"Love" - directed by Gaspar Noe
(New Zealand International Film Festival)
Starring: Karl Glusman, Aomi Muycock, Klara Kristin, Juan Saavedra, Gaspar Noe, Vincent Maraval, Isabelle Nicou, Xamira Zuloaga
Running Time: 134 minutes
Rated: R18 - Explicit (real) sex on an X level and frequent profanity
Gaspar Noe is one of two reasons that I booked this film.
The other reason is pure defiance.
In the early days of the film festival there used to be an Incredibly Strange Film Festival and this is the sort of movie that would almost certainly have been listed on that festival programme rather than the far more serious (and hipster attracting) International Film Festival.
And it would no doubt have attracted attention from the loonies at the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards and probably been banned or censored or soaked in holy water and whacked with bibles.
So I am used to immediately booking anything controversial at Film Festivals because the idea that some cross waving ninny can have any say about what I can and cannot watch incenses me.
It's less an issue these days thankfully so the main reason for seeing "Love" is definitely the writer-director Argentinian nut-job Gaspar Noe.
(I label him so with nothing but genuine admiration)
Noe became known to me after "Irreversible" -the stunning, shocking 2002 movie starring then husband and wife Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassell.
Cleared for only single screenings at the Auckland and then Wellington International Film Festivals it is only available now via US Netflix or via the UK on region free DVD.
It is a great film but certainly not one that you will want to watch too often.
I became an instant Noe fan.
Since "Irreversible" Noe has released "Enter the Void" (2009) a wild ride set in Tokyo about the wandering spirit of a recently killed tourist that follows the dead man's sister around the city.
Overlong and in all honesty a chore to sit through it was a disappointment for me.
But it is different and in typical Noe fashion visually compelling at least.
But here he is again courting controversy with "Love".
This is the story of an American in Paris named Murphy who is with a woman named Omi with whom he has an infant child.
Murphy gets a call from his ex-girlfriend Electra's Mother concerned for her safety and it triggers memories of their time together.
Shot in 3D "Love" contains explicit sex scenes.
Hell, even the early posters were not remotely safe for work.
Clearly this was not going to be a movie to watch with Granny.
And sure enough- after a silly written warning the movie opens on a couple naked in bed pleasuring each other with fingers and hands.
Let's get it out of the way early on..... there is an abundance of sex in this movie and it is only slightly less graphic than a full fledged porn flick.
So yes- you will see male and female nudity, bodily fluids and people actually having sex.
But the thing about offering up this kind of thing in a narrative movie is that if you don't use it right it is either a distraction or becomes out and out boring.
Here it amazingly manages to be both.
After only the second sex scene I found myself growing impatient with it.
It would help if the sex scenes were executed well.
Apparently they were not choreographed for the most part and it shows.
I am all for trying to make things 'real' but there is no titillation in the sex scenes and worst of all nor is there any character growth out of them.
They seem to exist as the sole purpose of the film.
If the tiresome (and often laughable) sex scenes put a dent in the film it's nothing compared to the performances.
Without exception they are bloody awful.
The least offensive is Klara Kristin as Omi but this may be mainly because she is not in it much.
Aomi Muycock as Electra may be pleasing to the eye (she recalls Beatrice Dalle from "Betty Blue") but her acting is pleasing to none of the non visual senses.
Sadly it is the lead actor who plays the character we spend the vast majority of the running time with who is the worst.
Karl Glusman gives easily the worst performance that I have seen this year.
Perhaps it is symptomatic of the requirement for the character to wave his at attention todger around (and in one shot climax in 3D right at the camera God help us) that top talent wasn't hammering at the productions doors but couldn't they have found someone more convincing than this?
The character is immature and unlikeable anyway but add in an amateurish performance and this is painful.
Terrible acting and overuse of tiresome sex scenes kill this film.
So much so that whatever point Noe was trying to make was lost on me.
Murphy is such a dickhead (sorry -there is no other word for him) that he garners no sympathy and his plight is impossible to not only discern but get behind regardless.
He cheats on Electra then complains when she does even though he has encouraged her to do so.
At one point he even tells her off for not preventing him from acting stupidly!
Occasionally the score impresses but that is me trying desperately trying to find anything positive to say about "Love".
Even the 3D is flat in all but two scenes.
There is the laughable one with the close up male climax that drew guffaws from the audience and a much better one where Muycock stares right into the camera (for a legitimate reason I should add).
It is a striking shot that puts you right in the scene.
Given the content of "Love" this might seem concerning but this is one of the few times that Noe shows some restraint and the shot exists for reasons other than showing rumpy-pumpy.
If you are thinking that at the very least you'll see some explicit sex then maybe you can glean some enjoyment from this but honestly - you are better served watching "Blue Is the Warmest Colour".
That film is also French, also sexually explicit but features amazing performances, great direction and speaks more about the subject that Noe has used to name his film than "Love" could dream of.
After the powerful tour de force that was "Irreversible" I was hopeful that Gaspar Noe would become a director to follow but after the self indulgent dullness of "Enter the Void" and now this disaster it seems that that may not be the case.
