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The Master of Meaning: Gaspar Noé

How Gaspar Noé Uses Creative Techniques to Shape Meaning

By Aidan KirwinPublished 5 years ago 11 min read
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Title image for 'Enter the Void' (2009)

The Argentinian/ French auteur Gapar Noé has been recognised as a contributor to the rise in French Extremity cinema. Within the content of his work he explores deep, dark, and controversial parts of the human experience, having to use a variety of techniques to make the characters empathetic for an audience in the challenging, sometimes unbearable viewing content. There are arguments for and against his attempts to shape meaning as being successful and unsuccessful; he has a variety of creative techniques he uses to construct and explore narrative. I will use three of Noé’s films as examples to analyse; Irreversible (2002), Enter The Void (2009) and Love (2015). These films showcase Noés talent and track his development and further explorations of reoccurring themes such as love, violence, and drug use.

Firstly, Noé uses camera movement in very creative ways to enhance the viewers' experience and provoke certain feelings. For example, in Irreversible, the opening camera swoops down and becomes chaotic entering a sadomasochistic club called ‘Rectum.’ This manic camera movement enhances the content of the scene by adding to the grunginess. The stylized movement also appears ‘home footage'–like, adding a certain level of realism. Some French films in the past had been criticised for “the lack of real characters” as the scholar Rémi Fournier Lanzoni suggests. Noé came with a wave of new French filmmakers who had freedom to explore, allowing him to feature all kinds of characters and through creative techniques in camera he could emphasise certain things about them, like in Irreversible. The opening sequence is used to show the seedy, dark world in which the lead characters have found themselves. The film begins extremely intense and disorientating achieved mainly through Noé’s rabid camera movements and the extreme dramatization of his varying characters. Further evidence for how Noé constructs meaning interestingly is through his camera work in Enter the Void. For the first part of the film, the camera is P.O.V. until the character of Oscar is shot. The camera then becomes his spirit spiralling around different memories in his life. In the article by Tarek Shoukri, Noé referred to his camera movements saying, “you have to be playful with the language.” This shows how Noé is conscious of how he communicates through camera, stating how important creativity and playfulness are. The use of camera in Enter The Void shapes meaning through placing the audience into the characters' shoes. This heightens the experience and makes the death of Oscar more tragic and distressing to witness. The strategy of using the camera like a character also links to the symbolism of ‘life flashing before your eyes’ when dying. The camera guiding us through his life in a sometimes-voyeuristic style.

Noé is very skillful with camera; for Irreversible some of the film was shot by him handheld. He has a range of uses for it and many different examples of how to intensify scenes. In Irreversible once again he demonstrates different techniques. For the infamously torturous rape scene he holds the frame for an unbearable nine minutes. As the film critic Roger Ebert describes, it's “a stationary camera shot that goes on and on, and never cuts away.” This is unlike the chaos of the camera earlier in the film, but it is more agonising to witness as all that is left for the audience is the shocking violence of the act. Noé’s creative use of not cutting in this scene makes for a horrifying and brutally honest depiction of such a horrendous attack. Further supported by the film critic Philip French who says there is “self-conscious virtuosity in the long takes.” This emphasises how Noé’s deep understanding of camera and timing allows for a wide range of emotions and reactions from audiences, heightened through the cameras provocation of chaos and agony. To summarise, Noé uses camera in many ways to create meaning, communicate emotions, and other elements of narrative.

Noé’s interactions with actors are crucial for making his films the bold works of art they are. His construction of meaning in the narrative is heavily furthered by how the actors work and move within the film. ‘Irreversible’ presents techniques Noé sometimes uses to add deeper meaning to performances when he cast Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel as the title roles Alex and Marcus. The two actors being married in real life allowed a familiarity and chemistry that would have been challenging to create otherwise. When interviewed by Shade Rupe, Noé said about the film “let’s do the whole movie with improvised dialog.” Having semi improvised scenes in the film creates a degree of realism, making the violence depicted shockingly real. This is furthered by the scholar Mattias Frey who describes the films techniques as a way Irreversible can be “taken as real”. He continues to say this is “a key motive for the use of realism,” as Noé successfully makes the content on screen so real looking it provokes strong reactions. Through his improvisation the spontaneity and sudden reactions from Bellucci within the scene, are gruellingly honest. This technique implemented by Noé shapes meaning by providing a raw portrayal.

In contrast to reasons Noé’s acting techniques successfully shape meaning, there are criticisms suggesting his techniques fail. As the film critic Andrew Male states Enter The Void is “dreadfully acted.” This is mirrored by what the film critic Mark Kermode believes about another Noé film Love, commenting the film is “employed more for scandalous than immersive ends.” This argues how Noé’s explicit imagery and use of realism in acting fails to submerge audiences into the story due to the ‘shock value’ of it. Sometimes featuring real acts of sex like in Love, can be effective when trying to communicate themes. However, it overshadows the narrative and unsuccessfully generates meaning, mainly caused by the uncomfortable scenarios heightened through exploitation of actors. Overall for Noé’s creative techniques with regards to acting and how they shape meaning, there are many ways they successfully submerse the audience and ways they do not. However, it is part of his style, and improvisation is a necessity to his work, especially when working with non–professional actors. In Love, he said because Aomi Muyock and Klara Kristin had never acted before he could not have scripted dialogue, as it would prevent a realistic flow. The improvisation allows the actors to be natural and comfortable in their roles.

