Lux Æterna (2019 | France | 52 minutes | Gaspar Noe)
French enfant terrible filmmaker Gaspar Noe’s experimental horror film Lux Æterna made its premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and it’s finally getting a proper US release now, including screenings through Wednesday at the Grand Illusion. Another film of his, Vortex, had a brief run at SIFF a couple of weeks ago and is also playing at the Grand Illusion this week. It’s a riveting film that is incredibly potent in its short run time.
Reportedly shot in about five days, it is meant to capture behind-the-scenes drama about the filming of a medieval-era movie about three women being burned at the stake. They’re played by Beatrice Dalle, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Abbey Lee and they play themselves. Dalle and Gainsbourg have a fascinating scene of dialogue at the very beginning, largely improvised, that is the most casual element of this movie that delves into chaos shortly thereafter. I don’t want to write too much but they are unguarded and it’s shown in-split screen even though they are sitting next to each other.
The split-screen continues through a lot of the movie and you see the different directions the actors are being pulled on the set. Charlotte Gainsbourg has a family emergency that demands her immediate attention when others are also trying to pull her in one direction. There’s a Hollywood hanger-on who wants desperately to cast her in his debut film but she sees him as another loser who can’t accept ‘no’ as an answer.
The last Gaspar Noe movie I saw was Climax, an immensely discomfiting movie from 2018 about a dance troupe holding a party where leaving isn’t an option and spiked sangria turns the party dark and tragic. It was a movie that made me feel drunk or disoriented on a weekday afternoon even though I didn’t consume anything that would cause that effect on its own. Lux Æterna had a similar effect on me during its unexpected, but ultimately inevitable, climactic and chaotic finale. Still, the less I say, the better.
What I loved about Climax and what I love about Lux Æterna is that they make you feel something physical watching them. Another French movie from last year, Titane, is a similar example (and someone literally passed out at the screening I went to). They all use a form of revulsion to get that effect. I think I’m failing to explain this but for me it’s a remarkable feeling being numbed to the visual images on screen but also getting an intense physical reaction to a movie. It hits on a level that’s not emotional or intellectual. It isn’t an easy film to watch (and epileptics would be advised to stay far, far away) but it made me feel something and it made me feel alive.
Lux Æterna is playing Friday, May 20 through Wednesday, May 26 at the Grand Illusion Cinema. Tickets and showtimes can be found here.