A huge disappointment.
RATING: 40 / 100
CONCLUSION: Noe can do better than this. Dull, unintentionally funny and with some of the worst acting I have ever seen this is painful. Avoid like herpes.
(New Zealand International Film Festival)
Running Time: 134 minutes
Rated: R18 - Explicit (real) sex on an X level and frequent profanity
Gaspar Noe is one of two reasons that I booked this film.
The other reason is pure defiance.
In the early days of the film festival there used to be an Incredibly Strange Film Festival and this is the sort of movie that would almost certainly have been listed on that festival programme rather than the far more serious (and hipster attracting) International Film Festival.
And it would no doubt have attracted attention from the loonies at the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards and probably been banned or censored or soaked in holy water and whacked with bibles.
So I am used to immediately booking anything controversial at Film Festivals because the idea that some cross waving ninny can have any say about what I can and cannot watch incenses me.
It's less an issue these days thankfully so the main reason for seeing "Love" is definitely the writer-director Argentinian nut-job Gaspar Noe.
(I label him so with nothing but genuine admiration)
Noe became known to me after "Irreversible" -the stunning, shocking 2002 movie starring then husband and wife Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassell.
Cleared for only single screenings at the Auckland and then Wellington International Film Festivals it is only available now via US Netflix or via the UK on region free DVD.
It is a great film but certainly not one that you will want to watch too often.
I became an instant Noe fan.
Since "Irreversible" Noe has released "Enter the Void" (2009) a wild ride set in Tokyo about the wandering spirit of a recently killed tourist that follows the dead man's sister around the city.
Overlong and in all honesty a chore to sit through it was a disappointment for me.
But it is different and in typical Noe fashion visually compelling at least.
But here he is again courting controversy with "Love".
This is the story of an American in Paris named Murphy who is with a woman named Omi with whom he has an infant child.
Murphy gets a call from his ex-girlfriend Electra's Mother concerned for her safety and it triggers memories of their time together.
Shot in 3D "Love" contains explicit sex scenes.
 |
| Karl Glusman as Murphy, Aomi Muycock as Electra nd Klara Kristin ans Omi |
Clearly this was not going to be a movie to watch with Granny.
And sure enough- after a silly written warning the movie opens on a couple naked in bed pleasuring each other with fingers and hands.
Let's get it out of the way early on..... there is an abundance of sex in this movie and it is only slightly less graphic than a full fledged porn flick.
So yes- you will see male and female nudity, bodily fluids and people actually having sex.
But the thing about offering up this kind of thing in a narrative movie is that if you don't use it right it is either a distraction or becomes out and out boring.
Here it amazingly manages to be both.
After only the second sex scene I found myself growing impatient with it.
It would help if the sex scenes were executed well.
Apparently they were not choreographed for the most part and it shows.
I am all for trying to make things 'real' but there is no titillation in the sex scenes and worst of all nor is there any character growth out of them.
They seem to exist as the sole purpose of the film.
If the tiresome (and often laughable) sex scenes put a dent in the film it's nothing compared to the performances.
Without exception they are bloody awful.
The least offensive is Klara Kristin as Omi but this may be mainly because she is not in it much.
Aomi Muycock as Electra may be pleasing to the eye (she recalls Beatrice Dalle from "Betty Blue") but her acting is pleasing to none of the non visual senses.
 |
| Yes- the sex is explicit but still dull |
Karl Glusman gives easily the worst performance that I have seen this year.
Perhaps it is symptomatic of the requirement for the character to wave his at attention todger around (and in one shot climax in 3D right at the camera God help us) that top talent wasn't hammering at the productions doors but couldn't they have found someone more convincing than this?
The character is immature and unlikeable anyway but add in an amateurish performance and this is painful.
Terrible acting and overuse of tiresome sex scenes kill this film.
So much so that whatever point Noe was trying to make was lost on me.
Murphy is such a dickhead (sorry -there is no other word for him) that he garners no sympathy and his plight is impossible to not only discern but get behind regardless.
He cheats on Electra then complains when she does even though he has encouraged her to do so.
At one point he even tells her off for not preventing him from acting stupidly!
Occasionally the score impresses but that is me trying desperately trying to find anything positive to say about "Love".
Even the 3D is flat in all but two scenes.
There is the laughable one with the close up male climax that drew guffaws from the audience and a much better one where Muycock stares right into the camera (for a legitimate reason I should add).
It is a striking shot that puts you right in the scene.
Given the content of "Love" this might seem concerning but this is one of the few times that Noe shows some restraint and the shot exists for reasons other than showing rumpy-pumpy.
If you are thinking that at the very least you'll see some explicit sex then maybe you can glean some enjoyment from this but honestly - you are better served watching "Blue Is the Warmest Colour".
That film is also French, also sexually explicit but features amazing performances, great direction and speaks more about the subject that Noe has used to name his film than "Love" could dream of.
After the powerful tour de force that was "Irreversible" I was hopeful that Gaspar Noe would become a director to follow but after the self indulgent dullness of "Enter the Void" and now this disaster it seems that that may not be the case.
A huge disappointment.
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