start the dance - Climax (2018)

welcome to: a descent into hell by way of spiked sangria

Existence is a fleeting illusion.

Spoilers… I think?? Also content warning for a brief mention of pregnancy loss in relation to one of the characters.

Climax (2018)

Written and directed by: Gaspar Noé

Starring: Sofia Boutella, Kiddy Smile, Romain Guillermic, Souheila Yacoub, Claude Gajan Maulll, Giselle Palmer, Taylor Kastle, Thea Carla Schøtt, et al.

Running time: 96 minutes

Original release date: 13 May 2018 (Cannes premiere), 19 September 2018 (France)

the plot, in brief

Winter, 1996. In an abandoned school, a French professional dance troupe puts the final flourishes on their rehearsal for an upcoming performance. After the troupe manages to successfully pull off the ambitious closing segment of the dance, they commence an after-party in celebration, dancing, drinking sangria and gossiping.

But something’s not right, and as the evening progresses, it becomes clear that the sangria has been spiked - turning jubilation into a terrifying, drug-induced inferno…

but first

Dear reader, if you will allow me to provide the following serving suggestion should you want to watch this movie after reading this issue: DON’T FUCKING DO IT FIRST THING ON A SUNDAY MORNING WHILE STILL BLEARY EYED FROM A LACK OF SLEEP, MY GOD OH MY GOD.

Ahem.

six things I rather liked about Climax (2018)

the opening shot

The opening shot of the movie is a gorgeous, eerie aerial shot of snowy ground. A woman, seemingly desperate to escape *something*, drags herself through the snow. She’s laughing frantically, interspersed with deep, guttural sobs as she struggles to get through the thick, white void ahead of her. Eventually, she gives up, collapses. We notice she’s bleeding. Is she dead? But she’s moving, the camera is moving, circling around her, still high in the air. It looks almost like she’s making a bloodied snow angel. And then she stops, seemingly giving up.

And then! For reasons I am UNSURE ABOUT! A title card appears which states “You watched a movie based on real events that took place in France in winter 1996”.

AND THEN: the closing credits roll.

AND THEN, the rest of the film plays.

the interviews

The next sequence we see is a series of interviews which act as an introduction to the members of the dance troupe. They discuss what dance means to them, their hopes and fears, their motivations behind their careers. And if you’re paying attention to the way this sequence is framed - on a rickety television framed by a stack of books on one side and a stack of videos on the other side - Noé is essentially telling you what to expect next.

Look at the stack of videos. The two that immediately jump out are Żuławski’s Possession, and Argento’s Suspiria, and those are the two movies that feel like they influenced Climax the most. Think of it as their love child, if said love child was born by way of a bizarre extra-dimensional ritual under a blood moon. But you’ve also got Schizophrenia (which I didn’t recognize at first, but a quick bit of sleuthing reveals that this is the title under which Gerald Kargl’s infamous 1983 film Angst was released in France and Belgium), Un Chien Andalou and Salo. All hint at sinister things ahead, cruelties and body horrors to come.

the Gaspar Noé eleganza extravaganza opening (after the opening) dance scene

The idea for a film with dance as its basis came to Noé when he was invited to a vogue ballroom by Léa Vlamos (who is part of the film’s ensemble cast), then a member of the Iconic House of Ninja ballroom house. Noé was inspired by the energy and enthusiasm of the crowd, and his respect for the artform is on full display during this beautifully kinetic sequence.

He found most of the cast himself, scouting non-actors both online and while at krump battles and voguing ballrooms. It’s an eclectic, electric mix of disciplines fully out on that dance floor, and watching this five minute unbroken shot of just pure bodily joy is like having a light go back on in your head after a long time in the dark. There’s vogueing (you’ve even got Kiddy Smile as the DJ doing some Kevin JZ Prodigy-style ballroom commentator riffs), krumping, waacking, hip-hop and a touch of ballet and all of it just makes you feel so alive. Man, I love dance.

the actual film beginning midway through the film

After an extended sequence of shots where we overhear snippets of (extremely fucking telling, like, some of these characters are awful menaces - and I am in awe of the fact that all this dialogue is improvised, because Noé didn’t write any lines, he wrote a five page script and allowed the cast to go nuts) gossip between the members of the dance troupe, we are treated to another dance sequence.

