BEYONDFEST 2021 REVIEW: GASPAR NOÉ'S VORTEX
GASPAR NOÉ’S new film, VORTEX, made its west-coast premiere on October 8, 2021 as part of BeyondFest’s schedule of events. Image courtesy of Dana Vargas.
What constitutes your definition of horror? We all have seen films that have challenged our notion of what a horror film truly is. For some, the works of director DAVID LYNCH resonate as horror, even though they may not be implicitly defined as such. For others, it could be a film such as SE7EN, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, or even a film like CACHÉ. Horror films seek to elicit fear or disgust in us, to evoke our nightmares, revulsions, and terror at the unknown or the macabre.
French-Argentinian director, GASPAR NOÉ, though not widely considered a horror filmmaker, is certainly a master of making audiences feel uncomfortable, tackling subjects that often elicit feelings of repugnance, anxiety, and dread through films like IRRÉVERSIBLE, LOVE, and CLIMAX. His new film VORTEX, takes on perhaps what could be seen as his most “conventional” subject matter: ageing and dementia. That being said, to dismiss this film as banal is to completely overlook the true terror and trauma that is rife in every frame.
The film may be Noé’s most personal yet, as he revealed recently that only a year and a half ago, he suffered a brain hemorrhage and nearly died. Miraculously he did not have any brain damage, but was advised to stay at home (keep in mind this was in the midst of the pandemic). Noé spent the next six months watching the films of KENJI MIZOGUCHI, a Japanese director and screenwriter infamous for his long takes and mise-en-scène, saying that it was the most peaceful moment of his life.
VORTEX director, GASPAR NOÉ sent a message before the BeyondFest screening of his new film on October 8, 2021. Image courtesy of Dana Vargas.
Out of his recovery, came VORTEX, starring FRANÇOISE LEBRUN, ALEX LUTZ, and legendary Italian horror director, DARIO ARGENTO. The film examines a small family (their characters do not even have names, and are only referred to in the film as Mother, Father, and Son) dealing with how the pain and heartbreak of ageing and dementia affects their everyday lives. In a July interview with Indiewire, Noe spoke of how personal the subject matter was for him: ‘My mother lost her mind eight years ago, and then she died of it; so did my grandmother. It’s just a magical process that some of the brightest people on the planet are some of the first to lose their minds.” Noé, in fact, dedicates this film to those people who have suffered with dementia, beginning the film with the quote: “To all those whose brain will decompose before their hearts.”
The film opens on Argento and Lebrun’s husband and wife characters, settling in for some afternoon wine and snacks on their outdoor patio in the heart of Paris. It seems ideal, with both characters being affectionate with each other as they toast. But that night, we quickly realize that all is not well, as we see the pair laying in bed as a thick, black line begins to descend down between the two, splitting the screen permanently in half for the duration of the rest of the film, in an ominous portents of events to come. Noé has played with split screens in previous films, but in VORTEX, he makes it a permanent visual of the entire film, the idea being that, though each person is living in their own bubble, they are still connected with the other. Watching the image of that line bisecting the screen, I couldn’t help but think of the human brain itself, with that great longitudinal fissure running down the middle of the brain, parting the two sides.
Argento plays a film critic and writer, who is currently working on a book exploring the connection of films and dreams. His office is a chaotic mess of handwritten notes, piles of books, and typed pages, the kind of creative discord that makes sense to the artist, but perhaps not to the rest of the world. His wife, played by the fantastic FRANÇOISE LEBRUN, is a psychiatrist who, though no longer actively practicing, is still able to write her own dementia prescriptions with dangerous impunity. Lebrun’s character often wanders around the house, looking slightly bewildered and confused, as though she started off with a goal in mind at some part of the house and quickly lost it partway through. She often leaves the house without telling anyone, throwing her husband into a panic, as he searches around their neighborhood for her. She also leaves the gas on the stove on, until her husband realizes this in a moment of sheer terror, smelling it from his office and running to throw open the windows and gasping in huge lungfuls of fresh air, as she sits calmly at the kitchen table. She is dangerous to herself and her husband because she is so unpredictable. One such instance in the film was so shocking, that my fellow BeyondFest attendees at the October 10th Aero Theater screening actually gasped out loud at the sheer horrific nature of it. But of course, the real sadness is that she doesn’t realize the depth of her actions. She is a product of her illness, and that’s what makes a disease like dementia so appalling and painful to not only those who suffer from it, but by those loved ones directly impacted from it.
DARIO ARGENTO and FRANÇOISE LEBRUN in a scene from VORTEX. Image courtesy of SlashFilm.
Both Argento and Lebrun are absolutely magnificent in the film, turning in performances that are raw, real, and poignant. Argento’s husband is flawed in many ways, but there is no denying the love he has for his wife, and the conflict he feels with wanting to do what is best for his wife and the anger and sheer terror he experiences with her actions. It is absolutely riveting and gut-wrenching to witness. The weight of Lebrun’s performance is carried in her facial expressions and mannerisms, shuffling around their cluttered flat, confused and forgetful, her lidded eyes vacillating between fear and dejectedness. Her words come out whispered and skittish when asking her son who her husband is, and when later muttering, “I’m sorry” when the son and father argue about the best course of action for her. As their troubled son, Lutz is caught in the middle as a man faced with two aging parents. He has his own demons he is fighting alongside caring for his own young son and now, for elderly mother and father.
The film not only confronts the terrors of dementia and ageing, but also the reality of death itself. As someone who has lost both of my parents, I have witnessed first hand what death looks like, and with VORTEX, Noé captures all those systematic, and at times, strangely banal processes in all their unflinching, macabre glory. The subject matter is one not unfamiliar to the horror genre, explored in such films as THE TAKING OF DEBORAH LOGAN and THE VISIT, but not perhaps not to such devastating and sheer authentic effect as VORTEX. Death and dying in VORTEX is distinctly unglamorous, from stopped-up toilets, to fluorescent-lit hospital beds, even to the process of packing up the home of a loved one after they’ve passed away.
VORTEX is a horror film, because it does what horror does best, which is to elicit feelings of fear, dread, disgust, and terror in the viewer. Because it doesn’t have a masked killer, a supernatural entity, or severed limbs flying across the screen doesn’t make it any less ghastly. VORTEX forces us to consider and understand how the fear of aging, decay, death, and the fear of losing our minds provokes such a deep response in us as individuals and as a culture. It’s something that Noé seems to understand now more than ever: “I just know I’m going to die and then I’ll be erased. The dream within a dream is going to be over.”
Where to watch:
VORTEX premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on July 16, 2021, where it was picked up by film distributor, UTOPIA. There are no additional details on a wide release date at this time.
About BeyondFest:
The Los Angeles BeyondFest film festival showcases the best in horror, sci-fi, and fantasy each year, partnering with American Cinematheque, and with all ticket sales going to the 501c3 non-profit film institution. For more information, including their 2021 schedule, visit BeyondFest.com.
