Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void

“Making a film is difficult, but making a great film is an almost impossible task.”

This quote from Spielberg is perhaps not completely accurate, but that’s how I remember it. However, some examples of great films do exist, including the film which had such an influence on my existence: 2001, A Space Odyssey. Without professing to be able to create such a masterpiece, trying to make a film that is, at the same time, a large-scale entertainment, suitable for adults and complex in cinematic terms, is one of the most exciting undertakings one could wish to tackle. And if one does not set out with the aim of making a great film, one can be sure that it will not turn out to be one.

Few of the arts can satisfy man’s need to be uplifted as immediately as film. And none (except interactive video games) can yet reproduce the maelstrom of our states of perception and consciousness.

In the past, certain films have tried to adopt the subjective point of view of the main character. enter the void will try to improve upon its predecessors and accompany the hero just as much in his normal state of awareness as in his altered states: the state of alertness, the stream of consciousness, memories, dreams...

The visions described in the script are inspired partly by the accounts of people who have had near-death experiences, who describe a tunnel of light, seeing their lives flashing past them and ‘astral’ visions, and partly by similar hallucinatory experiences obtained by consuming DMT, the molecule which the brain sometimes secretes at the moment of death and which, in small doses, enables us to dream at night.

The film should sometimes scare the audience, make it cry and, as much as possible, hypnotise it.

In recent years, films with labyrinthine structures have proved the audience’s ability to follow storylines in the form of a puzzle, and its desire to move away from linear narration.

But a complex form where the content does not move the spectator in any way would only amount to mathematic virtuosity. Whereas this film is above all a melodrama: the universal melodrama of a young man who, after the brutal death of his parents, promises that he will protect his little sister no matter what and who, sensing that he himself is dying, fights desperately to keep his promise. A film where the life of one person is linked to the love he has for another human being.

The reason for choosing the most modern areas of Tokyo as a setting is to further emphasize the fragility of the brother and sister by propelling them like two small balls in a giant pinball machine made up of black, white and fluorescent colours.

My previous two films, which were far less ambitious, were once described by a critic as being like roller coasters playing with the most reptilian desires and fears of the spectator. enter the void, whose themes and artistic choices will be far more varied and colourful, should, if I succeed, be the Magic Mountain which I, as a spectator, dream of riding on."

Gaspar Noé

Dossier de presse - Pressbook

“The moment when you know you’re dying is the moment when you come to a conclusion about what your life has meant. [...] Oscar reconsiders his past and sees that his life has meant almost nothing. In the end, everything has been very meaningless. I guess that’s why the movie is called Enter the Void. At the end, it’s all about emptiness. [...] Because of the camera’s perspective in this movie, there are times you see his body and hear his voice without always seeing his face. So actually I had thought I should find someone who wants to direct, who wants to participate in the process. When I met Nathan, he said that he wanted to study cinema and I immediately thought, He’s the perfect guy. [...] It’s impossible to have any kind of problem with Nathan on set. His positions are so perfect, and he is never shy. Everybody was amazed. Also, I think for someone who would become a director, this project was like film school. [...] This movie deals with death, but although it can seem to be the main subject, the only subject is life. [...] I don’t believe there is anything really like death; it is just non-being. The film is about someone considering his life at the moment he’s dying, but the important thing is, he’s considering life. I guess there are no notions of good or evil. There is just flesh or non-flesh. Either you’re part of the game of life. Or you’re not.” Gaspar Noé for V Magazine

EXCLUSIVE : The very first frames* from Enter the Void

(the movie has been shot in 2,35:1)

Gaspar Noe Enter the Void (Soudain le vide)

Oscar et sa soeur Linda habitent depuis peu à Tokyo. Oscar survit de petits deals de drogue alors que Linda est stripteaseuse dans une boite de nuit. Un soir, lors d'une descente de police, Oscar est touché par une balle. Tandis qu'il agonise, son esprit, fidèle à la promesse faite à sa soeur de ne jamais l'abandonner, refuse de quitter le monde des vivants. Son esprit erre alors dans la ville et ses visions deviennent de plus en plus chaotiques et cauchemardesques. Passé, présent et futur se mélangent dans un maelstrom hallucinatoire.

