Climax (2018)

French dancers gather in a remote, empty school building to rehearse on a wintry night. The all-night celebration morphs into a hallucinatory nightmare when they learn their sangria is laced with LSD.

Director:

Gaspar Noé

Writer:

Gaspar Noé

Stars:

Sofia Boutella, Romain Guillermic, Souheila Yacoub

4 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sofia Boutella	...	Selva
Romain Guillermic	...	David
Souheila Yacoub	...	Lou
Kiddy Smile	...	Daddy
Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull	...	Emmanuelle (as Claude Gajan Maull)
Giselle Palmer	...	Gazelle
Taylor Kastle	...	Taylor
Thea Carla Schott	...	Psyche
Sharleen Temple	...	Ivana
Lea Vlamos	...	Lea
Alaia Alsafir	...	Alaya
Kendall Mugler	...	Rocket
Lakdhar Dridi	...	Riley
Adrien Sissoko	...	Omar
Mamadou Bathily	...	Bats

Storyline

In the mid 1990's, 20 French urban dancers join together for a three-day rehearsal in a closed-down boarding school located at the heart of a forest to share one last dance. They then make one last party around a large sangria bowl. Quickly, the atmosphere becomes charged and a strange madness will seize them the whole night. If it seems obvious to them that they have been drugged, they neither know by who nor why. And it's soon impossible for them to resist to their neuroses and psychoses, numbed by the hypnotic and the increasing electric rhythm of the music. While some feel in paradise, most of them plunge into hell.

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Plot Keywords:

gay | written by director | dancing | snow | sangria | 

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Music | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for disturbing content involving a combination of drug use, violent behavior and strong sexuality, and for language and some graphic nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

France Belgium USA Switzerland Monaco

Language:

French English

Release Date:

1 March 2019 (USA)

Also Known As:

Climax

Filming Locations:

France

Box Office

Budget:

€2,600,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rectangle Productions, Wild Bunch, Les Cinémas de la Zone

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shot in 15 days.

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Goofs

While the movie is supposed to be set in 1996, which is confirmed by the clothes, the music and the lack of smartphones, the French spoken in the film is very much 2010s, with many anglicisms or other recent verbal tics heard throughout the movie.

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Crazy Credits

The credits begin with "A CEUX QUI NOUS ONT FAITS ET QUI NE SONT PLUS" ("to those who made us and who are no longer" in French), followed by "VOUS AVEZ VU UN FILM TIRE DE FAITS REELS SURVENUS EN FRANCE AU COEUR DE L'HIVER 1996" ("you see a movie taken from real events in France in the heart of winter 1996").

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Connections

References Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954)

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Soundtracks

Electron
Written, Composed by Richard Brook and Simon Hartley
Performed by Wild Planet
(c) Published by Warp Publishing
(p) 1992 Warp Records Limited
Courtesy of Warp Records

User Reviews

Kill the dance floor, but do not kill the rhythm.

Noé concentrates all his author traits, but incorporates enough novel elements to leave us satisfied. Once you start the plot you can not stop looking. We're trapped.

The film seduces us with its rhythms and its daring staging through the corporal expression of the actors-dancers. Beautiful and brutal.

Technically and artistically it is splendid, it borders on perfection, but, the argument does not go that far. Presents a choral cast and then focus on a single character. We know the motivations and fears of the characters through a brief interview at the beginning of the film and through the psychotropic trip. This leaves us with a film that is more empty than it seems.

When he talks about human drama, the plot is great, however, when he leaves this drama, the film falls apart. The last 45 minutes are long, slow and obtuse.