Tired of traumatizing adults, Gaspar Noé wants to do a “movie for children”
The director of Irréversible and Enter The Void would like to make a children’s movie that will surely be very normal and not require years of therapy afterward.
Photo by Marc Piasecki (WireImage)
Best known for his psychosexual expeditions into the abyss of violence, drug addiction, and death, Irréversible director Gaspar Noé would like to make a movie for little kiddies, too. Noé, who shocked the world with his unflinching portrayals of sexual assault and extreme debauchery from society’s fringes, told a crowd at the Cairo Film Festival that he would “like to do a movie with young children, or a movie for children.”
“The main film genres that really would interest me for a future project are documentary, war film, and horror,” Noé said during a two-hour masterclass presentation. “Probably, I should even try to mix those three genres. I also would like to do a movie with young children, or a movie for children.”
Noé’s style doesn’t lend itself to the gentleness one associates with children’s movies. One need only look at the drug-induced death-dream fantasia of Enter The Void or Dario Argento and Françoise Lebrun’s slow-burn sunset in the dementia drama Vortex for an example. However, as Noé argues, “Kids are like small adults” who are “in danger,” making them perfect vessels for one of his desperate excursions into the heart of darkness.
“When we are kids, we are in danger,” he continued. “You are exposed to everything. I’m very attached to kids in life though I don’t have kids. The relationship you have with kids is direct and playful. I would like to do a movie with little kids. They relate to fragility, they relate to the dangers that they’re exposed to.”
Noé might not be anyone’s first choice to direct the next Paddington, but he was raised on a more esoteric collection of movies. “I remember the skeleton fight from Jason And The Argonauts when I was four and 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was six. I didn’t even know what a baby was. I asked what that big thing was at the end of the film.” The Dude didn’t even know what a baby was, yet by the age of 10, he was checking out Fassbinder films with his mom in Buenos Aires.
Someone get Hollywood on the phone because Gaspar Noé might be the perfect director to take over the Minions franchise. Oh, to see what Mr. Noé might do with Kevin, Stuart, and Bob. “Banana,” indeed.