While watching Gasper Noe’s new film Climax (2018) (which I enjoyed), I couldn’t help but get the sense he was satirizing American history and using France as a parallel/way to critique.
I do not have a fully formed theory but here are some things I noticed:
We start with a group of diverse individuals who speak of America with a heightened sense of grandeur—a very “starry-eyed” view of its promise and culture. These interviews felt less to me like character development and more like allegorical interrogations of race, age, sex, language, art ect. I would have to see the film again to really pinpoint what I mean but I’m sure others may be able to add to this.
We then cut to a shot of the France flag with the title “An unapologetically French Film” (or something similar). To me, this was less about being an indulgently French film and more Noe saying that his critique is going to be from an unapologetically French perspective. Symbolically the French flag is also red, white and blue like America.
This is followed by an incredible dance sequence that shows the dancers almost functioning as a diverse whole. They are free, sexual, powerful and each has a moment to showcase their abilities. I saw this is as the dancers living the dream they spoke about in the beginning interviews. America is exactly what was promised and perhaps a satirical view on what America use to be or wants to be.
We then go into a series of character vignettes in which characters are separated off in weirdly specific ways. Each of these people hit on pretty current social issues:
- abortion “I like having a choice”
- rape culture
- toxic masculinity
- family relations
- drugs
- bodies
At one point there is a cut between people saying that the flag on the wall freaks them out (patriotism) which is followed by someone saying that the crosses (religion) scare them.
As for the Sangria, I think this is literally a “don’t drink the punch/kool-aid” kinda metaphor. As in, don’t buy into the illusion and allure of American culture. The one dancer in the beginning who didn’t buy into the lie aka “drink the punch” is instantly cast out into the snow to die.
Things only get worse from there.
The sexually aggressive male in the jumpsuit spends most of the film pursuing women and rejecting another gay dancer. I also found him to be the only real “straight white male” and it’s interesting that towards the end of the film he gets rejected by both the women he is pursuing, the gay man and the DJ. This is right after he had just been beaten by three black male dancers. I saw all these a kinda symbols of sex, gender, and race and that the end was a subversion on the fact we expected him to become violent but instead he ends up a blabbing and rolling around on the floor alone. I’m not sure exactly what Noe was trying to say but these elements seemed intentional.
Another aspect was the abortion conversation getting a payoff when we learn one of the dancers who didn’t drink is pregnant. The situation she is facing is something I’m sure many women have faced and it’s interesting that the moment she expresses her pain, she has her choice taken away by being brutally kicked while she is down. I couldn’t help get the sense this was a pretty scathing critique of America's view on abortion. This is followed up by an angry mob literally telling her to kill herself, an exaggeration reminiscent of some of the protests that happen against women who choose to have abortions and shaming them into alternate decisions.
I think the mother attempting to protect the child was an ironic symbol of America's obsession with protecting children and keeping them innocent while simultaneously creating a culture which glorifies and indulges in the very things she is attempting to protect from. She was the choreographer after all and I got the impression she was a big part of the creation of the party aka shedding light on the hypocritical.
Something that also stood out to my girlfriend and I was the fact a lot of the black characters ended up violent, contorted, covering their skin with white and incestuous. I am unsure if Noe was trying to make a point here or what kinda point he was trying to make but it was definitely something I noticed and found troubling.
The rest of the film acts like a descent into Hell as "America" is literally tipped upside down and left in ruins. It is also interesting to note the military is the first to find them which gave the whole ending a kinda apocalyptic feel (why would the military be the first to show up?). Almost like a cacophony of social tensions reached boiling point and resulted in a war only to be discovered by soldiers.
Anyway, just some first thoughts. I'd love to start a discussion on this and hear some other perspectives! Especially love to hear about this film from a French perspective.
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Submitted March 03, 2019 at 04:52AM by pocketfart https://ift.tt/2EGQT31
