| Gaspar Noé | |
| Birth Date: | 1963 12, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Alma Mater: | École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière (1982) |
| Years Active: | 1985–present |
| Father: | Luis Felipe Noé |
Gaspar Noé (pronounced as /es/; pronounced as /fr/; born 27 December 1963) is an Argentine filmmaker, who lives and worked primarily in France.[1] 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), Lux Æterna (2019), and Vortex (2021). Noé's father is artist and writer Luis Felipe Noé.
Noé was born on 27 December 1963 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.[2] His father Luis Felipe Noé, is a notable Argentine artist, writer, and intellectual.[3] His father is of Italian descent, while his mother Nora Murphy is of Irish descent. He has a sister named Paula.[4] He lived in New York City until age five,[5] after which point his family returned to Argentina.[6] In 1976, they emigrated to France to escape the military dictatorship occurring in Argentina at the time.
Noé graduated from École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière in France in 1982.[7] His first feature filmmaking credits were as an assistant director to Argentine filmmaker Fernando Solanas on Tangos, the Exile of Gardel (1986) and Sur (1988).
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.[8]
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.
Gaspar Noé and Lucile Hadžihalilović have repeatedly collaborated with each other on film projects. In the early 1990s, Noé co-founded the production company Les Cinémas de la Zone with Hadžihalilović.[9] 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.[10]
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.[11]
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.[12] [13]
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, without which experience he would never have become a director.[14] A poster for the film features notably in a scene towards the end of Irreversible.
Many of his movies feature all kind of film posters, which reflects his collection and passion for them. He's believed to be the owner of one of the three known copies of the rarest poster for M (1931 film).[15] 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).
Noé also cites the 1983 Austrian serial killer film, Angst, by Gerald Kargl, as a major influence.[16]
In 2024, during an interview from his masterclass session in Cairo International Film Festival in Egypt, he said that he want to do a different film, "a film with kids, for children".[17]
He is the business partner of filmmaker Lucile Hadžihalilović.[18]
Noé is a dual national of Argentina and Italy, having obtained an Italian passport through lineage, though he does not consider himself Italian.[19] "I have never lived in Italy, I don't speak Italian," he said in an interview. "If I hadn't had an Italian passport to travel all over the world, I would have applied for a French one."
Noé suffered a near fatal brain hemorrhage in early 2020, which partly inspired the plot of his film Vortex.[20]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Editor< | -- !Notes --> | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | I Stand Alone | ||||||
| 2002 | Irréversible | Also co-cinematographer with Benoît Debie | |||||
| 2009 | Enter the Void | ||||||
| 2015 | Love | ||||||
| 2018 | Climax | ||||||
| 2019 | Lux Æterna | ||||||
| 2021 | Vortex | ||||||
| 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[21] |
| 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[22] | |
| 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.[23] | |
| 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 | Lucile Hadžihalilović | [24] |
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.[25]
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 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.[26] [27] [28] 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,[29] [30] as well as considering the film as a whole to be deeply homophobic for its hellish portrayal of a gay S&M club.[31] 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".[32]
| Year | Award | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Avignon Film Festival | Prix Tournage | Carne | |
| Cannes Film Festival | SACD Award | |||
| 1992 | Fantasporto | Best Film | ||
| 1994 | Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival | Minami Toshiko Award / Critic's Award | [33] | |
| 1998 | Cannes Film Festival | Mercedes-Benz Award | I Stand Alone | |
| Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film | Golden Bayard | |||
| Molodist International Film Festival | Best Full-Length Fiction Film | |||
| Sitges Film Festival | Best Film | |||
| Sarajevo Film Festival | FIPRESCI Prize | |||
| Sitges Film Festival | Best Screenplay | |||
| Stockholm Film Festival | Bronze Horse | |||
| 1999 | Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema | Best Film | ||
| 2001 | Boston Underground Film Festival | Best of Festival | ||
| 2002 | Cannes Film Festival | Palme d'Or | Irréversible | |
| Stockholm Film Festival | Bronze Horse | |||
| 2004 | Bodil Awards | Best Non-American Film | ||
| 2009 | Cannes Film Festival | Palme d'Or | Enter the Void | |
| Sitges Film Festival | Special Prize of the Jury | |||
| Best Film | ||||
| 2015 | Cannes Film Festival | Queer Palm | ||
| Camerimage | Best 3D Film | Love | ||
| 2018 | Cannes Film Festival | Art Cinema Award | Climax | |
| Sitges Film Festival | Best Film | |||
| 2022 | Dublin International Film Festival | Best Film | Vortex | |
| San Sebastián International Film Festival | Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Prize | |||
| Ghent International Film Festival | Grand Prix for Best Film | |||
| International Istanbul Film Festival | Golden Tulip for Best Film / FIPRESCI Prize |