You either love Gaspar Noé's pictures, or you hate them. Based on the poster for his newest feature Climax - which just premiered at Cannes - he knows you more than likely despise his blatant acts of cinematic provocation.
Now there's a trailer for Noé's wild dance orgy, whose premise reads like the worst acid trip of all time:
"In the mid 90’s, 20 urban dancers join together for a three-day rehearsal in a closed-down boarding school located at the heart of a forest to share one last dance. They then make one last party around a large sangria bowl.
Quickly, the atmosphere becomes charged and a strange madness will seize them the whole night. If it seems obvious to them that they have been drugged, they neither know by who nor why. And it’s soon impossible for them to resist to their neuroses and psychoses, numbed by the hypnotic and the increasing electric rhythm of the music…while some feel in paradise, most of them plunge into hell."
Take a look at this first teaser, which showcases the typically colorful cinematography from Noé's regular DP, Benoît Debie (Spring Breakers):
I've already talked to a few people out of Cannes who saw the movie and utterly flipped for it. Apparently the demented genius who delivered Enter the Void and Irreversible is back, baby! I can't wait to lay my eyes on this bit of filmic madness. According to Charles Bramesco (who reviewed the movie for BMD), there's even some thematic depth to the auteur's usual craziness:
"Unlike many of Noé’s past efforts, which tend to fall apart the moment a viewer deigns to analyze them beyond an immediate visceral reaction, Climax has more to offer than its all-bangers hard-house soundtrack and a magnificent rendition of Isabelle Adjani’s Possession spasms from Boutella. The red-white-and-blue streamers adorning the set and all-caps intertitle cards hint at a political subtext, and once the party turns fractious and bloody, it starts to look like Noé has condensed a country at odds with itself into a rave from hell. Tensions racial and sexual combust in a hectic grand finale that makes mother! feel like a visit to your mother’s."
No release date is set as of yet, but A24 picked up the film this morning, so I'm willing to bet we hear something on that front sooner rather than later (I'm also willing to bet we see this one at Fantastic Fest. Call it a hunch, I dunno).
Stay tuned for more on Climax as it becomes available.