{"id":346596,"date":"2021-09-30T21:16:44","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T18:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/vortex-is-a-tender-experimental-dive-into-dementia\/"},"modified":"2021-09-30T21:16:44","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T18:16:44","slug":"vortex-is-a-tender-experimental-dive-into-dementia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/vortex-is-a-tender-experimental-dive-into-dementia\/","title":{"rendered":"#Vortex is a Tender Experimental Dive Into Dementia"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Vortex is a Tender Experimental Dive Into Dementia<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

     <span class=\"mx-1\">Split screen entertainment is back and sadder than ever.<\/span>\n<\/p><div id=\"\"><figure class=\"sf-entry-featured-media<\/a> \"><img width=\"800\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Vortex.jpeg\" class=\"articlethumb wp-post-image\" alt=\"Vortex Gaspar Noe\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Vortex.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Vortex-768x450.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\"\/><p>\n                    <span class=\"sf-entry-flag sf-entry-flag-creditline\">Wild Bunch \/ NYFF<\/span>\n\n                        <\/figure><!-- START BYLINE --><div class=\"row align-items-center justify-content-center my-4 text-center medium dark-gray\">\n        By\u00a0Luke Hicks\u00a0\u00b7 Published on September 30th, 2021 \n        <\/div>\n    <!-- END BYLINE -->\n\n    The question going into <strong><em>Vortex <\/em><\/strong>\u2014 <strong>Gaspar No\u00e9<\/strong>\u2018s film tracking the final hours of an old Parisian couple\u2019s dementia-laden lives \u2014 is whether or not the French writer-director is capable of pulling off something so sincere. With <em>Irreversible<\/em> and <em>Enter the Void<\/em>, the gritty, psychedelic provocateur has proven himself a master of avant-garde shock. But can he endear viewers to a wandering elderly couple without alienating them with his app<\/a>roach? The answer is a short, sweet, and resounding \u201cyes.\u201d\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
Vortex <\/em>is the coming of a new No\u00e9, characterized by emotional maturity, balance, hope, and kindness \u2014 in addition to his usual experimentalism and provocation. It is by no means a light watch nor is it a removal of the old No\u00e9, but it isn\u2019t punishing like his other work. It\u2019s curious and inviting, even a bit dull. If past No\u00e9 seeks to traumatize you in hope of awakening you, Vortex <\/em>aims to soften you in hope of a gentler awakening, this time to the fragility of life, the inevitability of the end.<\/p>\n
No\u00e9 rolls the full opening credits before the film starts, a move that allows the eventual finale to sink in without the disturbance of the post-credits rigmarole. However, moving the end credits to the beginning doesn\u2019t stop No\u00e9 from employing a second stylized opening credits sequence over the initial shots, per No\u00e9\u2019s typical introductory abrasions. The names of the leads flash on the screen in big, bold letters with accompanying birth years to highlight their ages.<\/p>\n
The couple is played by Fran\u00e7oise Lebrun <\/strong>(1944) and Mr. Giallo himself, writer-director Dario Argento<\/strong> (1940). While it\u2019s likely a dream for No\u00e9 to direct the Italian icon, the film itself seems unconcerned with Argento\u2019s style or celebrity (or with Lebrun\u2019s for that matter). There are nods to the giallo in lighting and design, but Argento lovers shouldn\u2019t go into\u00a0Vortex<\/em> expecting a horror-adjacent experience. This is tender, more like Amour <\/em>or 45 Years<\/em><\/a> than Climax<\/em> or Tenebrae<\/em>. As the sentiment of the dedication expresses, it\u2019s for \u201call those whose minds will decompose before their hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plot-wise, there isn\u2019t much to spill or spoil. We\u2019re voyeurs in the experience, following the couple as they go through normal and bastardized versions of their routines and do inexplicable things they don\u2019t realize they\u2019re doing. At one point, an overheard talk show in the background introduces the concept of traumatic memory versus healthy memory, a theme teased out across the film, as we witness memory fail both characters in real-time. There\u2019s a deep sadness in watching them, but No\u00e9 is smart to employ a button-pushing sense of humor to keep us afloat. Few others could make a kid slamming a toy car on a table for several minutes funny.<\/p>\n
