If Irréversible is hell, Enter the Void is purgatory. Shot entirely from the perspective of a dead drug dealer’s floating soul, the film is a 161-minute sensory assault of flashing lights, X-ray vaginas, and reincarnation anxiety. Why do we love it? Because it is the most honest film ever made about the fear of dying. It is exhausting. It is pretentious. It is too long. And yet, the final shot—a return to the womb—is one of the most moving transcendental moments in cinema. You love Noé because he dares to film the afterlife as a strobe light.
That is not nihilism. That is catharsis . Love Gaspar Noe
To say "I love Gaspar Noé" in a crowded room of film lovers is often met with a pause. It’s a confession that requires a qualifier. Do you love the dazzling vertigo of his camera? The visceral brutality of his violence? Or do you simply love the way he makes you feel unsafe in your own skin? If Irréversible is hell, Enter the Void is purgatory
We love him because mainstream cinema has become sanitary. Marvel films resolve conflicts with quips. Oscar bait resolves conflicts with speeches. Gaspar Noé resolves a conflict by having a fire extinguisher cave in a man’s face for five unbroken minutes while the sound design simulates a freight train derailing. Because it is the most honest film ever