To ask if is “good” is to ask the wrong question. It is not entertainment in the conventional sense. It is a simulation. It is the closest cinema has come to replicating a DMT trip, a panic attack, and a grief spiral all at once.
The film tells the story of Oscar (played by Romain Levi) and his twin brother, Judas (played by Gilbert Melki), who are involved in the Tokyo club scene. One night, Oscar is shot and killed by a bouncer outside a nightclub. The film then follows Oscar's spirit as he enters the afterlife, where he encounters various surreal and often disturbing visions.
: The sequence uses high-speed cuts and vibrant typography to "punch" the viewer with themes and names before the story begins.
In the context of Gaspar Noé’s filmography, Enter the Void sits as the central pillar of his "psychedelic" period—a warm, philosophical contrast to the brutal realism of Irréversible and the heart attack-inducing chaos of Climax . It is the film where the director moved away from simple provocation and attempted to construct a genuine spiritual epic. For cinephiles willing to surrender to its rhythm, Enter the Void remains a landmark of experimental cinema: a terrifying, exhausting, and ultimately beautiful trip to the edge of the universe and back. enter the void -2009-
In 2009, Gaspar Noé's avant-garde film "Enter the Void" premiered at the Venice Film Festival, leaving audiences both bewildered and fascinated. This cinematic experiment, which defies traditional narrative structures, is a deeply philosophical and visually stunning exploration of human existence, mortality, and the mysteries of the universe.
After Oscar smokes DMT, the camera shifts to a floating, third-person perspective just behind his head, mirroring the sensation of self-alienation.
Enter the Void (2009): Gaspar Noé’s Neon Psychedelic Nightmare To ask if is “good” is to ask the wrong question
As Oscar’s spirit floats through Tokyo, he is frequently pulled into portals of memory—flashbacks to his childhood, his arrival in Tokyo, and his complex relationship with his mother and sister. The film suggests that death is not an end, but a dissolution of linear time; the past, present, and future merge into a single, looping stream. Visually, this culminates in one of cinema’s most notorious images: a vaginal POV shot that shows Oscar’s apparent reincarnation as his own child, trapping him in an Oedipal loop of love, trauma, and rebirth.
Here is a breakdown of why Enter the Void is a helpful piece of cinema:
: The film attempts to visually replicate the effects of DMT , a powerful psychedelic drug that Oscar consumes early in the movie. Noé used his personal experiences with ayahuasca to inform the film's "blissful terror" and visual beauty. Iconic Opening Credits It is the closest cinema has come to
: The camera plunges into brains, lightbulbs, and reproductive organs.
The film's use of color is also striking, with a predominance of bright, neon hues that evoke the Tokyo club scene. The cinematography is often frenetic and kinetic, with rapid cuts and sweeping camera movements that create a sense of disorientation and chaos.
Upon its premiere at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, "Enter the Void" received a predictably polarizing response, provoking both boos and applause. Critics were divided between those who saw a groundbreaking work of pure cinema and those who dismissed it as pretentious and tiresome. The Hollywood Reporter described it as "virtually unwatchable" due to its obsessive emphasis on sex and drugs. Variety called it a "tiresome" gimmick, suggesting the director needed "some better drugs." In contrast, the New York Times defended it as an "exceptional work" of cinematic audacity.
If you're looking for a "proper paper" analysis of Gaspar Noé's 2009 film Enter the Void