Gaspar Noé (born 27 December 1963) is an Argentine filmmaker and screenwriter, who lives and works primarily in France. He is one of the primary exponents of New French Extremity, with his most notable works including the feature films I Stand Alone (1998), Irréversible (2002), Enter the Void (2009), Love (2015), Climax (2018), and Vortex (2021).
Gaspar Noé | |
|---|---|
 Noé in 2021 | |
| Born | 27 December 1963 Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Citizenship |
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| Alma mater | École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1985–present |
| Style | |
| Father | Luis Felipe Noé |
Early life and education
Gaspar Noé was born on 27 December 1963 in Buenos Aires, Argentina to Luis Felipe Noé, a prominent Argentine artist, writer, and intellectual of Italian descent, and Nora Murphy, a social worker of Irish descent. He has a sister named Paula. Noé moved to New York City with his parents, and resided on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. Noé returned to Argentina at the age of 5 and emigrated to France in 1976 to escape the military dictatorship occurring in Argentina at the time. Noé obtained Italian citizenship from lineage, and is a dual-citizen of Argentina and Italy, but does not consider himself Italian.
Noé initially wanted to become a cartoonist, but became interested in filmmaking after his father gifted him a Super 8 camera that he bought in a Brazilian airport. Noé shot a reel with his best friend Juan Diego Solanas jumping from the Pont Neuf. He graduated from the École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière in Paris. Following his graduation in 1982, he worked as an assistant director on Fernando Solanas's Tangos, the Exile of Gardel (1986) and Sur (1988). Noé's first short film Carne was released in 1991.
Artistry
His work has been strongly associated with a collection of films often described as new extreme films. Highlighting their challenging sexual and violent bodily imagery, Tim Palmer has described them as part of a cinéma du corps (cinema of the body), and a cinema of 'brutal intimacy' because of its attenuated use of narrative, generally assaulting and often illegible cinematography, confrontational subject material, a treatment of sexual behavior as violent rather than mutually intimate, and a pervasive sense of social nihilism or despair.
Noé often directly addresses the audience in confrontational ways, most notably in I Stand Alone, when an intertitle warns the audience that they have 30 seconds to leave the cinema before the final violent climax. In a different way, this can be seen in Irreversible, in which the 10-minute long single-take rape sequence has frequently been read as an assault on viewers, as well as a depiction of an assault on the female character.
Collaborations
Gaspar Noé and Lucile Hadžihalilović have repeatedly collaborated with each other on film projects since 1987. In the early 1990s, Noé co-founded the production company Les Cinémas de la Zone with Hadžihalilović. Noé operated the camera and was the cinematographer for two short films directed by Hadžihalilović: La Bouche de Jean-Pierre (1996) and Good Boys Use Condoms (1998). Similarly, Hadžihalilović produced and edited Carne (1991), edited Seul contre tous (1998) and was credited as a writer on Enter the Void (2009). The creative collaboration is made clear in the comparable stylistic choices across these early films, most clearly the credit sequences and the marketing designs. In 2025, Noé will appear in Hadžihalilović's fourth feature film, The Ice Tower.
Three of his films feature the character of a nameless butcher played by Philippe Nahon: Carne, I Stand Alone and, in a cameo, Irréversible.
All of Noé's feature films are shot by cinematographer Benoît Debie.
The music for Irréversible was composed by Thomas Bangalter. The latter also sent Gaspar Noé an unreleased song he made circa 1995 for Climax. The song was named Sangria in reference to the movie.
In collaboration with Saint Laurent, he directed films Lux Æterna and Saint Laurent - Summer of ‘21.
Style and influences
Noé stated in the September 2012 edition of Sight & Sound magazine that seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey at the age of seven changed his life, an experience without which he would never have become a director. A poster for the film features notably in a scene towards the end of Irreversible. He also credits his mother for taking him to see other transgressive films as a child, including one by Fassbinder, and cites the skeleton fight scene from Jason and the Argonauts as a core memory from his youth.
Many of his movies feature all kind of film posters, which reflects his collection and passion for them. He is believed to be the owner of one of the three known copies of the rarest poster for the 1931 film M. Since Irréversible, he's kept working with French film poster designer Laurent Lufroy for all his feature films: Lufroy even appears in Love (as a policeman), Climax (as a dog-handler) and Lux Æterna (using a torch).