And then the fucking opening credits?? Like, forty minutes into the film??

But if you look at it, it’s not a bad choice to do this - Noé has said that this is a film where people create something together in the first act (everything before the “opening credits”) only for it to fail in the second act. It makes it feel like you’ve come into the story a little too early, but it also neatly splits up the film in a before and during the chaos that’s to come.

the descent into LSD hell

It starts with the dancers getting increasingly agitated and confused. One of the dancers, Psyché (Thea Carla Schøtt), starts randomly pissing in the middle of the floor. Choreographer Selva (Sofia Boutella - one of two professional actors on the cast and an experienced dancer who came out of retirement for this movie) is the one who tweaks that something’s afoot and comes to the conclusion that the sangria has been spiked, possibly with LSD.

This sets off an increasingly buckwild chain of events, during which our director has a field day playing with light and camera angles, as the troupe descends into violence, assault, incest (!?), drug-induced psychosis and just plain old FUCKING SCREAMING.

There is a sequence in which Selva forces herself to walk, just walk, away from the chaos on the dance floor. She stops in front of a mural image of a peaceful, tranquil woodland, which in the harsh light in the corridors looks like it’s almost mocking her. Briefly, it looks like Selva actually thinks she’s outside. She stops, makes noises, and sinks into a nearby couch, sliding her hands into her panty hose to scratch her itching legs. She writhes, like she’s dancing with an unseen force, screaming and rolling around on the floor. We are never taken into any of the hallucinations but we don’t need to be to understand that these people are fuuuuuuuuuuuucked up.

the climax to the movie Climax

Selva is eventually dragged to safety by Ivana (Sharleen Temple), and the two give into a mutual attraction to each other. Crucially, this happens away from the absolute inferno on the main dance floor, as Gazelle (Giselle Palmer) stumbles away from her brother Taylor (Taylor Kastle) and into - for want of a better word - hell.

Noé shoots this entire finale upside down, with the room bathed in red emergency lighting. It makes it look like the remaining dancers are on the ceiling, in an orgy of writhing, speaking in tongues, fucking and fighting. It’s like watching a pot boil over with no way of stopping it. The following morning, when police attend the scene, pretty much everyone is either unconscious, screaming in agony or dead, with a few blessed exceptions. We circle back to the opening sequence to find that it’s Lou (Souheila Yacoub, the other professional actor in the cast), bleeding from having lost a pregnancy during the night, who makes off into the snow.

All the while, Psyché is still in a corner, dancing on her own. Seemingly not that much affected by the drugs.

In fact, she may not have been affected at all. Because as the police search the building, we watch her in her room, with a bag full of books on hallucinogens, as she drops liquid LSD into her eyes…

and one thing I didn’t like and can quite frankly get in the bin

Just some FOUL homophobia being spouted by some of the characters, jesus fuck, NO IT DOES NOT CONTRIBUTE SHIT TO THE STORY, FUCK YOU.

Ahem.

This movie is a gift if you like visual storytelling. Gaspar Noé is on top of his game when it comes to camera work and lighting, and his understanding of dance as its own form of storytelling, with the body as a vessel, makes for some incredible dance sequences. Yes, it’s continuously teetering on the verge of being Too Much, yes it leans dangerously towards being pretentious as fuck. Both of these things are true and also don’t really matter because Noé has so effectively succeeded into luring you into this LSD hellscape that you’re in it no matter what.

It’s also, as mentioned, a movie about art and fear. About wanting to make good art and lose yourself in what matters most to you, and the fears that block you from letting yourself go completely. It’s a movie about what happens when you are confronted with those fears in the most viscerally possibly way as control is taken away from you. And on that level especially, it resonated with me. I spend a lot of time scared. I make things, I write things, and I know that those two things (and the many things surrounding them) are the ones that bring me the most joy in life. And in moments where something is keeping me from doing these things, I panic. I am afraid of losing this essential part of myself and I let those fears take over often.

In a way, that’s where Climax hit the most nerves. It’s like having Noé sit directly opposite you, demanding you stare into a drugs trip of your own deepest fears.

TW for flashing imagery in the trailer.