I will give Gaspar Noe’s “Lux Aeterna” a decent amount of ink here despite its out-of-competition slot and the fact that it is only 51 minutes in length. The man is no doubt a provocateur, but an immensely talented one at that.
In this latest jaunt in movie extremism, a riff on the movie industry, Noe has decided to make a film starring Beatrice Dalle, Charlotte Gainsbourg and a bunch of Instagram “influencers.” Dalle, who seems to be playing herself here, is directing a movie starring Gainsbourg. The playful bit of conversation the two share at the start of the film, which must have lasted around 10 minutes, has them smoking and drinking the night away, and talking sex, religion, film — it’s all very French and a total hoot to behold. They then both head back to the set where Yannick (Yannick Bono) is plotting to get Dalle fired. Cinematographer Max (Maxime Ruiz) agrees she needs to go because “she’s lost total control of the set” and is prone to throwing hissy fits whenever she’s not cuddling with BFF Charlotte backstage. Meanwhile, Charlotte gets a call from her young daughter at home telling her of a disturbing incident that happened at school. The call freaks Charlotte out, it mentally destabilizes her, and even worse, she’s supposed to shoot an important scene, where she and two other women are tied to a stake like witches, while wearing short short skirts, with a tacky green screen shining brightly behind them. Don’t ask.
“Lux Aeterna” feels like a throwaway, but a visionary one at that. It’s a film-within-a-short-film which ends with a 15 minute light show meant to cause seizure-like sensations. I saw more than a few audience members covering their eyes or lowering their heads in agony when the trippy, mind-numbing finale occurred. Noe has always tried to piss people off and it seems to have worked again. He even mentioned in his presenting the film that too many loved his last picture “Climax,” which means he did something wrong and was trying to correct it with this movie.
The film, projected on extra widescreen ratio, has a penchant for visually inventive split-screen and, this being a Noe oeuvre, a lot of Steadicam shots. Kudos to the editing team of Jerome Pesnel and Marc Boucrot for their excellent and innovative work here. Ditto longtime Noe DP Benoit Debie, one of the best in the biz. [B/B+]