Additional influences cited by Noé include the French photographer Pierre Molinier, the Japanese director Koji Wakamatsu (particularly the film The Embryo Hunts in Secret), Spanish-Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel (particularly the films Un Chien Andalou and Los Olvidados), David Lynch's Eraserhead, Le Professeur Choron (the founder of Hara Kiri magazine), and Argentinian painter Jorge De La Vega (who is also Noé's godfather).
Many specific scenes and filmmaking decision from Noé's work were inspired by films. The warning in I Stand Alone was influenced by the film Homicidal (1961).Irreversible was inspired by the film Betrayal (1983), for its reverse chronology, as well as the films In the Realm of the Senses (1976), I Am Cuba (1964), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Straw Dogs (1971), Deliverance (1972), and Death Wish (1974). The POV camera in Enter the Void was inspired by Lady in the Lake (1947). Additionally, the use of 3D in Love was inspired by Gravity.
Noé also cites the 1983 Austrian serial killer film, Angst, by Gerald Kargl and Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver as additional influences. He has said De Niro's performance in Raging Bull was his "favorite male performance ever."
One of Noé's favorite books is An Experiment with Time by J. W. Dunne.
Personal life
When questioned about his sexuality he has described himself as "testosterophobic," saying "the male testosterone can be very boring and annoying and repetitive. So mostly in my movies, the girls have the cool parts and the men have the stupid parts." When asked about abortion, a theme in several of his films, he said, "I'm not pro-life, I'm not pro-choice, I'm not pro-death, I'm not anti-choice. In my personal life, I thought it was much easier to be careful."
Health and drug use
Throughout his career, Noé has spoken frequently about his experiences with drugs, and his use of substances like ecstasy, datura, LSD, marijuana, DMT, ayahuasca, morphine, amphetamine, poppers and cocaine. In early 2020, Noé suffered a near fatal brain hemorrhage and was advised by his physician not to use hard drugs.
Filmography
Feature films
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Editor | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | I Stand Alone | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2002 | Irréversible | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Also co-cinematographer with Benoît Debie |
| 2009 | Enter the Void | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 2015 | Love | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2018 | Climax | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 2019 | Lux Æterna | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 2021 | Vortex | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Short films
- Tintarella di luna (1984)
- Pulpe amère (1987)
- Carne (1991)
- Une expérience d'hypnose télévisuelle (1995)
- Sodomites (1998)
- Intoxication (1998)
- Eva (2005)
- We Fuck Alone (2006) segment of Destricted
- SIDA (2008) segment of 8
- Ritual (2011) segment of 7 Days in Havana
- Shoot (2014) segment of Short Plays
- The Art of Filmmaking (2019)
- Saint Laurent - Summer of '21 (2020)
Music videos
- Animal Collective - "Applesauce"
- Arielle – "Je Suis si Mince"
- Bone Fiction – "Insanely Cheerful"
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – "We No Who U R"
- Placebo – "Protège-Moi"
- SebastiAn – "Love in Motion"
- SebastiAn – "Thirst"
- Thomas Bangalter – "Outrage" and "Stress" (both from the Irréversible soundtrack)
- Travis Scott – "Modern Jam" (Segment of Circus Maximus)
- The Weeknd - "Big Sleep"
Other production credits
| Year | Title | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Tangos, the Exile of Gardel | Assistant Director |
| 1988 | Sur | |
| 1996 | La Bouche de Jean-Pierre | Cinematographer |
| 1998 | Good Boys Use Condoms | Camera Operator |
| 2016 | The End | Trailer Editor |
Acting roles
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Tintarella di Luna | A teenager from the village. | Himself | Short film, made while at Louis Lumiere College |
| 1985 | Tangos, the Exile of Gardel | Maria's boyfriend. | Fernando Solanas | Short appearance, he doesn't talk in the movie. He was also the Assistant Director. |
| 1995 | Cinématon n°1749 | Himself | Gérard Courant | |
| 1996 | Le Rocher d'Acapulco | Sandrine's brother | Laurent Tuel | Gaspar Noé doesn't appear on-screen but his voice is used in a phone call scene. |
| 1996 | Je suis ton Châtiment | The homeless | Guillaume Bréaud | Shortfilm made for Canal+. Starring Denis Podalydès in the leading role, Albert Dupontel, Marc Caro and original soundtrack by John Powell |
| 1997 | Dobermann | Kebab seller | Jan Kounen | |
