In addition to his own films, Noé is also known for his involvement with the French film collective “La Bande des Quatre,” also known as “The Wild Bunch.” This group of filmmakers, which includes Noé, Bruno Dumont, Claire Denis, and the late Jean-Luc Godard, is known for their unique and often challenging approaches to cinema. Together, they have pushed the boundaries of the medium and influenced a generation of filmmakers.

One of Noé’s most notable techniques is his use of first-person perspective, which he employs to great effect in his 2009 film “Enter the Void” (2009). In this film, the viewer is put in the shoes of the protagonist, following his every move and even seeing the world through his eyes, complete with the character’s visual eye-blinks.

Photosensitive Warning: Read Before Playing! A very small percentage of individuals may experience epileptic seizures when exposed to certain light patterns or flashing lights. (this is true of most Noé films).

In addition to his use of first-person perspective, Noé is known for his experimental and avant-garde approach to storytelling. He often employs nonlinear narratives and long takes, as well as elaborate camera movements and visual effects, to create a unique and immersive viewing experience.

Noé’s films often deal with heavy themes such as violence, sexuality, and drug use, and have garnered both critical acclaim and controversy for their raw and unflinching portrayal of these subjects. His 2002 film “Irreversible” (2002) caused a stir at the Cannes Film Festival with its graphic depiction of rape and revenge. The film is shot in reverse chronological order, with the events of the film unfolding in reverse from the end to the beginning. His 2015 film “Love” depicted a young couple’s tumultuous relationship through a series of explicit and often-graphic sex scenes.

Despite the controversy surrounding his work, Noé has received numerous accolades and awards throughout his career. “I Stand Alone,” (1998) his first feature-length film, won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and “Irreversible” was nominated for the Palme d’Or. In 2015, he won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival for “Love.”

My characters are never heroic. They are mostly lost and trying to find the right door to open and they end up opening the wrong doors.
– Gaspar Noé

In recent years, Noé has continued to push the boundaries of cinema with his bold and provocative films. His 2018 film “Climax” followed a group of young dancers as they descend into madness after accidentally consuming spiked sangria.

One of Gaspar Noé’s more recent films, “Vortex,” (2021) tells the story of a couple whose ability to care for one another becomes compromised as they age and one develops dementia. Despite the difficult subject matter, the film is quietly devastating, and Noé’s use of split screen throughout the film effectively highlights the subjectivity of each partner in the relationship and their decline. I had the opportunity to see “Vortex” at a private press screening in Los Angeles, and was struck by the intimacy and compassion with which Noé approached the subject.

In “Lux Aeterna” (2019) two actresses, Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg, are on a film set telling stories about witches. However, the film is not just about this subject matter – it is also an exploration of cinema itself, and the passion and love for the medium. Additionally, the film delves into the sometimes chaotic and frenetic world of on-set hysterics.

Photosensitive Warning:

Noé’s career as a filmmaker has been defined by his willingness to tackle difficult and taboo subjects and his distinctive and experimental approach to storytelling. While his films may not be for everyone, there is no denying the impact and influence he has had on the world of cinema.

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Godard’s commitment to innovation and experimentation made him one of the most important and influential filmmakers of the 20th century. His use of jump cuts, real-life locations, and his incorporation of political and philosophical themes into his films were all ahead of their time, and his refusal to conform to traditional cinematic forms laid the groundwork for the more experimental and boundary-pushing work of artists like Warhol. Godard’s work can also be seen as a precursor to the rise of MTV and the music video format. His use of fast-paced editing, nonlinear storytelling, and his incorporation of music into his films all foreshadowed the impact of the music video on popular culture.

“He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.” — Jean-Luc Godard,

His films often featured strong and complex female characters, and he has been praised for his portrayal of women in cinema. Anna Karina, one of Godard’s undisputed muses, starred in seven of his films (including Vivre sa vie (1962), Pierrot le Fou (1965), and Masculin féminin (1966)) and became known as the embodiment of a strong, independent, and inspiring woman. Many other important female stars, such as Jane Fonda (Tout va bien (1972)), Jean Seberg (Breathless (1960)), Anne Wiazemsky (La Chinoise (1967)), Mireille Darc (Week End (1967)), Nathalie Baye (Every Man for Himself (1980)), Macha Meril (Made in USA (1966)), and Brigitte Bardot (Contempt (1963)), rose to fame through Godard’s films and became internationally renowned for their beauty, strength, independence, and complex portrayals.   Godard’s first film, Breathless (1960), immediately made a splash in the world of cinema. The film, which tells the story of a young criminal on the run from the police, was characterized by its nonlinear storytelling, its use of real-life locations, and its innovative use of sound. Godard’s use of jump cuts gave the film a jagged and chaotic feel that was in stark contrast to the more traditional films of the era.

