Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Enter The Void

This is topic Enter The Void in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=001743

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 01-18-2011, 01:20 AM:

****

Enter The Void

My God, it's full of porn

What an interesting film. I am not sure if most of the members on here are ever going to have the opportunity to see this film, but if comes your way, check it out.

Enter The Void has Criterion written all over it. From outstanding opening credits to the closing credits, the film is an experience. There is strobing light effects on screen, intentionally out of focus scenes, strange juxtaposition, grainy film. Interesting metaphors.

I would have to say that it is like a David Cronenberg movie with a little Atom Agoyan. There is so much nudity and porno style sex, incest themes, breast feeding, exposed vaginas. One very intense scene is an abortion scene with a bloody fetus.

I am not gonig to say much about the plot, but the narrative is interesting and how they introduce the back story is interesting, major parts of the characters childhood are reinforced time and again on scree. Things feel very real. There is so much sex in this movie, a solid 15 minute scene takes place in the "Love Hotel" which goes from room to room while we watch folks do it. There is a scenes where we are inside a vagina watching the head of a penis enter.

The quality of this film is outstanding and I really was surprised that this was not a digitally filmed movie. It appears that there a minatures used in this film. Also, there are a number of well done transitions and a large part of the movie is from of POV birds eye view. I hear there are a number of different cuts to the running time of this movie. The version I saw was around 150 mins. This movie is for some and not for all.

I dare to compare this film to 2001: A Space Odyssey. That is what it reminded me of. While the films are so similar they are yet completely 180' different. There is a very similar "stargate" sequence, what happens to the lead character. "Does he get reborn?" "Does he leave his sister?" "Does anything make sense at the end?" "What does everything mean?"

ENTER

PENIS
VAGINA
INCEST THEMES
YELLOW SCREEN
BREAST FEEDING
SEX
DRUGS
DEATH
LOVE
RED SCREEN
TOKYO
ABORTION
BLOOD
GHOSTS
WHITE SCREEN
TRANSITION
FETUS

ENTER
THE
VOID

(NOW SAY THE ABOVE REALLY FAST)

Outstanding movie!

DLP: ****
Sound: ****

Note on presentation: I saw this in Cinema #4 of the TIFF Lightbox. Wow! Another state of the art cinema they have, I would not of been able to tell that this was not 35mm. Outstanding acoustics, design and build. It is intersting how everything becomes silent as you end the hall of the cinema. Should point of the masking was perfect and opened up to SCOPE after the FLAT previews.

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 01-18-2011, 06:48 AM:

Sounds like one to take the Local Ladies Auxiliary to.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 01-18-2011, 12:37 PM:

supposedly the home video version is the 160 minute version, yet nothing's been confirmed ... anyone? anyone??

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 01-18-2011, 01:06 PM:

quote: Jonathan Goeldner
supposedly the home video version is the 160 minute version, yet nothing's been confirmed ... anyone? anyone??

There are so many running lengths so I have heard.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 01-18-2011, 03:11 PM:

IFC's US version runs 143 minutes. The long version runs about 160 minutes. The difference is the US version you bypass reel number 7. The long version you play reel 7.

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 02-22-2011, 06:23 PM:

After being shot to death by Tokyo police, a young American drug dealer’s spirit leaves his body to search for a path to reincarnation . . . but before he can be reborn, his devoted sister must release him from a pact they made years earlier.

I’ll say one thing for this film; it’s a helluva thing to look at. An intense, almost overpowering visual experience, I spent the whole time thinking that if it were not for the copious scenes of nudity and explicit sex (including the astonishing scene that Tom mentioned) that it would make a dandy home theatre demonstration disc. The film’s visualizations of a DMT hallucination and the spirit’s travels thru time are beautifully imagined and rendered, although I have heard that they triggered a seizure in one unfortunate NYC moviegoer, something I have no problem believing. Based very loosely on the Tibetan Book Of The Dead, almost the entire film is composed of shots made from the point-of-view of the guy’s spirit as it hovers overhead, observing his sister, her lovers and his friends as they deal with the repercussions of his killing.

As to the “theatrical version drops the 7th reel” thing: the disparity in the running times between the theatrical version and the full cut is just about one very full reel's worth (the full cut is 163 minutes, the theatrical cut has been variously reported as between 137 -143) However, having seen the long version, there IS a section that runs from about 1:48 to about 2:07, which is about where the seventh reel would run, that could probably be omitted without sacrificing anyone’s understanding of the plot. It also contains one of the most brutal and potentially viewer upsetting things I’ve ever seen on film, I’m not even going to TRY to describe it. So there’s that.

If you are a fan of the very strange in cinema, by all means see it.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-27-2011, 12:24 PM:

DAMN! this is a wild, REALLY spectacularly delicious movie. I saw the shortened version (142 min) and I thought even that version might have benefited from some careful editing. Some of the fly-overs were unnecessarily long, and I usually do very quite well with slow paced films.

The visuals are very engaging although I found myself wondering how he got many of his shots, so that was a bit distracting; one thing in particular, how was he was able to get powerful lights in the groin areas between the copulating couples?

As for the sex stuff itself, I didn't think it was all that shocking -- some nipples (nothing nowasays) and rarely any visible penetration. The violence on the other hand was quite shocking. The dominance of the drugs gave it an overall depressing feeling which sort of hung in the air for the whole film and which even the bright saturated colors couldn't fully counteract.

I understand Tom's reference to 2001 and the great arc of the circle of life into a higher, more evolved new species; in ENTER THE VOID, however, there is a circle of life, yes, but there is no indication that it will be any better than what we just witnessed for a long two plus hours -- not an uplifting prospect. I came away with a much less positive experience from ENTER THE VOID, just the opposite in fact of what Kubrick gives us.

Also, SEE IT ON A BIG SCREEN and with a good sound system. The sound design, in fact, is almost another character; you need to feel those heart beats and the underlying, ominous and sustained bass construct. The soundtrack needs to generate a sence of impending doom. A TV set certainly won't do it justice.

That said, I still give it 4.5 our of 5.

BTW, is it true that in Tokyo they drive on the opposite side of the road than we do? Like in England? That caught my eye and I was wondering if indeed that is the rule there or if it was just another way the director is skewing the picture's reality. And did the "eyelid blinks" -- those momentary image black-outs during the time Oscar is alive bother anyone? I got the point, at least afterward, but it was damn annoying.

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 02-27-2011, 04:04 PM:

Frank- Did you see a 35mm or digital presentation?

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-28-2011, 12:45 AM:

Tom, saw it on DVD, sad to say, so neither the way I would have liked, BUT that being said, it was via a very top end home theatre system using a top-of-the-line JVC D-ILA Reference Series Cinema Projector, shooting onto a 12ft wide screen with a really earth shaking sound system -- Cerwin-Vegas behind the screen and in the corners; I don't know what he is using for the subs, but there was no doubt they were working!