This film tells the story of a drug dealer-addict in Tokyo that dies while tripping on DMT. He subsequently has the “longest and biggest trip of his life”, together with an Out of Body Experience. After his death, he flies around in Tokyo, watching his sister and close people and how they have dealt with his death.
Some say Enter the Void is meant to be an experience, like a LSD or DMT trip would (even if some say DMT is misrepresented in the film) and is not made to make the audience feel empathy, serenity or any kind of feeling apart from disturbance or boredom. This movie had way too much needless sex — I mean, if you had died, why would you go around looking at your sister fucking? Yes, our… hero does that a lot. And other people fucking of course, lots and lots of them. Then, the question arises: has he really died, or is it just the biggest DMT trip of his life? For starters, it is said (and stressed in the film) that DMT is secreted in every person’s brains when they die. Apart from those unlucky few who have their heads pulverised by a shotgun or something, of course. We get a good look at Tokyo’s underground (strip) club and drug scene and many emotional or startling moments from which we feel detached.
I cannot decide what to think about this movie. It’s way too long and the last part is a long, redundant, boring trip (some compare it with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Just throw some sex in there). The technical aspect of it though is top-notch. I asked myself “how the hell did they film that?!” many, many times over.
HOW THE HELL DID THEY FILM THAT?!
The psychedelic effects are also very intense (if you suffer from any kind of epilepsy, avoid ever EVER watching this film. You will probably have several fits, possibly at the same time). For the rest of us, it’s quite a trip.
Which leaves me wondering: is the whole point of the film merely to emulate a psychedelic trip? It sort of succeeds doing that. But it fails being a cohesive cinematic experience. If you want to look at this as an experience –no added adjectives–, you might find it enjoyable. If you’d rather look at it as a film with a particular structure, the common meaning of the word, you’ll be itching to press the fast forward button.
I don’t know what to make of this. It’s a film you can’t not feel strongly about, one way or the other. It’s so unlike anything I’ve ever seen but I wouldn’t feel like watching again some parts of it which were absolutely frustrating in their repetitiveness. A part of me hated it. Another part of me hates to kind of liked it. And another part of me absolutely loved it. This trichotomy, for me, is an indication that at least there’s something about this movie that might be easy to miss or you just need to be in the right (very possibly altered) state of mind to fully appreciate.
I just watched Insurgentes, a film directed by none other than Lasse Hoile on the making of Steven Wilson’s 2009 debut solo album of the same name and the state of the music industry today, or as Steven puts its, what it’s like to be a musician in the 21st century.
Lasse Hoile is known for directing the videos for Porcupine Tree (including others groups), as well as being behind the band’s artwork, photographs etc, at least since In Absentia I believe. Check out his site, good stuff. He — as well as Steven, for that matter — likes David Lynch, this much is evident I suppose and might even be a bit of an understatement.
Apart from the typical Lasse experimentation and playing with some of the album’s artwork material, only this time with video, what interested me more in Insurgentes was Steven’s narration of his past. He visited his old school almost 30 years later, let us in on his musical beginnings and foundations, re-visited some of his very first equipment his father had made for him.
What I found more striking was how Steven began listening to music. In the movie he shares with us that he used to be able to only buy one record every month and that only with his pocket money. Consequently, the decision which album to buy next was a very important one. Back then, Steven says, music was the number one way the younger generation could differentiate itself from the parents. So it was pretty important business indeed.
It all boils down to the comparison between contemporary download culture and what things were like 30 years ago. Back then, a new album was an event. Listeners of the album had all the time to study the cover and the artwork, feel the music and be influenced by it. They would take their time to examine the music and see through all its different levels. Listening to an album properly was a ritual all by itself. Surprisingly, although I don’t have any aural experience of my own to be able to confirm this, it is said that a well mixed vinyl recording playing on serious equipment blows away standard MP3 quality sound any day. Like Steven and another guy in the film put it, kids of today (including my generation and me, obviously) grew up and are growing up with music of shit sound quality which is considered by almost everyone as acceptable at the very least.
