Enter the Void (2009)

An American drug dealer living in Tokyo is betrayed by his best friend and killed in a drug deal gone bad. His soul, observing the repercussions of his death, seeks resurrection.

Director:

Gaspar Noé

Writers:

Gaspar Noé, Lucile Hadzihalilovic (with the help of)

Stars:

Paz de la Huerta, Nathaniel Brown, Cyril Roy

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Paz de la Huerta	...	Linda
Nathaniel Brown	...	Oscar
Cyril Roy	...	Alex
Olly Alexander	...	Victor
Masato Tanno	...	Mario
Ed Spear	...	Bruno
Emily Alyn Lind	...	Little Linda
Jesse Kuhn	...	Little Oscar
Nobu Imai	...	Tito
Sakiko Fukuhara	...	Saki
Janice Béliveau-Sicotte	...	Mother (as Janice Sicotte-Béliveau)
Sara Stockbridge	...	Suzy (as Sarah Stockbridge)
Stuart Miller	...	Victor's Father
Emi Takeuchi	...	Carol (as Yemi)
Rumiko Kimishima	...	Rumi

Storyline

Tokyo's nasty underside, seen primarily through the eyes of Oscar, a heavy drug user, whose sister Linda is a stripper. Oscar also has flashbacks to his childhood when trauma upends the siblings. Oscar's drug-fed hallucinations alter Tokyo's already-disconcerting nights, and after the police shoot him, he can float above and look down: on his sister's sorrow, on the rooms of a love hotel, and on life at even a molecular level. The spectrum's colors can be beautiful; it's people's colorless lives that can be ugly. And what of afterlife, is there more than a void?

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Plot Keywords:

drugs | hallucination | afterlife | night | love hotel | 

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

IFC Films [us] Official site [fr]

Country:

France Germany Italy Canada

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

5 May 2010 (France)

Also Known As:

Soudain le vide

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

€13,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$43,651 (USA) (24 September 2010)

Gross:

$336,467 (USA) (24 December 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fidélité Films, Wild Bunch, BUF

Technical Specs

Runtime:

161 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Most of the dialogue was improvised by the cast.

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Goofs

During the first sequence in the "Sex, Money, Power" strip club, the camera and jib/crane are visible in the reflection of the platform the dancers are on.

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Quotes

Alex: Basically, when you die your spirit leaves your body, actually at first you can see all your life, like reflected in a magic mirror. Then you start floating like a ghost, you can see anything happening around you, you can hear everything but you can't communicate. Then you see lights, lights of all different colours, these lights are the doors that pull you into other planes of existence, but most people actually like this world so much, that they don't want to be taken away, so the whole thing...

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Crazy Credits

At the Cannes Film Festival the film was screened without any opening or closing credits, the film began with "ENTER" and ended with "THE VOID".

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Connections

Referenced in Girls: Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a. The Crackcident (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Becoming"
Performed by Jay Condiotti

User Reviews

Trippy & dreamy, but be sure you're prepared

I attended the International Premiere of "Enter the Void" at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Fans of director Gaspar Noé, whose film "Irreversible" created a significant following, will not be disappointed. At two and a half hours long, this film is definitely not for everyone. But I knew that going in and got exactly what I'd hoped for and more. It's trippy, dreamy, and mesmerizing and left me shaking my head in wonder many times. Startling and risky performances punctuate the dazzling visuals. The biggest surprise for me: "Enter the Void" has much more of a narrative than I was expecting. I was prepared for a cinematic acid trip, which I got, but there is an actual storyline which threads through the experimental camera-work and effects which are at the heart of the film. I highly recommend this movie but with qualifications, though. There is a great deal of drug use and some explicit sex but the film is compelling.