Lux Æterna

I support the evolution of art. In order for things to move forward, you need provocateurs to rock the foundation of what's deemed acceptable. Art made strictly to appeal to what already works is boring. Lvx Æterna embodies the rebellious spirit of creation, even if the results are borderline unwatchable.

Opening on a rambling conversation that lasts far too long then moving to a perplexing split screen where multiple scenes play simultaneously, often including different dialogue in different languages, all before a seizure inducing assault of light and sound. Gaspar Noé is screaming in your face, daring you to turn off his movie, and whether you do or not, you can't deny it's visceral impact.

The man is off in his own stratosphere, there really are no peers or precedents for this aesthetic. While his other work may offer more narrative meat, often coupled by more disturbing violence, this one seems to be a pure, unrefined shot of the disorienting bliss he's known for.

Like many forms of extreme music that seem to exist for the express purpose of pushing boundaries, it's a challenging experience that won't be for all tastes or moods. It's just a refreshing reminder that there's still untapped potential for defiant confrontational cinema.

Even with this short runtime, the movie is stressful work, its overly pretentious, nearly a self-parody. The last minutes are just suffering for viewers and characters. Its bland and overly symbolic, does not create any character arc, every one of the characters is just a cut out paper, not even two dimensional. L'art pour l'art, right? But in this case, its just artificial. Meaningless. And the worst: It does not entertain. Not one moment.

First off, I'm quite a Gaspar Noé fan, and I have watched every movie since "I stand alone" - I liked every single one of them, and especially Climax really surprised me with how good it was.

This movie however leaves me with very mixed feelings. 90% of the movie consists dialog which is either meaningless or leaves alot of room for interpretation, but, in any case, wasn't very entertaining to watch. The other 10% make anyone familiar with Noé's work instantly recognize his trademark visuals. These 10% are really painful to watch, but not for the reasons you might expect from a "classic" Noé movie. In the end, the movie left me pretty unsatisfied. The visuals were pretty interesting at times, yes, and would have been perfect for a music video, but they don't save save the movie from feeling dull.

I would still recommend it for fans of this director, as it is definitely an unusual movie, just don't expect anything mindblowing or truly disturbing!

As a fan of Gaspar Noé, I enjoy his movies even when I feel sick of what I see in his movies. I'm also pretty sure that the most catchy element of his movies is the visuals. So far, i've seen his every feature films except Love. Climax, Irreversible and Enter the Void, which are mostly the favorites of the audience, achieved giving fancy visuals. Strangely, visuals of Lux Aeterna does not make you satisfied since the story leads to literally nowhere worthy. Instead, this time Gaspar Noé tries to introduce a point of view to role of woman in film industry and also in history. I can say that he does it well. Lux Aeterna is a "must watch" for Noé fans because in every second you will feel the style of Gaspar Noé. But if you are not a fan, this movie is a pure boredom and agony.

... though it may just get you twitching.

A number of patients in a high security psychiatric hospital decide to make a short film. Conscious of the fact that in medieval times they would most likely have been considered witches or warlocks, since their behaviour could only be interpreted as such during those times, they place the punishment for such behaviour at the centre of their creation.

Fortunately, as luck would have it, the split screen personality allows the viewer to gorge on twice as much pagan pantomime than would normally be recommend but, since this piece occupies slightly less than an hour, they just about get away with it, although that may depend on the medication you're currently prescribed.

You'll be pleased when the credits role, although it's unlikely you'll make it through to the end.