‘Climax’ Is Gaspar Noé Being Gaspar Noé With A Slick Soundtrack

Gaspar Noé is best known as the writer/director of the 2002 thriller Irreversible, with its unconventional narrative structure and its brutal, unflinching rape scene. It’s safe to say that the French filmmaker has a certain style, and he does not let up with his newest movie, Climax.

Set sometime in the mid-nineties, Climax is about a troupe of dancers who, after a strenuous rehearsal during which they feel as if they have perfected their routine, have a raging party. However, unbeknownst to them, their sangria has been spiked with LSD. So, the revelers drink and dance well into the night, but as the drugs kick in, the honest confessional conversations turn to violent hallucinogenic episodes. No one is safe as the dancers, half-insane from their unplanned hits of acid, try to make it through the night…and figure out who dosed their punch.

Even if you aren’t familiar with the work of Gaspar Noé, you pretty much know what you’re in for from the beginning with Climax. The film opens with interview footage of the dancers, each explaining why they want to join the company, presented on a television set that is bookended by stacks of videocassettes that include titles like Suspiria, Eraserhead, and Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. Each hopeful dancer talks about expressing themselves through dance while also dropping (not-so) subtle clues about the drug use and brutal violence in their pasts. As if the movies in the stacks weren’t foreshadowing enough.

This opening scene is the only part of the movie where Noé used a script, and even then, it’s a loose one. Heck, aside from Sophia Boutella (Atomic Blonde, Hotel Artemis), who plays a lead dancer and choreographer, the cast is made up of dancers rather than actors (Noé even uses real-life DJ Kiddy Smile to play, well, the DJ). And after an initial heavily choreographed dance sequence, everything else about Climax is improvised, with Noé and his cast working more from a basic outline of events rather than from a fleshed-out screenplay. And it shows; Climax is as raw and genuine of a movie as you’re bound to find. But that’s not always a good thing, especially in this case.

While the emotion and honesty of the cast is admirable, Climax has a distinct lack of focus. It actually seems like Gaspar Noé has thrown everything but the kitchen sink into the film (and there may even be a kitchen sink in there somewhere). It’s neatly divided into two halves (by a mid-movie credit sequence, no less), the first being a party and the second being a full-blown riot. It’s a tough watch, simultaneously violent and sensual, both indulgent and economical.

Part of Noé’s directorial style is being as unsubtle as possible, so, at times, Climax feels like an all-out assault on the senses, full of loud music and flashing imagery. Essentially, Climax is an immersive experiment in how far the characters – and the audience – will go. And the answer is, at least for the characters, all the way. For the audience, well, it depends on its taste and temperament.

Climax is classic Gaspar Noé, trying to get a reaction any way it can. It’s an impressive bit of technical filmmaking, beautifully ugly in its visual language and chaotically anarchistic with its sound. It’s a story that could be told in about ten minutes, but Noé likes to show off, so he drags it out for another hour and a half. Yep. Classic Noé.