Dir: Gaspar Noé. Starring: Dario Argento, Françoise Lebrun, Alex Lutz. 15, 142 minutes.
I’ve repeatedly seen Vortex described as Gaspar Noé’s most compassionate film. Yet keep in mind that the filmmaker’s softest edge will still be as craggy as a rusty saw. Noé’s work plays exclusively in the key of chaos, violence, and despair, whether it be the still fervently debated sexual violence of Irréversible (2002), or the dance apocalypse contained inside of Climax (2018). In his debut, the psychological drama I Stand Alone (1998), he pauses the film to warn viewers, with a flashing title card, that they have 30 seconds to leave the cinema before he unleashes its full brutality.
