A group of dancers dance the night away at this party. One of the guests spikes up the punch and a lot of the guests are going wild on LSD.
Blaine: Gaspar Noe loves watching videos of professional dancers and he was interested in making a movie about them. The first dancer Gaspar Noe got in contact with was Sofia Boutella and she was a fan of his work. When they met each other in person, Gaspar told Sofia he was interested in doing a movie about dancers. Sofia was nervous because she hadn’t danced in a while. She had been training to become an actor. Gasper hadn’t seen Sofia in any movies, he knew her through the dance videos she was in. Sofia had been dancing since she was four and studied a lot about dance growing up. When she was a teenager, Sofia asked herself what fate had for her in the future. Sofia knew she had a passion for dancing and she would dance all the time. But by her teen years, Sofia found something else that really interested her as well, acting. It was hard for Sofia to decide what she wanted to do in life, dancing or acting, but after she danced in this video she made up her mind and decided to go with dancing. Sofia got jobs that involved dancing like being a background dancer for famous singers like Rhianna and Madonna. However, Sofia still did show a huge liking to acting. By age 28, Sofia decided to take a break from the dancing and try out acting. Sofia knew that she would go back to dancing some day, but she never expected it so soon. Gaspar would ask Sofia questions about dancers because he was very curious and being a dancer herself, Sofia knows a lot about them. Sofia’s character does drugs and it was scary while she was looking up people on LSD and seeing footage on YouTube. Sofia hadn’t had much time to do her homework because production on “Climax” was happening very fast. Sofia was in shock with how fast everything was going on “Climax”. One day, she’s having a conversation with Gaspar, then she signs on to do a project with him, finds herself on the set in Paris and then the whole thing wraps after 15 days of shooting. Sofia’s character didn’t have a name in the script. Gaspar and Sofia discussed what her name should be and Gaspar decided to name the character Selva, which was his grandmother’s name.
Sofia didn’t know too much about the project, except that she was playing a dancer who has LSD in her system. She couldn’t learn lines while doing “Climax”. She just had to do whatever Gaspar told her to do. It was a little stressful for Sofia to focus on each new direction Gaspar was giving her everyday, but she felt it was worth it. Through the making of “Climax” Sofia felt she was exploring something unique and special. Nina McNeely, the choreographer, wanted to discuss the dance moves with Sofia and then they would show it to Gaspar to see what he thought of it.
The rest of the ensemble are nothing but professional dancers. Sofia had trouble deciding what she wanted out of life, but for the others who are in this movie dancing is what they were born to do. Gaspar would be looking for dancers in Paris. A lot of the dancers he found would recommend other dancers who would be great for this project as well. It all happened quickly in just one month and Gaspar looked hard. Gaspar would also look for dancers through Facebook. Once Gaspar got all the dancers he needed, he started to write the script. The dancers didn’t know who Gaspar was and what he was going to want them to do because everyday he was always giving them something new to do. It was always a mystery of what was going to happen each day. The dancers didn’t even know how this movie was going to look. They would start the day off by rehearsing five pages of the script for five hours, then take a lunch break and then shoot a scene that would be eight or ten minutes long for five hours and do fourteen takes of it. 75% of the movie shows these long takes without cutting to something else. Gaspar Noe’s “Irreversible” was made to look like this long take, so he’s had some experience in shooting long takes. The first dance sequence is six minutes long, then it wanders around focussing or following different dancers. The long take ends and now the movie is cutting to the characters having conversations with each other for twenty minutes. Then it cuts to an overhead shot showing different dancers and that lasts for nine minutes. Then the rest of the movie goes back to being a long take. The dancers in “Climax” are incredible because they are professionals at what they do. They’re so skilled, really flexible, and a lot of stuff they do with their arms and bodies is like watching a magic trick. It’s fun to watch them dance during that first sequence. Some of the dancers in “Climax” are really good at acting, even though they never had any experience in acting before. Some of them want to be actors after being in “Climax”. At the beginning of “Climax”, the dancers are being interviewed and the question is how much dance means to them. Dancing is their passion and it gives them a reason to live and I have a lot of respect for them because of that.
I like Gaspar Noe’s choices of music for “Climax”, “Supernature” by Cerrone, “Born to Be Alive” by Patrick Hernandez, “Pump Up The Volume” by M|A|R|R|S, “French Kiss” by Lil Louis, “Technic 1200” by Dopplereffekt, “What to Do” by Thomas Bangalter, “Electron” by Wild Planet, “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell, “Utopia Me Giorgio” by Giorgio Moroder and more. They have a beat to them.