His next film, Contempt (1963), is considered by many to be one of his greatest works. The film, which stars Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli, tells the story of a couple whose marriage is on the rocks. Godard’s use of color and lighting in the film was groundbreaking, and the film’s cinematography has been widely praised.

Alphaville is a 1965 science-fiction and noir film starring pulp film hero Lemmy Caution. The film explores themes of love, freedom, and the impact of technology on society, and it has been praised for its innovative use of sound and cinematography. Its bleak and dystopian vision of the future has influenced many science-fiction films, and it has been cited as an inspiration for films like Blade Runner.

Godard’s later films, such as Weekend (1967) and Numéro Deux (1975), continued to challenge the norms of cinema and often incorporated political and philosophical themes. In Weekend, Godard explores the impact of consumerism and capitalism on society, and the film’s bleak and violent ending shocked audiences at the time. In Numéro Deux, Godard uses the film to critique modern society and its obsession with technology and consumerism.

I had the good fortune of attending a press screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s film Goodbye to Language – a daring, visually and aurally careening work that played with 3D and digital technology like My Bloody Valentine plays with sound. It was a continuation of Godard’s astonishing disregard for convention and his willingness to push the boundaries of cinema. Despite the noise of the media landscape that he ironically helped to define, Godard’s later work continued to make an impact and demonstrate his lasting influence on the film industry.

Godard is a towering figure in the world of cinema. His innovative approach to storytelling and his refusal to conform to traditional cinematic forms have made him one of the most important and influential filmmakers of the 20th century and continued to break ground in the 21st. His work continues to inspire and challenge audiences today.

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When I was in college for film theory back in the early 90s, I had tremendous exposure to the tools of the medium – we got to work with real celluloid, hear from exceptional speakers including Stan Brakhage (who changed my entire outlook on light, editing, cinema within in an hour), and discover incredible texts about the nuances and dark alleys of the format. Besides the lecture on Twin Peaks and David Lynch, the class that most affected me and stayed with me until this day – 30 years later – is that where the professor explored the way in which body-horror auteur David Cronenberg was distinctly Canadian.

The argument arose from an article wherein an American journalist attributed Cronenberg’s success as a Canadian director to being distinctly American in style. There were no major Canadian cinematic success stories to speak of, in that author’s opinion, save Cronenberg. The professor argued that in fact, Cronenberg’s way of punishing the singular hero who breaks from the community and sanctifying the wisdom of the collective was what underscored his Canadianness. I won’t go into the depth of the argument here, but I have always considered his works thereafter through that lens.

Cronenberg, like Lynch has the rare capacity to channel the nature of dreams and nightmares and quietly operate on the subconscious while using misdirection to keep the frontal lobe occupied. His films leave a mark and linger long after the lights come up. His film eXistenZ remains in my opinion, a unique vision of Virtual Reality, the way that Jeff Noon’s “Vurt” is a unique literary vision of the same. He did the same with media in Videodrome, genetic sciences in The Fly, and schadenfreude and the fetishization of violence in Crash (not to be mistaken with the syrupy Oscar winner of the same name). He is prescient, horrifying, and exhilarating, like another Canadian luminary with a knack for writing the future – Wiliam Gibson.

So when Cronenberg returns from his real-world present-day series that one may say comprises A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, Maps to the Stars and Cosmopolis (unsettling and strange as they are) to make a return to science fiction – you have my full and complete attention. From the trailers and pedigree, we can almost be sure that this will be a landmark film that looks unflinchingly beyond the saccharine soma of social media into the present that we very clearly may not be able to exit safely.

Fun Facts:

• There is a film from 1970 directed by Cronenberg called Crimes of the Future (IMDB) – considered a “science fiction comedy.”

• Casting director Dierdre Bowen was casting me in roles back when I was 8. She has been at this a long long time! She is responsible for many of the brilliant casting choices in Cronenberg’s films, including eXistenZ and going all the way back to The Fly – which arguable catapulted Jeff Goldblum to international stardom.

Official Copy:
“CRIMES OF THE FUTURE is a film more than 20 years in the making. The award-winning filmmaker originally wrote the script in 1999 but set it aside for two decades until deciding that now was the right moment to make the film. Says Cronenberg about revisiting the work, many years later, “Various elements have risen to the top of public consciousness around the world – like the fact, for example, that microplastics are in every human being on earth right now, because of what has happened to the oceans. That made me realize the film is more relevant than ever.”