| 2002 | Irréversible | A client from the club | Himself | |
| 2009 | Enter the Void | Alex | Himself | Alex is a character played by Cyril Roy. But in a nightmare scene, there is a brief moment during which Gaspar Noé is dressed up as Cyril Roy's character. |
| 2013 | 9 Month Stretch | A prisoner | Albert Dupontel | Cameo alongside Jan Kounen. |
| 2015 | Love | Noé, the Gallery Owner | Himself | Credited as Aron Pages, which is an anagram of his own name. |
| 2020 | Mon Cousin | A patient | Jan Kounen | Cameo alongside Albert Dupontel. |
| 2022 | Three in the Drift of the Creative Act | Himself | Fernando Solanas | Posthumous documentary in which director Fernando Solanas, Luis Felipe Noé, both of their sons (respectively Juan Solanas and Gaspar Noé) and Eduardo Pavlovsky discuss about creating arts. |
| 2023 | Dario Argento Panico | Himself | Simone Scafidi | Documentary film |
| 2024 | Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust | - | Ishan Shuklan | This feature film is the longer version of Indian shortfilm Schirkoa. Gaspar Noé was announced in the cast in 2021. |
| 2024 | Dans la peau de Blanche Houellebecq | Gaspar, the director | Guillaume Nicloux | |
| 2025 | The Ice Tower | Dino | Lucile Hadžihalilović |
Photography
Besides being a filmmaker, he is an occasional photographer. In 2013, Noé shot the cover art for American singer-songwriter Sky Ferreira's debut album Night Time, My Time. Other celebrities, such as Agnès b., Todd Solondz or Stacy Martin were shot by Gaspar Noé, as well as several models for erotic magazines.
Reputation
Many of Noé's films were polarizing or controversial with viewers due to their inclusion of graphic scenes of violence and sexual violence. I Stand Alone, Irreversible, Enter the Void, We Fuck Alone, Love and Climax were all considered controversial for their challenging sexual and violent imagery.
Irreversible
Irreversible was hugely divisive amongst critics with journals such as Sight and Sound (UK) and Positif (France) allowing critics to openly voice their disagreements about the film. It caused substantial outrage in many countries for its central scene of rape, filmed in a single take and lasting nearly ten minutes in total, with some critics comparing it to pornography because of its length and the use of a static camera, as well as considering the film as a whole to be deeply homophobic for its hellish portrayal of a gay S&M club. On the other hand, it was also frequently praised for its brutal portrayal of the horrors of rape, and its implicit challenge to viewers of the scene. Eugenie Brinkema, for instance, describes Irreversible as "ethically, generically, subjectively" disruptive: "the rape [...] is real, it is private, it is contained – it is insufferably present. [...] it interrogates vehicles of receptivity and the power and violence done to bodies by bodies".
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Avignon Film Festival | Prix Tournage | Carne | Won |
| Cannes Film Festival | SACD Award | Won | ||
| 1992 | Fantasporto | Best Film | Nominated | |
| 1994 | Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival | Minami Toshiko Award / Critic's Award | Won | |
| 1998 | Cannes Film Festival | Mercedes-Benz Award | I Stand Alone | Won |
| Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film | Golden Bayard | Nominated | ||
| Molodist International Film Festival | Best Full-Length Fiction Film | Nominated | ||
| Sitges Film Festival | Best Film | Nominated | ||
| Sarajevo Film Festival | FIPRESCI Prize | Won | ||
| Sitges Film Festival | Best Screenplay | Won | ||
| Stockholm Film Festival | Bronze Horse | Nominated | ||
| 1999 | Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema | Best Film | Nominated | |
| 2001 | Boston Underground Film Festival | Best of Festival | Won | |
| 2002 | Cannes Film Festival | Palme d'Or | Irréversible | Nominated |
| Stockholm Film Festival | Bronze Horse | Won | ||
| 2004 | Bodil Awards | Best Non-American Film | Nominated | |
| 2009 | Cannes Film Festival | Palme d'Or | Enter the Void | Nominated |
| Sitges Film Festival | Special Prize of the Jury | Won | ||
| Best Film | Nominated | |||
| 2015 | Cannes Film Festival | Queer Palm | Love | Nominated |
| Camerimage | Best 3D Film | Won | ||
| 2018 | Cannes Film Festival | Art Cinema Award | Climax | Won |
| Sitges Film Festival | Best Film | Won | ||
| 2022 | Dublin International Film Festival | Best Film | Vortex | Won |
| San Sebastián International Film Festival | Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Prize | Won | ||
| Ghent International Film Festival | Grand Prix for Best Film | Won | ||
| Istanbul Film Festival | Golden Tulip for Best Film / FIPRESCI Prize | Won |
See also
- List of atheists in film, radio, television and theater