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★★★★☆
10 September 2018
A movie review of CLIMAX. |
“I’m ready for anything,” David (Romain Guillermic)
Are you also? To quote Samuel L. Jackson in JURASSIC PARK (1993), “Hold onto your butts.” CLIMAX is intense and formidable. Making a hardcore thriller about 1990s dancers is Leftfield [sic] (I’m sure fans of albums ‘Leftism’ and ‘Rhythm and Stealth’ will be laughing at my little jape). CLIMAX is as disturbing as it is mesmerising. Will a studio please give director Gaspar Noé a blockbuster? ENTER THE VOID (2009) is a contender for my top 10 favourite films of all time.
Are you also? To quote Samuel L. Jackson in JURASSIC PARK (1993), “Hold onto your butts.” CLIMAX is intense and formidable. Making a hardcore thriller about 1990s dancers is Leftfield [sic] (I’m sure fans of albums ‘Leftism’ and ‘Rhythm and Stealth’ will be laughing at my little jape). CLIMAX is as disturbing as it is mesmerising. Will a studio please give director Gaspar Noé a blockbuster? ENTER THE VOID (2009) is a contender for my top 10 favourite films of all time.
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I’m not a big fan of the auteur theory, as cinema is both the most collaborative of art forms and liable to happenstance. However, consistency of work means the filmic concept is not without merit. Noé has such skill with camera movement that his oeuvre could only be his. His visceral, violent storytelling does not feel exploitative. It is a societal mirror hard to look into and away from.
A woman lies in the snow, covered in blood. There appears to be too much to be just soaked into her clothes. We then spend the rest of the runtime looking at how she ended up there. A breathtaking dance rehearsal follows. At an empty school, perhaps over the winter holidays, but what have they been practicing for? Good-looking people have spent three days dancing together. Hook-ups and cliques have already occurred. It is now time for them to decompress and party. All these talented performers in one room. Egos and vanity do not reveal them to be a charming bunch. Verbal vulgarity is not in short supply. However, it could also be down to the LSD-laced sangria punch they are unknowingly imbibing. Their worst selves are in the process of being presented. Is the movie commenting on the narcotic, or human nature?
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Partly a whodunit, this is not in the vein of Agatha Christie. Trying to discover the culprit through angry vindictiveness leads to upsetting mob mentality. It is hard to tell whether the film is intentionally political or accidentally, especially as so much was allegedly improvised. Either way it is perennially relevant concerning the rapid escalation of violence. Adding even more tension is the presence of the organiser’s young son. By the end she and us wished she had found a babysitter. Plus, there is a pregnant woman. Is something being said about their (future) children? These are to be the millenials. The offspring of ravers.
‘Lord of the Flies’. BATTLE ROYALE (2000). THE HUNGER GAMES (2012). A kid locked in a room. Someone freezing to death. A woman set on fire and left to burn. Self-harm. Incest. It is as if the drug has stripped aware logic and civility and revealed paranoia and barbarism. CLIMAX is misanthropic, but not any more so than THE WALKING DEAD.
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