Even at its most chaotic, filmmaking can be a transcendental experience. Under pressure of deadlines, the most composed of artists may begin to crack, and while what results from the fracture might be visually worth the cost, the psychic wreckage it may leave behind almost never is. Gaspar Noé’s latest Cannes Festival darling, LUX AETERNA, leans into the chaos in as many ways as possible to bring audiences along for the psychical flaying that is a film shoot gone awry amid creative tension and technical disaster.
Told predominantly through split screen and constantly alternating perspectives, LUX AETERNA tells the story of a woman (Béatrice Dalle) directing her latest film, which explores the world of witchcraft and the fates of the women at the center of the witch trials, and trying to bring her vision to life amid conflicting influence from male counterparts on the set. Determined to craft their own witch hunt by painting Dalle’s character as unstable while trying to appease her to her face. Meanwhile, the women playing witches in the film-within-a-film are encroached upon and beginning to bend under the pressure of whether the film will be successful and, in Charlotte Gainsbourg’s understated but horrifying case, whether they can balance crises unfolding in their real lives with the line between sexy and dangerous the men in charge of the filming so desperately want to see.
Noé’s approach to LUX AETERNA transforms it into an impressive artistic feat. Shot in five days with mostly improvised dialogue and creative freedom to the team, it nearly defies cohesive description. He intercuts the film with shots from fundamental witchcraft classics like HAXAN and quotes from male directors he considers to be influential to his own work, yet centers his story predominantly on the women involved in the production and how they handle the constant stream of roadblocks and incompetence thrown in their way.
Intentionally or not, LUX AETERNA turns out to be an excellent dissection of working in the film industry as a woman, regardless of what role you fall into. Dalle’s director is seen as neurotic by her male counterparts—most of the other half of the split screen is spent on one of them trying to film her and catch her in an act on which they could metaphorically burn her at the stake and remove her from the project—yet she spends every moment of every interaction with her female cast trying to ensure their comfort on set and with their roles. The film’s opening with a conversation between Dalle and Gainsbourg about their worst experiences on set and whether they’ve been “burned at the stake” set the tone for their dynamic and the story itself. Dalle’s character repeatedly asserts that her most disastrous shoots were well worth it because “the film was beautiful so it didn’t matter,” ensuring that we know her to be an artist willing to go to any length to create worthwhile art without sacrificing the comfort of the people she is directing long before the overbearing male presences attempt to assert their dominance over her vision. Managing conflicting points and personalities is difficult in any situation, however, and when you have that kind of kindling building up on a small area like a film set, the end is bound to be explosive.
The constant increase of pressure from all angles throws the entire 51 minutes into mind-bending nightmarish chaos, culminating in a 10-minute long sequence which, while not advised for photosensitive viewers (as the whole time is a rapid flashing of red/green/blue lighting), successfully depicts the penultimate descent into madness of the filmmaking crew and the witches they are trying to portray alike.
Horror fans are in no shortage of original work at the moment, but LUX AETERNA‘s slapdash 5-day assembly and experimental approach to storytelling re-centers the beautiful nightmare niche of movies whose strongest pull are the vibes they wrap you in from start to finish, that sense of unease you can’t quite grasp but can certainly feel, and in trusting fellow creatives to support and bring a vision to life.
LUX AETERNA is now on VOD.
Tags: Beatrice Dalle, Cannes Film Festival, Charlotte Gainsbourg, experimental, Filmmaking, French film, gaspar noe, Haxan, Lux Aeterna, Now on VOD, Saint Laurent, Short Film, Witchcraft, Yellow Veil Pictures
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