Rated: MA15+
Directed by: Gaspar Noe
Screenplay by: Gaspar Noe
Produced by: Edouard Weil, Vincent Maraal, Brahim Chioua
Choreography: Nina Mc Neely
Starring: Sofia Boutella, Romain Guillermic, Souheila Yacoub, Kiddy Smily, Clude Gajan Maull, Giselle Palmer, Taylor Kastle, Thea Carla Shøtt, Sharleen Temple, Lea Vlamos, Alaia Alsafir, Kendall Mugler, Lakdhar Dridi, Adrien Sissoko, Mamadou Bathily, Alou Sidibe, Ashley Biscette, Mounia Nassangar, Tiphanie Au, Sarah Belala, Alexandre Moreau, Naab, Strouss Serpent, Vince Galliot Cumant.
A spectacular sensor experience that slowly becomes a disturbing endurance.
‘1996, it was just last night’ – director, Gaspar Noe.
Climax is a horror set to dance music from the 90s where everyone goes insane on very, very bad acid.
This is a film based on a real news story from France.
Daft Punk had just released their first record. And you could still smoke on the dancefloor.
A troupe of dances finish a rehearsal choregraphed by Selva (Sofia Boutella); DJ Daddy (Kiddy Smile) keeping up the tunes while the dances decompress and party.
We’re brought into this amazing space of dancing and music, with most of the characters made up from the best dances director Gaspar Noe and doll line producer Serge Catoire could find in France (and those who could travel to France): waackers, krumpers, a group of electro dancers and a contortionist (Strauss Serpent) for that extra bizarre movement.
And we watch as the dances drink spiked sangria.
And we watch as each of the characters go insane.
There’s a fascinating introduction to each of the dancers with their audition tapes shown on video so we get this psychological profile before they’re all, well, fu*ked. So we see who they are normally and how they might react to the LSD: horny, confused, hysterical, paranoid, self-harming, murderous.
And the way the dancers were shown speaking to the camera, the dance-moves shot from above; the spinning… I was completely absorbed from the opening scene.
But really, prepare yourself, there’s cutting, incest, burning and basically people completely losing it, all in this abandoned school with the music always playing.
I was reminded of scenes from Event Horizon (1997) depicting the crew in space when they went literally through hell.
But Climax is based on real and relatable people.
I was into the film. Then it became an endurance. It just kept on getting more and more confronting.
People left during the media screening.
For me, if there was just a shocking end to the crescendo (a climax!), I would have gotten into the film more. But the timeline was kept linear, showing the decline into madness with each step given its due… Lower and lower until the camera barely lifted from the polished concrete floor reflecting the animalistic grunting and f*cking and blood.
Climax will definitely evoke a response.
It certainly shocked me sideways.
Music:
TROIS GYMNOPEDIES (ERIK SATIE) by GARY NUMAN SOLIDIT by CHRIS CARTER SUPERNATURE by CERRONE BORN TO BE ALIVE by PATRICK HERNANDEZ PUMP UP THE VOLUME by M/A/R/R/S FRENCH KISS by LIL LOUIS SUPERIOR RACE and TECHNIC 1200 by DOPPLEREFFEKT DICKMATIZED by KIDDY SMILE SANGRIA and WHAT TO DO by THOMAS BANGALTER VOICES by NEON THE ART OF STALKING by SUBURBAN KNIGHTS ROLLIN’ & SCRATCHIN’ by DAFT PUNK WINDOWLICKER by APHEX TWIN ELECTRON by WILD PLANET TAINTED LOVE / WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO by SOFT CELL UTOPIA ME GIORGIO by GIORGIO MORODER ANGIE by THE ROLLING STONES MAD by COSEY FANNI TUTTI and COH.