Love (2015)

Having just come back from the UK Premier, I can honestly say, that was quite simply appalling. Only Kill Your Friends is a worse film of 2015.

I absolutely loved Enter the Void with a passion, the poster has been my iPhone screen saver ever since. It was slick, stylish, sexy and trippy.

Love, however fails to deliver on so many levels. I get what the director was trying to achieve here, but it just doesn't work due to the appalling acting from the very unlikable main character. Where on earth did they get him from? Was he the only actor who was willing to show his erect cock on the cinema screen? His lines are delivered with such a flat misanthropic moribund tone that you can't believe anything he says. The voice over just adds to the car crash. Its a film which lacks any real emotion or chemistry.

If you want to watch a gritty film with real emotions watch Blue is the Warmest Colour and 9 Songs.

Caspar Noe, you have let us done badly here. Go back to making in your face trippy films.

Fmovies: I guess I fell for the marketing, and I have to admit the idea behind the film still seems OK. The 3D effects were good & not overdone. On the other side: I found the script / plot to be thin, and the acting and voice overs were terrible. I got the idea this was a movie made by an American director who was trying to make a 'european' style movie but didn't succeed. Afterwards I read the director is French (born in south America).

The movie lasts more than 2 hours, but there is no suspense, no buildup, etc. Karl Glusman (the lead actor) is not credible in this role, the emotions don't seem real and his voice-overs are even worse. His character begin a 'movie director' or something of the kind seems almost irrelevant and implausible.

After an hour, the movie started getting tedious as it was obvious this 'wasn't going anywhere'. I don't recommend seeing it, unless you're only interested in the raw sex in 3D (but remember... it's more than 2 hours you have to sit through).

No one was able to walk out of the theater this evening as the director Gaspar Noe was in the audience. I'm certain he took note of folks laughing at scenes meant to have profound emotional impact, like the entire ending.

Little character development with the main character's 17 yr old wife, or 18, they had sex when she was 16, nothing more than a prop. Their child, the unintended creation of a broken condom, is named "Gaspar". The wife is an orphan of sorts, unwanted by her mother but somehow has the cash and wherewithall to rent an apt in Paris and do nothing more than go clubbing, listen to her iPod and bang strangers.

Profoundly self-indulgent about lost love, but hard to take seriously when the lost love happens between supposed college students (we never see the college, college books or a single classmate) living and partying in Paris, none of whom even are even remotely worth caring about. Except perhaps the teenage wife, after she gives birth, but again her only role is to get banged, have a kid and though otherwise absolutely gorgeous, kind and loving as only a supermodel with minimal lines can be, this one only serves to annoy the hell out of the main character.

Reminded me of Brown Bunny, but that was a film with guts. This is just an excuse to film cumshots in 3D, wrapped around a plot that never went anywhere with no sense of finality or a hint of revelation or completion. In fact, the movie had to flash a massive THE END for the audience to know the film was over.

Love fmovies. Love is Gaspar Noe's latest film. It's essentially porn. Long, drawn out sequences of sex throughout. But there's a story, and that's what could be interesting about this film. Not since the early 70's has pornographic films experimented telling actual stories instead of just getting straight to business. Nymphomaniac is the last film of the modern era that attempted this, and it absolutely blew me away. This would've been fascinating, but instead, it's PAINFULLY boring. The story line and dialogue sucks. I didn't feel for anyone in this film. The acting was extremely stilted, but in porn films that's pretty much the norm. The cinematography is the only standout. It's beautiful to look at, as most Gaspar Noe films are. However, I despised the black screen that would appear every time there was a cut. As well as the many shots of the main character standing inside a doorway with his back turned to the camera, listening to an annoying voicemail. Why did he do that? Why would he think that would work? If there's a profound reason for those two editing decisions, I'd like to know.. not that it would make me feel any differently, I still hate it. Love is not only a missed opportunity, it's a film I'll never remember, or want to remember.

'Love' will most likely be discredited by many due to it's sheer honesty, like many films of it's kind are. Yet this honesty, as brutal and daring as it might seem, feels necessary to connect with and understand what the characters are going through, on an entirely new emotional level. In the words of Murphy, Gaspar Noe might have made the only movie that truly depicts 'sentimental sexuality'.

'Love' has many subtle and not-so-subtle references to the underlying story and to the director himself. Gaspar's mother is named Nora Murphy, while Murphy's son is named Gaspar and Electra's ex boyfriend - Noe. His favorite movie is Kubrick's '2001', while hers is Lang's 'M', both of which seem to fuel Murphy and Electra's behavior throughout the movie, where Murphy is often aimlessly overwhelmed with hope and desire, while Electra seems unable to forgive.

Gaspar Noe constantly cuts through the past and the future, using the techniques he is so familiar with since Irreversible. The movie abruptly switches between various stages of Murphy's and Electra's relationship, always cutting back to the present, where Murphy's is in absolute emotional agony and despair, raising a child with Clara.

At times Murphy and Electra are so deeply engrained in one another that their fights and dialogues seem outright comical and immature, as if we are observing a 16 year- old couple. But this is truly where 'Love' stands out. Being in love feels and looks exactly like this, it's raw, emotional and brutal yet foggy and sweet; when no one else exists or matters.

In one of Electra's and Murphy's conversations they talk about the sad reality that they are going nowhere and dragging each other down, they discuss taking a break. It is an extremely sad and emotional scene, where the thought itself brings so much fear into them, that they simply end up holding each other even tighter.

The script for 'Love' is only 7 pages long. It is full of beautiful and weird dialogues and extremely emotional, 'free-played' graphic scenes. These scenes however are not there to impress the viewer or open the doors to the unknown. This is also not a nymphomaniac-like sexual exploration. Gaspar Noe does a masterful job in showing us the true emotional aspect of love, in it's raw and relatable form, sex.

The sound-score is stunning, with the music gradually changing depending on the mood and the context of the scenes. Even though a lot of times it seems like we are watching the same people 'fuck' in the same positions, different context, feelings and music make each of these scenes truly unique and mesmerizing on it's own.

Noe also does a wonderful job in his minimalistic depiction of the story and the scenery. Murphy and Electra always wear contrasting colors, while the background is usually very simple yet fitting to them both. As if to say that when in love, everything should be seen through the eyes of the lovers.

'Love' might sometimes seem silly, overly graphic and way too sentimental, yet it hits all the right notes.

I have nothing against sex. I love it, I love watching it but this was painful. The sex was hot but the story and the acting was terrible. I think it was not worth it and very very long. I can see what the director was trying to do but he missed the mark. For the same kind of story with the sex dial down and the story dial up I would suggest The Dreamers. This story could be told in about 30 min, add maybe 30 min to get invested in the characters and that would be good. 2h is way to long for this and 5 min sex scene every 10 min is too much. Like the title says. Watch porn it will be more fulfilling.

Now for the actual review. The plot is simple. It is a guy reflecting on a past relationship. The guy is a little to dysfunctional to be in a healthy one but it is not extreme. The only real question you have during the movie does not get answered and that is about it. I would not recommend this to anyone.