David O'ConnellMIFF 2010: Enter the Void/Mammuth
August 9th 2010 05:32
Enter the Void
Gasper Noe’s reputation as one of world’s cinema’s most polarizing directors has been done no disservice by his long awaited follow-up to a pair of graphic and confronting films that helped forge his reputation, I Stand Alone (1998) and Irreversible (2002).
Enter the Void begins stunningly with an unforgettable assault-on-the-senses opening titles sequence in which credits are glimpsed as after-images rather than read. We then find ourselves submerged in the neon jungle of Tokyo as seen from the apartment of a young American drug dealer. When Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) is murdered it sets off an immersive, often muddled, hallucinatory drug-trip for the audience as Noe deposits us into a sensory void in which traces of memories and consciousness are obliquely conjoined.
No description of Enter the Void can really do the raw experience of it justice. It’s the sort of film you emerge from wondering if it’s a masterpiece or a complete train-wreck. Length is the major negative factor. It’s just a crying shame that Noe couldn’t rein himself in when it really counted because in its finest moments Enter the Void is sensational: bold, searing, provocative, altering perceptions of the boundaries of cinema. Luring us into an eerie ambient stream-of consciousness zone, Noe explores Oscar’s post-life through the neural pathways of his lead characters, even jumping forth between past and present selves. Is it Oscar’s spirit hovering over proceedings? Noe’s camera crosses back and forth over the city, lingering in the air above all but keeping an especially watchful eye over Oscar’s distraught sister Linda (Paz de la Huerta).
Unfortunately Noe’s film grounds to a creative halt in its latter stages, mired in its own excesses. Repetition sets in and almost kills off the awe created by the intoxicating sensory overload of the film’s first half with its scarring moments of violence. Resorting to explicit sexual content may be a Noe reflex by now but it also diminishes the film’s impact. The extraneous final 15 minutes is tedious enough but an attempt to tie them into some profound statement about life and death seems almost fatally misguided. At over 150 minutes, Enter the Void truly is an endurance test. Yet despite its plentiful shortcomings it’s still a one-of-a-kind cinema experience not to be missed.
Mammuth
An earthy black comedy and road trip from Gustave de Kervern and Benoit Delepine, directors of 2008’s Louise-Michel, Mammuth gives Gerard Depardieu one of his juiciest roles in years. The portly and expansive former ladies man seems to be encroaching upon Orson Welles terrain these days, but how much does he really care? Not a lot if this uninhibited performance is any indicator and perfectly paired with Yolande Moreau as his beloved but suffering wife he seems to be having a ball playing against past expectations. He’s Serge Pilardosse, a dim-witted retiring factory worker forced on the road aboard his old motorcycle to claim the paperwork he needs from his past employers to ensure he starts getting paid his savings fund.
A series of colourful encounters follow in the tried-and-true manner of road movies, but the eccentricities of his relatives in particular are informed with a plaintive melancholy that continually strikes a chord. Mammuth’s deadpan black humour is spot on and if the grainy stock used seems like it might be a serious limitation, the quality and consistency of the laughs dispel any notion that this will be a carefree, substandard affair.
An often absurdist but endearing comedy, Mammuth is littered with elusive hauntings from the ghost of a former girlfriend, played by Isabelle Adjani, who apparently died in a crash years before. These fleeting visitations are surreal touches that, rather than jolting, feel organically ingrained into the narrative. The use of music to colour Serge's carefree roadway travels adds to the strangely persuasive emotional pull of this modest but highly entertaining film. This is an unpretentious comedic gem to savour.
| 162 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Shaun I can't imagine what the 3 and a half hour version must have been like to endure. It's way too long at 155 minutes to be honest. It doesn't get worse necessarily, it just flattens out and has no real need to keep its repeating patterns going. How's the opening credits though? Watching them in a cinema is a weirdly thrilling experience. They received wild applause before the film had even begun at the session I was at.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Like all film geeks the world over, I eagerly await a screening of Enter The Void too. Your review, the little I read for fear of spoilers sounds like Noe again delivers a film that at the least is worthy of analysis.
Not a fan of Depardieu, but he does have his moments. Would Mammuth have warranted inclusion on my Road trips post?
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
When I went to see it that year Drag Me To Hell was also playing in the Official Selection. When Into The Void ended and people were walking out I turned to the person next to me and on the top of my voice exclaimed, "now there was a film that should have been called Drag Me To Hell", and and most of the people on my side of the theater who heard me started laughing - which speaks volumes for how the 3 and a half hour version played.
Honestly after seeing Into The Void in that cut I thought that Noe's career was finished. I'll be psych myself up for it and check it out again some day to see the difference.
Interesting that I havnt heard anything about 'Kinatay', or maybe I just missed the boat. It won best director but it was terrible. Roger Ebert said that he took back what he said about Brown Bunny being the worst film to ever play at Cannes, Kinatay was now.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Actually, yes mate, Mammuth would have been a worthy addition to your list, it's a great little road movie!
I see where you're coming from Shaun. Great line about Drag Me to Hell too, I can imagine this will be torture of the most self-serving, pretentious kind for some people and especially so at that bloated length you saw it at.
Noe did cut the film Bryn (with one other inexperienced editor). Really needed to pull himself up here and leave a lot of that repetition on the cutting room floor.