Gaspar Noé is an entertaining interview — no matter what other adjectives you would use to describe his career or his approach as a filmmaker, you have to give him this. And with his latest film, “Vortex,” receiving a limited theatrical release this month, fans of, ah, candid Hollywood interviews are about to get more than they handle.
“Vortex” is a film about the ravages of old age, where an elderly couple – played by Françoise Lebrun and Italian director Dario Argento – must grapple with their diminishing independence. So naturally, in their interview with Noé, The Independent leads with a story about the drugged-out director watching Alfonso Cuarón‘s “Gravity” in a hospital bedroom. “I enjoyed that movie so much!,” the director told the publication. “The whole room was spinning; it was like I was in a womb. I was so happy.”
While a brush with death might scare anyone, Noé tells The Independent that his mind immediately went to the practical. “How are my loved ones going to deal with all my stuff when I die?,” he said. “I wasn’t in fear. I was trying to make things happen so that I wouldn’t annoy my loved ones by being brain-damaged.” And if nothing else, watching “Gravity” on a tiny hospital television turned out to be the best viewing experience he’d had since he was a child watching “2001: A Space Odyssey.” “That was one good part of being close to death,” he added.
For those worried that a near-death experience and a film like “Vortex” means a kinder, gentler Gaspar Noé, this interview should put those concerns to bed. Whether the conversation turns to the surprising Netflix popularity of his 2015 film “Love” during COVID-19 lockdowns (“The movie was successful during confinement because the audience is made of humans who need to masturbate”) or the current state of American cinema (“Do you think the Marvel movies are turning the Americans stupid, or is the whole of America turning so stupid that they need such stupid movies to represent their minds?”), Noé is in classic form.