Collaboration

Gaspar Noé and Lucile Hadžihalilović have repeatedly collaborated with each other on film projects. 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.

Three of his films feature the character of a nameless butcher played by Philippe Nahon: Carne, I Stand Alone and, in a cameo, Irréversible.

The music for Irréversible was composed by Thomas Bangalter. The latter also sent Gaspar Noé a 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.^[9][10]

Influences

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.^[11] 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).^[12] 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.^[13]

Feature films

Short films

• Tintarella di luna (1984)
• Pulpe amère (1987)
• Carne (1991)
• Une expérience d'hypnose télévisuelle (1995)
• Sodomites (1998)
• Intoxication (1998)
• Eva (2005)
• We Fuck Alone (2006) segment of Destricted
• SIDA (2008) segment of 8
• Ritual (2012) segment of 7 Days in Havana
• Shoot (2014) segment of Short Plays
• The Art of Filmmaking (2020)
• Saint Laurent - Summer of '21 (2020)

Music videos

• Animal Collective - "Applesauce"
• Arielle – "Je Suis si Mince"
• Bone Fiction – "Insanely Cheerful"
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – "We No Who U R"
• Placebo – "Protège-Moi"
• SebastiAn – "Love in Motion"
• SebastiAn – "Thirst"
• Thomas Bangalter – "Outrage" and "Stress" (both from the Irréversible soundtrack)
• Travis Scott – "Modern Jam" (Segment of Circus Maximus)

Other production credits

Cameo and appearances

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.^[20]

Irreversible

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.^[21][22][23] 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,^[24][25] as well as considering the film as a whole to be deeply homophobic for its hellish portrayal of a gay S&M club.^[26] 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".^[27]