It is mentioned in the movie that the internet has helped musicians by making it easier for them to come into direct contact with their fans, thus doing away with the industry as a medium. In return, music has lost its value: we all download complete discographies of bands, only to decide if we like them and if they’re worth keeping after listening to a few of their tracks once or twice at best. This has got to the point that people don’t think music is worth spending money for or paying any kind of deeper and more focused attention to. Today, the music itself seems to be of little importance: it’s down to who knows of the most bands –bonus points if they’re indie–, who has the broadest possible musical taste, who owns the most records or has been to the most concerts. Maximalistic: just like any other cultural aspect of today, including, if not especially, the entire spectrum of popular media.
Mr. Wilson forced me to think, just like he’s done before... How many times have I really sat down to enjoy some music, put some thought into it, focused on it, closed my eyes, opened my ears and put my mind on overdrive? I do have a problem with intense focusing and am easily distractable so that might be a problem there. In any case, I realised that I haven’t done so in a long, long time, if I have ever properly done it at all. There is a general habit of just using music as an ambient sound carpet, having it play in the background while people are doing whatever: washing the dishes, cooking, having sex, idling, studying, walking or travelling (in the film Wilson destroys iPods in a number of fun ways, showing his real feelings for them!)… Some people never turn off their music at all! I tried doing it too: I found myself gradually hearing less and less of the music, a far cry from actually listening to it. At some point, I stopped paying any attention to it all; it was just melodic noise. I experienced a kind of desensitization, not unlike one that follows a long relationship.
Using music as ambience is, of course, perfectly OK. Nothing wrong with it. It’s not like they didn’t do it back in the ’70s. But that is as much listening to as glancing at a movie with the company of especially talkative friends is watching it, or as skimming a book as quickly as you can, skipping sentences, is readingit. We usually just put on the music, later remember nothing of what we heard, whether we liked it or not. We may have a vague idea, alright. But it doesn’t matter, it’s not like we’re going to listen to it again, is it? It sure isn’t! Because we have another 124254560 bands people, friends, acquaintances have suggested we give a “spin”, double that for bands we’ve randomly stumbled upon, bands we’ve (I’ve ^^,) seen on progarchives.com, suggested bands or neighbours’ favourites on last.fm… We’re bound to find something in this sea of art, this ocean of melody. Of course it never ends. What ever does? So we download discographies and try bands out and hop from one group to the next… But never staying with any which one for too long, no, that would be wasting time, wouldn’t it, we just keep on swinging, just like the insatiable little music nymphomaniacs that we proudly think we are. And in the end, all we’re left with is a sterile knowledge of band names and logos, song names, albums, stats, dates, genres…
If you think about it, it’s that way with everything. Travel, games, books, food, experiences, knowledge, people… The maximalist approach: less is less, the more the better. We can’t escape it. It is our culture’s paradigm. It’s what we do now, how we look at things.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t look at things differently.
It did not take much at all. My interest in film photography having been kindled since August already, the university photography club and all the cool people I met there only made me more passionate about finding the Olympus film camera I had been looking for. An OM-2n, some say one of the best cameras ever made… I just had to make it my first, and probably last, film camera. Not to mention that, with the proper adapter, I’ll have a perfect new lens for my digital Olympus e-510.
I had been eyeing many different auctions on eBay for days, but today was special. “Dimitris,” I thought, “today you’re winning one of them”. And I did!
Soon, this used but (apparently) well-kept Olympus OM-2n will be reaching my grubby mitts! The point of this post? I just wanted to share the joy of winning this auction with everyone.
I would also like to thank mum who is helping me with this purchase. It is true, yesterday’s incident was not good at all for my financials. But you know how these things go: you get unlucky but at the same time it’s your nameday the next morning. I couldn’t get further from complaining.