One day while shooting, it started to snow and Gasper thought there should be a shot with one of the characters walking out. It shows a girl in terrible pain with her blood on her arms and walking out into the snow. Gaspar Noe wasn’t the cinematographer, but he did use the camera through every frame of the movie as they were shooting. They had a crane for a day and a half, which was used for sequences like the girl walking in the snow and that second dance sequence. Sofia Boutella had a lot of respect for Gaspar because of the way he was shooting the movie.
There are two awful things that happen in “Climax”. One of the characters, Lou, played by Souheila Yacoub, discovers she is pregnant. Lou is one of the two party guests who does not have LSD in her system because she didn’t drink anything. One of the guests, who is on LSD, smacks Lou, which is really bad. Lou goes on the ground, then gets kicked in the stomach and she is now in terrible pain. Lou is trying to explain she is pregnant and she needs help because she’s in pain, but the other dancers don’t believe her, except for Selva and Lea. They don't take anything seriously with the LSD in their system. It’s awful that they treat Lou like that and it's cruel of Gaspar to have something like that be put in the movie. That’s one of the two things I don’t like about “Climax”. Lou doesn’t deserve any of that. O and Lou is the girl in the snow. Gaspar Noe’s “Irreversible” has a scene similar to what is happening to Lou, only it was a lot more brutal compared to “Climax”. Emmanelle, played by Claude Gajan Maull, is one of the DJs of the dance and her five year old son joins the party. Emmanelle puts her son to bed, but then later on when everyone is on LSD, including her, he comes back to enjoy the party some more. Emmanelle doesn’t want her son near anyone while they are drugged, so she locks him in a room believing he’ll be safe. Of course he keeps screaming while wanting out. Emmanelle loses the key to unlock the room and now her son is trapped inside. It’s driving Emmanelle nuts that she can’t find the key. Emmanelle has doomed her son’s life and she doesn’t know what to do. She’s obsessing over this. The pressure is too much for Emmanelle and so she slits her wrist.
Selva looks like she is trying to keep it together while she’s on LSD, but she is also going crazy. They were shooting one of the long takes and during the fourth take, Gaspar told Sofia to come into the bathroom with him and she didn’t understand why, but she did as she was told. Selva goes into a bathroom, washes her arms with soap. It’s like Selva believes she has some sort of infection on her and she is trying to wash it off. Another dancer, Ivana, played by Sharleen Temple, follows Selva around from time to time and is trying to get her attention. What I didn’t realize until later on was that Ivana was trying to get Selva in bed with her. At first, Ivana was trying to score with one of the other female dancers, Psyche, but she kept refusing her. So Ivana went for the next girl on the menu, Selva. Selva started to feel at ease once Ivana kissed her. Ivana was in competition with a male dancer named David for Selva. David wanted to get close with Selva, but she kept avoiding him. Ivana fought hard for Selva and would hold her close. But Ivana won the battle in the end.
Two months after “Climax” had wrapped, it was at the Cannes Film Festival 2018. Sofia Boutella was amazed with what she was apart of when she saw the film all finished and put together. She was also really fascinated with Gaspar’s style in bringing it to life. It was unexpected for Gaspar that people had positive reactions for "Climax" because his past films are thought of as horrible and disturbing. “Climax” is disturbing a couple of the times and I’ve already explained that. But still “Climax” is mind-blowing for me and I call it Gaspar’s masterpiece. There are some who can handle those films, like the people who have been involved with Gaspar's work. Sofia says "even though you don't like Gaspar's movies, still you might feel something”. People who saw “Climax” at the Cannes Film Festival thought the film was a perfect example on why kids should say no to drugs. There are four characters I would say have a happy ending like Selva and Ivana. One of the characters, Gazelle, played by Giselle Palmer, looked like she was oding because she was choking on her own saliva and I thought she was going to die. But then at the end it shows her and her brother on a bed and looks like things are peaceful for them now. The rest of the guests are passed out naked or half naked. Emmanuelle has taken her life.
“Climax” is thought of as a horror film, but it doesn’t feel like one to me. I think of “Climax” as it’s own genre because it’s unlike anything else I’ve seen before.
Gaspar’s movies don’t have end credits. I think “Climax” does, but they show up as soon as the movie starts. "Climax" also shows the names of people who were involved during the movie and they are made to look like logos for advertisements. It's after that overhead shot of the dancers. A guy was kicked out of the party because he was believed to be the guy who spiked up the drinks, but maybe it wasn’t. Before “Climax” is completely over it shows a character named Psyche, played by Thea Carla Schott, and she puts a few drops in her eyes. If she has drugs then maybe she is the one who spiked up the drinks. What amazes me is that this is the first foreign language film I saw on the big screen because you hardly see a foreign film playing at a theater here in Colorado. I’m a big fan of foreign films and I’ve seen a lot of them, but never on the big screen before. Another thing is Gaspar Noe was able to find all these incredible dancers and bring them all together as one spectacular group.
