WARNING: We need to tell you right up front that if you have a sensitivity to flashing lights, you do not want to watch the trailer for Gaspar Noé’s latest film Lux Æterna. The trailer itself even begins with a warning for viewers with photosensitive epilepsy.
If you did watch the trailer, you may have found that those flashing lights are irritating even if you don’t have photosensitive epilepsy. Gaspar Noé has always had a thing for assaulting the viewer’s eyeballs. In fact, when this film had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, there were paramedics stationed outside the theatre in case audience members would faint or get sick.
Yellow Veil Pictures is planning to release Lux Æterna in New York on May 6 and in Los Angeles on May 13, with a wider release following soon after. There probably won’t be paramedics stationed at those screenings. And don’t expect to know much about the movie before you see it, because the official synopsis only says
Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg are on a film set telling stories about witches. Technical problems and psychotic outbreaks gradually plunge the shoot into chaos.
The film has been described as “an essay on cinema, the love of film, and on-set hysterics.”
Lux Æterna does indeed star Béatrice Dalle (Inside) and Charlotte Gainsbourg (Antichrist), and they’re joined in the cast by Abbey Lee (The Neon Demon), Karl Glusman (Love), Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull (Climax), and Félix Maritaud (Knife + Heart).
Noé’s filmography is probably a better way to gauge your interest in Lux Æterna than a synopsis, cast list, or even a trailer would be. This is coming to us from the director of I Stand Alone, Irreversible, Enter the Void, Love, and Climax. If you’ve seen any of those, you probably know whether or not you want to see Lux Æterna.
So, will you be watching Lux Æterna or not? Let us know by leaving a comment below.