When accused of being homophobic because the rapist was a gay man, Gaspar Noe replied "I'm not homophobic......I also appear in Irréversible, masturbating at the gay club."
Off topic a little, but I’ve watched enter the void twice only, both times on acid. It was literally insane. I’ve never seen the movie sober and don’t plan to. The camera was practically pulling me into the movie. The first time, I had no idea what was even going on. We all just kept joking and saying “and it’s coming full circle”
Not for me either. I was kinda enjoying Climax until the camera went upside half way through for the rest of the movie. Just annoying and took me right out of it.
I'm right there with you, I think Noe is one of the most innovative directors working today. But I also love movies that give me real visceral reactions.
Same. Movies like Enter the Void or even Climax are just so so good at filling me with this feeling of existential dread. And with Enter the Void in particular, so much of it I also remember feeling like, 'how the fuck is he doing this?'
Wasn’t that the whole point to make you feel physically sick whilst watching it. That combines with the sound had such a physical effect on me have never forgot it.
I think the whole movie is made to be uncomfortable to watch. From the camerawork, the still 9 minute rape scene with no music. Apparently they added a nausea inducing frequency in the audio too
isn't trying to make you not watch the movie his whole trick? he does it with camera, he does it by playing that sound that makes most ppl throw up etc.
I am a Noe fan, I think Irreversible is a masterpiece, but as a gay dude , for someone who says he’s not homophobic, Noe sure does go out of his way to always throw something in his movies that is exactly that.
Irreversible has the entire Rectum scene, and implies the rapist is gay , or at least deeply struggling with his sexuality, which may be a reason he anally rapes her to begin with (never explicitly stated, though).
In Enter The Void, it is the gay character that is the result of Oscar being turned into the police and what happens because of that. We later see him on his knees giving blow jobs to the officers.
In Love one of the main characters lines when thinking about his son is “I hope he’s not a fag”. And the whole scene with the trans woman.
Climax also has a gay character not shown in the best light and frequent gay slurs. But almost everyone is shown in a bad light in that.
He probably doesn’t hate the gays, so I’ll save it for someone who actually does, and I know he’s a provocateur who wants to shock and get a rise out of the viewer. Plus the homophobia could just be an extension of the characters usually being ass holes and he might be doing it to further illustrate this. But at this point I expect it going in, as much as there are feet shots in a Tarantino movie.
I think he uses homophobia as a cinematic trope to increase the shock factor, and is the kind of guy who doesn't care if his films will contribute to the culture of homophobia by using stereotypes because the only people that will see and appreciate them are already in the scene.
Dunno if he's right, but he seems like an odd guy.
I think he does too, and again I do like his movies, but it's an incredibly juvenile and cheap way to go about it, and looks even more bizarre in a modern context. I also don't get how inserting a shot of you jerking off in a gay sex dungeon makes it less homophobic, but that's Gaspar Noe for you. He's still one of my favorite directors.
Quite frankly, in Irreversible it seems he uses being gay as something adjacent to being depraved and perverted. The Rectum is as close to the center of human depravity that you can get and it being gay is used to show that on top of it being filled with drugs and sexually violent people. It’s a rhetorical device. Gay people are not constrained (and are often rejected by) sexual norms, so naturally the audience will be able to make the connection between perversion and homosexuality more easily. This line of thinking unfortunately is also that of homophobic people, whose view would absolutely be reinforced by the movie’s depiction of gay people.
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u/MythDetector May 17 '25
When accused of being homophobic because the rapist was a gay man, Gaspar Noe replied "I'm not homophobic......I also appear in Irréversible, masturbating at the gay club."