Formally, on the other hand, there\u2019s a lot going on. You might be wondering how one camera manages to follow at the back of two separate people for the duration of a film. No\u00e9 was clearly wondering the same, and he came up with a simple, radical solution: split-screen entertainment. The lion\u2019s share of Vortex <\/em>is comprised of two frames within the larger picture. Two cameras operate independently, following the couple around. Sometimes they do their own thing in completely separate places, and other times they meet in the same room and both frames become inverse shots of each other from the other\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n
In essence, we\u2019re watching two feature films play out next to each other at the same time. And if that isn\u2019t impressive enough from a technical perspective, most takes are remarkably long, some lasting minutes as they track the tedium and delirium of the situation. All the while, No\u00e9 laces experimental ticks throughout.<\/p>\n
For example, the camera blinks erratically and unflinchingly, as if simulating minor cuts, but the scene doesn\u2019t cut or end. The camera just blinks again, like voyeur eyes watching from behind, and the story continues unphased. On another occasion, he presents us with a static sepia-colored image and lingers on it, proceeding to fade the full-color spectrum in so slowly that it seems like an optical illusion \u2014 like the color was there all along. It\u2019s subtle, yet so strange in the way No\u00e9 likes to be. There\u2019s no innate cinematic power to all of it. But the creativity of his choices is invigorating and contagious.<\/p>\n
Of course, like most No\u00e9 films, Vortex <\/em>aims to get under your skin. It just does so differently. It\u2019s always hard to determine whether an artist\u2019s intention to evoke frustration via overwrought repetition is \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad,\u201d as is the case here. But hot damn, it\u2019s effective. There\u2019s no doubt that Vortex <\/em>feels overlong (and bears a 135-minute runtime to support the claim). However, that also feels intentional, like a play on a theme.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the lengthiness of Vortex <\/em>is a reflection of the process of reaching the end, and the feeling of having seen the same thing over and over speaks to the aimlessness and confusion that debilitates our leads. Or maybe No\u00e9 just missed the mark on using too many of the same tricks. Either way, it\u2019s a movie you\u2019ll want to watch twice, if not for the love of the leads or the fresh visual language (executed beautifully by regular cinematographer Beno\u00eet Debie<\/strong>), then simply to see what happens in both frames.<\/p>\n
    Related Topics: NYFF\n    <!-- AUTHOR BOX -->\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
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\n            Luke Hicks is a New York City film journalist by way of Austin, TX, and an arts enthusiast who earned his master’s studying film philosophy and ethics at Duke. He thinks every occasion should include one of the following: whiskey, coffee, gin, tea, beer, or olives. Love or lambast him @lou_kicks<\/a>.        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    <!-- START RECOMMENDED READING 1 -->\n                                <section class=\"recommended py-5\"><h3>Recommended Reading<\/h3>\n\n\n        <\/section><!-- END RECOMMENDED READING -->\n\n\n<\/div><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
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“#Vortex is a Tender Experimental Dive Into Dementia” <span class=”mx-1″>Split screen entertainment is back and sadder than ever.<\/span> <\/p><div id=””><figure class=”sf-entry-featured-media “><img width=”800″ height=”469″ src=”https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Vortex.jpeg” class=”articlethumb wp-post-image” alt=”Vortex Gaspar Noe” loading=”lazy” srcset=”https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Vortex.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Vortex-768×450.jpeg 768w” sizes=”(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px”\/><p> <span class=”sf-entry-flag sf-entry-flag-creditline”>Wild Bunch \/ NYFF<\/span> <\/figure><!– START BYLINE –><div class=”row align-items-center justify-content-center my-4 text-center medium…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":346597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Vortex.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}