« HITCHCOCK TRUFFAUT — CANNES 2015 | Main | MACBETH — CANNES 2015 »

May 21, 2015

LOVE — CANNES 2015

Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.ColeSmithey.comThis ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

ColeSmithey.com

ColeSmithey.com



ColeSmithey.comThe pornographic  “Love” is a 3D sexploitation movie made by a filmmaker unaware of the genre that he’s working in. Noe, the genius behind such groundbreaking examples of provocative social satire as “I Stand Alone” and “Irreversible,” has made a film so sophomoric that it boggles the mind.

It is amazing that this dross came from the same person who created “Enter the Void,” one of the most visually and viscerally challenging films of the last 20 years. (That movie is currently streaming on Netflix.)



Marketed as Noe’s supposed dream project since his days in film school, the "semi-autobiographical" “Love” is meant to display the reality of “sentimental sensuality” via “blood, tears, and cum.”

ColeSmithey.com

Semen is by far the most plentiful of the three fluids shown on, and off-screen, when you consider the graphic bit in which Noe takes obvious advantage of the 3D process to break the proscenium window with a load of gooey spunk. I get it: this single image is enough provocation to elevate “Love” to cult status out of the gate. So be it. 

ColeSmithey.com

Featureless no-name actor Karl Glusman plays the director’s younger alter ego Murphy, an always-horny American studying filmmaking in Paris. Murphy (yes, "Murphy's law” is the trite allusion that Noe is compelled to spell out in block letters) is a miserable soul whose passion for cinema means that he wears an olive-green Army jacket just like the one Robert De Niro wore as Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver.” Posters from such divisive films as Pier Paolo Pasolini's “Salo” and “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein” adorn Murphy’s small Parisian pad, which he shares with Omi (Klara Kristin), the mother of his son Gaspar (yes, really), courtesy of a broken condom.

ColeSmithey.com

Not only is there not a single empathetic character in the movie, but the ostensibly character-defining, formally explicit sex acts that Noe films (primarily from above in a pictorial framing style), illuminate fewer aspects of personality traits than you would find in a typical sample of homemade porn.

“Love” premiered at Cannes (2015), a festival certain to include at least one salacious picture per year. In 2003, Vincent Gallo’s “The Brown Bunny” sent critics groaning over its gratuitous oral sex scene between Chloe Sevigny and Gallo. “Brown Bunny” certainly isn’t any better than “Love,” but it was mercifully shorter at 93 minutes.

ColeSmithey.com

“Love’s” arduous running time is 130 interminable minutes. Another difference is that no one expected much from Vincent Gallo as a filmmaker, who had only made one film (“Buffalo 66”) before “Brown Bunny.” The situation is considerably different for Noe, who is likely to discover that even his staunchest supporters will find little to admire, much less love, in a film that feels more like a student film project than a movie by an experienced filmmaker.

ColeSmithey.com

“Love” represents the one of the biggest examples of regression for any filmmaker in recent history.

What a mess.

Not Rated. 130 mins. 

Zero StarsZERO STARS

Cozy Cole

Cole Smithey on Patreon

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

Featured Video

SMART NEW MEDIA® Custom Videos

COLE SMITHEY’S MOVIE WEEK

COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA

Throwback Thursday


Podcast Series