Love

Director: Gaspar Noe

Starring: Aomi Muyock, Karl Glusman, Klara Kristin

Running Time: 135 Mins

Country: France

“A dick has one purpose: to fuck. And I fucked it all up.”

The owner of this dick, which yes, you will see in all its glory, is Murphy (Karl Glusman), an American expatriate in Paris. Like his spiritual heir Henry Miller, he wants to have a lot of sex and to be a great artist in the city of love (and sex). He wonders – speaking for director Gaspar Noé, who wants to do for film what Miller did for literature – why films don’t have full-blooded sex in them, saying it is the essence of love and life. This is a meta-statement because the film he is in works as the culmination of his desire. While sex is pretty important, Noé has forgotten that great romances are not built on sex alone – not taking as much care to give the characters the same intellectual weight as their exterior beauty.

Image: Curzon Artificial Eye

Murphy misses his ex-girlfriend, French girl Electra (Aomi Muyock). She was the love of his life, but in order to spice up their relationship they introduced Omi (Klara Kristin) into the mix. However, one lazy afternoon he ruined it all by impregnating the new girl. So the film starts with him living unhappily with Omi and their child. When a phone call from Electra’s mother says she has been missing for two months, he pops an ecstasy pill she left him, lies on a couch, and reminisces. The rest of the film takes place inside his mind as he remembers the highs and lows of their tempestuous relationship. Think of it like (500) Days Of Summer, but with fucking.

The American-French relationship in addition to the Paris setting recalls Last Tango in Paris, a landmark in seriously depicting sexual relationships that has never been bettered in straight cinema (for queer cinema, see Blue is The Warmest Colour). But whilst Glusman sure has a lot of enthusiasm, he sure has none of Brando’s brilliance or poetry. But I don’t think I would want to see movie stars in these roles. Unsimulated sex by its very nature cannot be feigned – once it goes in, the lines between acting and reality become quite blurred indeed. Movie stars would take away from the emotional truth that is trying to be conveyed through sex.

I believe that Gaspar Noé is certainly capable of making a bad film, but I don’t think he can ever make an uninteresting one

Whatever the content this is still a Gaspar Noé film, so it remains aesthetically gorgeous. His use of fade-outs give the film a drugged out feel, and he soaks the sex scenes in deep colours to make them look truly ravishing. If this was only “porn”, than “porn” hasn’t looked so good since the 70s – even if the sex itself is of the garden variety. The narrative takes an “Annie Hall” approach, framing the narrative as a desire within his mind to find closure in the past. The choice of music is eclectic, from Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain” (which one assumes will be added to many a bedroom playlist following this film) to Satie’s Gymnopédies. Additionally, widescreen may be imperfect for framing a close-up, but it looks perfect when framing a threesome, all three faces given equal space on the screen. He also has some fun with the 3D form, including a money shot that you won’t soon forget. I believe that Gaspar Noé is certainly capable of making a bad film, but I don’t think he can ever make an uninteresting one.

Image: Curzon Artificial Eye

At a party Murphy says, “Do you know what my biggest dream in life is? My biggest dream is to make a movie that truly depicts sentimental sexuality.” This is a noble intention indeed, attempting to portray all of a relationship, and not cheating once they enter the bedroom. Once you get over the “graphic” sex scenes – which really aren’t that graphic compared to the fucked-up content of Noé’s previous films – there remains a lot to be found in this film beyond sexual intercourse. Nevertheless, it misses being a true revolution in cinema due to the student-film level acting and the flat dialogue. But in its attempt to see love and sex as two sides of the same coin, and to portray sexual love as a divine thing, Love has reached the status of “event” cinema.

‘Love’ is available now on Curzon Home Cinema