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE sees Cronenberg join forces with a number of longtime collaborators including distinguished producer Robert Lantos (Barney’s Version, Eastern Promises, Crash), award-winning production designer Carol Spier (Crash, Dead Ringers) and three-time Academy Award-winning composer Howard Shore (The Song Of Names, The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, A History of Violence).

Familiar faces join Cronenberg in front of the camera, as well, including Viggo Mortensen, after his critically acclaimed work in Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, and A Dangerous Method; and Don McKellar for a second time, following eXistenZ.

Lantos, who first read the script those many decades ago, was fundamental in convincing Cronenberg to make this film. “David likes to say that the reason he is making Crimes of The Future is because he has unfinished business with the future. For me, it’s because I have unfinished business with Cronenberg. We haven’t made a film together since Eastern Promises, but we have been talking about Crimes of The Future for some 20 years,” said Lantos. “To piece together a film of this ambition and complexity was a tall mountain to climb, made possible by three brilliant and courageous actors – Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, and Kristen Stewart. They are prepared to take risks and stretches boundaries, and that kind of courage is what it took to get this film to where we are now.”

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE synopsis:

As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux), Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. Timlin (Kristen Stewart), an investigator from the National Organ Registry, obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed… Their mission – to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.

And a statement from the director:
“CRIMES OF THE FUTURE is a meditation on human evolution. Specifically – the ways in which we have had to take control of the process because we have created such powerful environments that did not exist previously. CRIMES OF THE FUTURE is an evolution of things I have done before. Fans will see key references to other scenes and moments from my other films. That’s a continuity of my understanding of technology as connected to the human body. Technology is always an extension of the human body, even when it seems to be very mechanical and non-human. A fist becomes enhanced by a club or a stone that you throw – but ultimately, that club or stone is an extension of some potency that the human body already has. At this critical junction in human history, one wonders – can the human body evolve to solve problems we have created? Can the human body evolve a process to digest plastics and artificial materials not only as part of a solution to the climate crisis, but also, to grow, thrive, and survive?” ~ David Cronenberg

Serendipity Point Films Telefilm Canada Ingenious Media Present: CRIMES OF THE FUTURE:
Crimes of the Future is a Canada-Hellenic Republic Co-Production and was filmed on location in Athens, Greece.

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY David Cronenberg
PRODUCED BY Robert Lantos
MUSIC BY Howard Shore
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Douglas Koch, CSC
PRODUCTION DESIGNER Carol Spier
EDITOR Christopher Donaldson, C.C.E.
3COSTUME DESIGNER Mayou Trikerioti

Starring

• Viggo Mortensen (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, Green Book)
• Léa Seydoux (No Time to Die, The French Dispatch, Blue is the Warmest Colour)
• Kristen Stewart (Spencer, Clouds of Sils Maria, Twilight)
• Scott Speedman (Grey’s Anatomy, Barney’s Version, Adoration, Underworld)
• Welket Bungué (Berlin Alexanderplatz)
• Don McKellar (Blindness, eXistenZ)
• Yorgos Pirpassopoulos(Beckett, Monday)
• Tanaya Beatty (Yellowstone, Through Black Spruce)
• Nadia Litz (Big Muddy, Hotel Congress, Blindness)
• Lihi Kornowski (Losing Alice)
• Denise Capezza(Gomorrah)

Watch the Redband Trailer for CRIMES of the FUTURE (2022) (viewer discretion is advised)
Crimes of the Future Redband Trailer

CRIMES of the FUTURE opens in theater June 3rd 2022

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Here we are met with a split-screen depicting the respective zones of central characters – an elderly couple comprising a senior gentleman writer played by Dario Argento (arguably best known as the writer/director of 1997 horror classic Suspiria), his wife – a former psychiatrist whose cognitive abilities are rapidly declining due to dementia played by Francoise LeBrun (whose incredibly prolific career reaches back to 1971) and their wayward son trying desperately to take on the new role of managing their well-being – played by Alex Lutz.

I was immediately struck by the accuracy of the aesthetic tone – the color timing of the apartment home where the couple lives hits the exact spectrum of slightly faded, washed-out earthen hues of my grandparent’s home. The mise-en-scene is like a frame from my memory – books and newspapers lay in piles, old rugs over old carpets, the planters hanging overworn tile on the balcony where a wrought iron table sits upon a layer of grimy dust where the rag has not wiped it away. The lighting feels like available light, yet always highlights precise elements within the frame amid the pervasive dimness of the world. This is very different from the established Wild Bunch hyper-contrast, ultra-vivid fare of the past.

