivals with his work. 

Andrea Arnold: Andrea directed what was easily the best movie of 2016 and one that has gotten robbed this award season. At least it got the Jury Prize at Cannes. “American Honey” is a film you can’t take your eyes off. It’s mesmerizing and rich. Andrea not only made a beautiful film but she managed to get stellar performances out of her entire cast, but specially Shia and Sasha. Shia has had a very long career, but he has never been this good.