{"title":"“Un film français et fier de l’être”: Gaspar Noé’s Climax in Context","authors":"Greg Hainge","doi":"10.3828/AJFS.2021.09","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\nReading Gaspar Noé’s 2018 film Climax against the grain of the majority of critical reactions and the director’s own pronouncements, this article argues that this is a deeply political film. In line with West’s analysis of the films of the New French Extremity as works that are not (as suggested by Quandt) passive but a committed and politically engaged form of cinema, this article suggests that Climax can be read as an allegory of France’s current Realpolitik. Noé’s vision of this reality is revealed to be particularly bleak, for in line with the metaphysical stance of his other films, his is a universe ruled by entropic forces. The ramifications for Climax’s commentary on contemporary France are devastating, for the ideals of the Republic are shown to be no longer operational or capable of bringing people together, nor are they replaceable by any other form of identity politics.","PeriodicalId":8649,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of French Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Australian Journal of French Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3828/AJFS.2021.09","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, ROMANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Reading Gaspar Noé’s 2018 film Climax against the grain of the majority of critical reactions and the director’s own pronouncements, this article argues that this is a deeply political film. In line with West’s analysis of the films of the New French Extremity as works that are not (as suggested by Quandt) passive but a committed and politically engaged form of cinema, this article suggests that Climax can be read as an allegory of France’s current Realpolitik. Noé’s vision of this reality is revealed to be particularly bleak, for in line with the metaphysical stance of his other films, his is a universe ruled by entropic forces. The ramifications for Climax’s commentary on contemporary France are devastating, for the ideals of the Republic are shown to be no longer operational or capable of bringing people together, nor are they replaceable by any other form of identity politics.
期刊介绍:
The Australian Journal of French Studies is an international, fully refereed journal devoted to French literature, culture, society and history. The journal encourages new theoretical engagements and particularly welcomes interdisciplinary approaches. Articles are published in English and French. The majority of numbers are focussed on a specific theme, but numbers on miscellaneous topics will usually be published annually.