Though the split-screen could easily become a gimmick, it feels inevitable here – sometimes overlapping the actors such that we see their hands clasped together in both, but slightly distended, or compressing the face of another. At times the screen is used for synchronicity – mirroring the father and the son in their respective worlds, for example, or the fatigued postures of each of the couple, in their respective zones of the house, and at other times for contrast – young vs old, calm vs danger, warm vs cold. One particularly striking compositional moment ha the father and son speaking in his amber-lit writing office, while in the right frame the mother and grandson play in the pallid cold twilight outside of the house. Yet we are connected back by the amber glow punching through the curtains in the blue world, privy to both realities, which at that moment are so far apart.

In his book “The Aesthetics and Psychology of the Cinema” (2000) Jean Mitry explores two different forms of montage – “that of the frame showing a single scenario in isolation” and in sequence or by putting them side-by-side.¹ This extends Andre Bazin’s (2004) principle of authenticity via the “Full Length Shot” – which describes an unmitigated capture of real-time flow that we have also seen in Goodfellas (1990), various Altman films (for eg The Player 1992), Russian Ark (2002), Birdman (2014) in what feels like an ongoing thread of oneupmanship to craft the master long single choreographed take. Here Noé uses this superimposition of real-time experience and Full-Length Shot theory together to immerse us into the experience of a couple bound together and at an impossible distance simultaneously, to breathtaking effect, but always understated. It is a real-time experience, a soporific one, a contemplative one, a melancholic one, split in two.

What is ironically more striking in Vortex is how subdued and restrained it all is. He often takes a Tarkovskian pace to let a scene play out. And to that point – it all feels quite improvised, though the writing is so well structured that it feels like a well-worn play that has been done hundreds of times. What we have is a highly sentimental, oft heart-aching take on Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

I waited for that moment in which Noé punches through the wall of decency with something so galling that it creates trauma, but here it takes nothing more than a child with a toy to create an excruciating moment of tension. In another moment Mercedes Sosa’s Gracias a La Vida or Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan play so faintly in the diegetic background as to be almost indetectable but to those who can pick up the cues and references, to incept in the unconscious with something larger and more sublime than this tired apartment where the couple lives out their days.

1. I am drawing on the essay Zheng, L., & Si, M. (2020). Narrative Strategies in VR Movies, Traditional Movies, and Digital Games. In J. Morie, & K. McCallum (Ed.), Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media (pp. 59-78). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-2433-6.ch004 to draw this comparison to the film theorists’ argument

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It’s clear from the opening moments of West of Sunshine, that you are in good filmmaking hands. From the locked off shot of a car’s headlights in an early morning blue to the transportive lilt of Lisa Gerrard’s and James Orr’s score, the mood is set instantly and the pedigree assured. Moreover, anything is worth new recordings from Lisa Gerrard.

But on to the film…

Father and Son

Here we follow an Australian family, the relationship between a tattooed father – Jim – (Damian Hill, “The Leftovers”) and his son Alex (Ty Perham), as they struggle to find common ground in a hand-to-mouth paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. The father wants desperately for his son to connect but is prone to frustrated outburts followed by feeble attempts at reconciliation.

Soon enough we discover that the real rail is his propensity for gambling and his growing desperation to maximize his earnings in increasingly high stakes. Every relationship, in every permutation, is put under the strain of his obsession, as young Alex is always somehow, credibly placed into the scene as a unwitting witness to this downward spiral as Jim surreptitiously attempts to raise money from the innocents that permeate his life to repay a particularly dangerous loanshark.

The Little Things

There are so many nice little touches here from director/writer Jason Raftopoulos, details, nuances, peppering the beats. The son watching a baker sift flour, the son refusing to open the car door as he plays his annoyingly blippy mobile game on his father’s phone, each of the homes of the various ex-girlfriends they visit, trying to drum up favor and resources.

We get a grand tour of characters, each a foil to our anti-hero and his attempt to game them with his reserved charm. In one particularly chilling moment, Alex discovers a tiny bag in the glove compartment that brings the boy precariously close to a line with which he should never have converged.

The cinematography and the editing employ a deft interplay between handheld, wides and closeups, de-focused and lens flared, affording the film a subdued but stylish and contemporary finesse that elevates it above standard indie low budget fare. Not to overstate the importance of the music here, but the mixture of dulcimers, bells, dumbeks and haunting drones continually elevate the undercurrent to a transcendental level, helping to draw focus to the minutae and what may otherwise be a very pedestrian week in the life of inner city Australia and not much else, plot-wise.

I was reminded of the brilliant slice-of-life, “social-realist” River Phoenix film “A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon,” and it was good to feel that again, you know those kinds of films about the nothing day, that was the best day ever.

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