Looking at creative techniques Noé uses when forming his films in pre-and post-production, clearly he has a link to structure and meaning. Noé’s visual storytelling is essential to his language, using every tool at his disposal. Even the sex scenes have meaning arguably; the “sex becomes a form of storytelling,” suggests Frey. Evident in Love, it communicates clearly the breakdown of the character’s relationships, becoming less intimate and more robotic, gradually becoming more uncomfortable to watch. The meaning created by the sex is presented in a striking way, which is important to Noé. The auteur places careful attention to his visuals, relying heavily on the placement to grip audiences. Noé himself said when in conversation with Brian Reitzell “the first three shots in a movie are probably the most important besides the last.” This links back to Noé’s style and explicit content; he captures audiences through bold openings, to set the tone and convey the meaning of the film. Overall, Noé’s successful placement of shots within a film allows him to open with symbolism, while creating a level of anticipation. Noé in the past has even described the importance of having the titles as a key part of the film. In Irreversible, he allows the credits to play out at the beginning backwards, showing the theme of not being able to change the past with a daunting sound track to accompany.

Specifically, with script/ scene structure, Noé constructs with meaning, having the narrative of ‘Irreversible’ beginning at the end and ending at the beginning. This is symbolic of how everlasting the effects of the violence within the film will be, as well as building tension. The film critic summaries “time is at the mercy of the filmmaker.” This emphasises how through placing the narrative backwards, Noé skilfully has taken all hope for a happy ending, as the events of the film unfold they cannot be changed. Adding to the brutality and harshness of the violence shown. Linking to structure, because Noé often uses improvisation there is a spontaneity and a ‘real time’ feel to his films. The way this creates meaning is once again having a clear structure of scenes and imagery but with realistic dialogue and performances. As the scholar Roy Armes says, associated “to modern tastes” is a “loose improvisatory style.” Noé’s style is very modern, using techniques that are becoming more popular among filmmakers. His extreme realism leaving audiences immersed in the horror or passion conveyed, and a technique that produces strong emotional impact. The overall look and meaning of the imagery shown is so painfully real that it leaves no room to avert from the savagery of the content.

Through sound and music Noé continues to generate meaning. In Love, he creates a romanticised atmosphere in parts, sensualised by the music. Noé conveyed the importance of music in an interview with Kim Taylor Bennett saying “it makes the movie really sentimental” when referring to Love. Much like how he uses sex scenes to communicate narrative he uses music to communicate mood, in Love during the club scene when Electra and Murphy test the boundaries of their relationship with Omi, the seductive strum of Pink Floyd makes the image more loving and powerful. Contrasting this use of music Noé often uses it in a distorted manner to create tension or make the impact of the cinematography more startling. In ‘Irreversible’ an unnerving beat accompanies the murder of Le Tenia. The film critic Owen Gleiberman analyses the use of music in this shot, emphasising the agonising length of it furthered by how the music “kept pumping during the face smash scene.” The simultaneous use of camera and sound is so carefully selected to create a horrifying shot of unbearable violence. Gleiberman summaries the success of Noé’s technique, having control even over time through sound and music choices. Overall through music Noé creates meaning successfully. Noé has stated how his films would not have been as loaded without their soundtracks, the music and sound is a key factor in provoking responses Noé intends.

Another creative technique of Noé’s that he uses effectively to shape meaning is through his well thought out use of mise en scene. Noé attended film school aged seventeen and through his long career has shown a care and detail for not only sound, acting and cinematography but for production design too. As the film scholar Alexandra West talks of Noé filling “each frame with flesh,” this is confirmed through the meaning and symbolism demonstrated in Irreversible. The tunnel being painted red, symbolic of danger and creating a hellish setting; and in Love through the passionate red bed sheets. Interestingly he made Love as a 3D film, having to slow down the action and create a sometimes-sensual pace, the 3D arguably creates meaning. As the film critic Peter Debruge suggests it can be used to “amplify our sense of identification” with Murphy the protagonist. Noé is fearless in his explorations and the avenues he uses to convey story, the 3D does immerse audiences to a degree and the overall colour of Love is carefully constructed to enhance the setting.

To conclude, there are many examples in Noé’s work that show his use of creative techniques to generate meaning. He uses sound, cinematography, editing, acting and production design effectively to enhance the viewers experience and immerse them in the world of the story. He constructs every aspect of the film in a way that builds to a shocking, cathartic and bold ending. There are arguments for and against his work being successful and unsuccessful in its attempts to create meaning. His approach can be seen as shock value over story, but also as a raw, honest, brutal portrayal of humanity. Although his work has been criticised for its underlying homophobic and misogynistic tones, the work is fearless in its journeys and Noé’s talent for visuals cannot be understated. Without the creative techniques used throughout the process, the films would not have the impact or recognition they are so widely known for. Overall I think he is an interesting figure in film with a distinct style and attention to detail; with clear meaning and intent behind various aspects of his films. Gaspar Noé certainly will bring more controversial and visually rich films to his future credits, and will continue to implement symbolism throughout his frames and other unique filmmaking methods.

Still from 'Irreversible' (2002)

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About the Creator

Aidan Kirwin

I am a filmmaker, specialising in writing and producing. I also draw and paint, using my designs to create clothing which I sell on depop.

Instagram: @aidankirwin & @aidanarts1

Depop: @aidankirwin

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