Oscar and his sister Linda are recent arrivals in Tokyo. Oscar's a small time drug dealer, and Linda works as a nightclub stripper. One night, Oscar is caught up in a police bust and shot. As he lies dying, his spirit, faithful to the promise he made his sister - that he would never abandon her - refuses to abandon the world of the living. It wanders through the city, his visions growing evermore distorted, evermore nightmarish. Past, present and future merge in a hallucinatory maelstrom.

両親の死より離ればなれを余儀なくされたオスカーと妹のリンダ。今は日本に住み、オスカーはドラッグの売人、リンダはストリッパーをしている。ある夜、警察に撃たれたオスカー。彼の魂は体を離れ、愛する妹を見守るために彷徨い始める…

Nathaniel Brown (Oscar) & Paz de la Huerta (Linda) © Wild Bunch

Director : Gaspar Noé
Screenplay : Gaspar Noé
VFX Artistic Director : Pierre Buffin
VFX Supervisor : Geoffrey Niquet
VFX Producer : Nicolas Delval
Director of Photography : Benoit Debie

Camera : Gaspar Noé
key Grip : Akira Kanno
Camera Assistants : Yasushi Miyata, Jacques Bernier
Assistant Directors : Jimbo Hideaki, Toshio Hanaoka, Michael Williams
Location Managers : Masahiro Hondo, Lucio Tomaro
Editors : Gaspar Noé, Marc Boucrot, Jérôme Pesnel
Sound Effects Director : Thomas Bangalter
Sound Designer : Ken Yasumoto
Sound mixers : Ryotaro Harada, Claude Lahaye
Re-recording Mixer : Lars Ginzel
Art Supervisor : Marc Caro
Production Designers : Kikuo Ohta, Jean Carrière
Costume Designers : Tony Crosbie, Nicoletta Massone
Line Producer France : Olivier Thery Lapiney
Production Coordinator : Karine D’Hont
Line Producer Tokyo : Georgina Pope - Twenty First City
Production Manager : Shin Yamaguchi
Production Coordinator : Masa Kokubo
Line Producer Montreal : Suzanne Girard - BBR Production
Production Manager : Jose Lacelle
Producers : Brahim Chioua & Vincent Maraval - Wild Bunch, Olivier Delbosc & Marc Missonnier - Fidélité Films, Pierre Buffin - BUF compagnie, Gaspar Noé - Les Cinémas de la Zone
Associate Producers : Philippe Bober - Essential Filmproduktion, Valerio de Paolis - Bim Distribuzione, Nicolas Leclerq - Paranoid Films
With the participation of : Canal +
With the support of : Eurimages, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communicat ion (CNC ), Filmförderungsansta lt (FFA)
International Sales : International Sales Wild Bunch

Cast :

NATHANIEL BROWN : OSCAR
PAZ DE LA HUERTA : LINDA
CYRIL ROY : ALEX
EMILY ALYN LIND : LITTLE LINDA
JESSE KUHN : LITTLE OSCAR
OLLY ALEXANDER : VICTOR
MASATO TANNO : MARIO
ED SPEAR : BRUNO
SARA STOCKBRIDGE : SUZIE
SAKIKO FUKUHARA : SAKI
NOBU IMAI : TITO
EMI TAKEUCHI : CAROL
JANICE SICOTTE-BELIVEAU : MOTHER
SIMON CHAMBERLAND : FATHER

Year of production : 2007-2008

Release date : 1st trimester of 2010 (France) - May 22th (Festival de Cannes 2009)

Filming dates : October 19, 2007 - December 15, 2007 (for Japan) ~~~ April/May 2008 - May 16, 2008 (for Canada)

Filming locations : Tokyo & Toho studio (Japan - 2007) - Montréal (Québec, Canada - 2008)

Language : English/Japanese

Business : €10,000,000

Runtime : France : 163 min (Cannes Film Festival) | 155 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | 156 min (Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya - BFI London - Sundance Film Festival)

Aspect ratio : 2,35:1 - 35mm color

Official website : www.soudainlevide.com - IMDB - Wild Bunch - Wild Bunch Distribution