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+--- Thread: Climax (2018) by Gaspar Noe (/showthread.php?tid=5133)
Climax (2018) by Gaspar Noe - cranefly - 10-12-2019
After a successful dance rehearsal in a remote empty school building, French dancers celebrate with a spread of food and drink, unaware that the sangria is laced with LSD.
Trust Gaspar Noe to push the envelope of filmmaking, sometimes dangerously close to the shredder.
His inspiration for this vehicle was curiosity about how professional dancers would respond to LSD.
The cast is composed of professional dancers. The only actor is Sofia Boutella (love interest in Atomic Blonde), who hesitated to get involved in this vehicle because 1) it had been years since she danced professionally, and 2) Gaspar Noe was going to work without a script.
Sofia was also alarmed that Gaspar did not have a choreographer. At her urging, he did finally hire one (Nina McNeely), but only used her for one scene. It's a 10-minute shot (though there are reports of a couple hidden cuts) and very impressive, the best part of the movie. For the rest of the film, Gaspar let the dancers improvise.
The first half of the movie (45 minutes) is the set-up, showing auditions, the impressive dance sequence, and everyone imbibing food and drink. The second half is their realization that they're majorly fucked up. This second half is a single shot (again with a few hidden cuts), though I didn't realize it until reading about it afterwards. Clearly there's long, complex camera movement that follows one or more dancers through the schoolhouse, then ricocheting to follow others, as little dramas play out. The second half is disturbing and disorienting, as Gaspar is wont to do. He does not use special effects to suggest the acid trips but relies on the dancers to "improvise" such a state of mind. To prepare them, he had them watch numerous movies featuring drug trips of various kinds, and encouraged them to borrow freely.
I'm reminded of what Laurence Olivier told Dustin Hoffman when he went sleepless for several days to prepare for certain scenes in Marathon Man: "Next time try acting."
What I'm inclined to say to Gaspar Noe: "Next time try using a script."
Because I'm not certain the film goes anywhere, though granted Gaspar seems more interested in creating a state of mind than going from point A to point B.
Overall, an interesting experiment, worth my time watching, though not certain it's Doom fodder.