"I’m a huge Gaspar Noé fan and loved submitting to his latest assault. I was caught off guard with “Climax” given how the reviews centered on how much fun it was. It’s incredibly distressing and disturbing in places and unlike with ‘Irreversible’, I wasn’t prepared for it.
The opening with all its influences laid bare reminded me of the legendary Nurse with Wound list from the late ’70s in which all the music that influenced their first album was openly acknowledged. By pure coincidence, erstwhile Nurse with Wound member, Geoff Cox, regularly collaborates with Noé’s on/off creative partner, Lucile Hadžihalilović.
The dance scenes are extraordinary and as it becomes increasingly deranged and warped, the film lapses into a dimension that evokes the altered physical space of Ernie Gehr’s structuralist film, “Serene Velocity” combined with the narcotic delirium of Richard Kern’s “Submit to Me” skits. It’s cinema as sensory overload and it’s completely Noé’s world."
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