On April 17th, 2018, some cinematic websites announced the premiere of a new feature film by Gaspar Noé under the title of Climax. This announcement is now confirmed by Wild Bunch (Gaspar Noe's distributor), as well as by Gaspar Noé himself on his official Instagram page. Gaspar Noé's Climax is going to be premiered at the Directors' Fortnight (a side _but very prominent_ program of Cannes Film Festival, taking place between 9 to 19 of May) on May 13th and 14th.
"Climax" Gaspar Noé's 5th Feature FilmClimax or Psyché?
About 2 months earlier, many websites announced the 5th feature film by Gaspar Noé to be named Psyché, and not to be released before this summer (I wrote an article about it here on Sinarium). But now, this unexpected news has changed everything. IndieWire website claims Climax to be the new name of the very Psyché, and cites the very synopsis of Psyché for it.
Gaspar Noé's fan website earlier said that it was not clear if Climax is the very Psyché with a new name. But After asking the admins of Gaspar Noe's fans Facebook page (Le Temps Detruit Tout - Gaspar Noé) the question "How did it turn from Psyche into Climax?", they gave me this answer:
Psyché was probably not an "official" title, just a working title. It's not the first time Gaspar Noé changes his movies' titles :
-I stand alone was titled "Rance", an anagram of "Carne" that means "rancid", and it's also "France" without an F (We can see on the posters the Butcher crushing the map of France)
-In France, Enter the Void was supposed to be named "Soudain le Vide" ("Suddenly the void" literally) before keeping the international title
-Before doing Irreversible, he offered Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci to be part of "Love" (it was probably a quite different project then) which was entitled "Danger"
But this was before Gaspar Noé published some photos with captions about Psyché and Climax, on his Instagram page, on May 1st, 2018. One these photos is an illustration of the word "Psyché," with a simple caption: "completion delayed to next winter"
completion delayed to next winter
A post shared by Gaspar Noe (@gasparnoeofficial) on May 1, 2018 at 5:37pm PDT
This simple announcement clears things up. Now we know there are 2 different films. Climax is going to premiere on May 13th, at Directors' Fortnight; while Psyché won't be released until winter.
What do we know about Gaspar Noé's Climax?
Now that it is confirmed that Climax and Psyché are two different films, we can talk specifically about Climax.
Wild Bunch has released a very short synopsis for Climax: " BIRTH AND DEATH ARE EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES. LIFE IS A FLEETING PLEASURE."
They have also released these two official logos for Climax:
Gaspar Noé Climax Official Logo
Gaspar Noé Climax Official LogoNothing else of importance has been announced yet.
What can we guess about Gaspar Noé's Climax?
The word Climax has an obvious meaning in English. In literature, it's the most exciting part of the story near the denouement, while in everyday life it simply means seksual orgasm. Moreover, we generally use the word Climax to refer to the peak or the most exciting part of anything.
Based on what we remember from Gaspar Noé's last film, Love (2015), we can guess that Gaspar Noé most probably means seksual orgasm.
Another issue with the name of this film is that, although Climax is used in French with the same meaning, it is basically an English loanword. Obviously, Gaspar Noé could have chosen a more Fench name for a French-speaking film.
Could Gaspar Noé's Climax be about the Dark Net?
Gaspar Noé has put this image on his Instagram page with this caption: "coming soon"
A post shared by Gaspar Noe (@gasparnoeofficial) on May 1, 2018 at 2:12pm PDT
Does that mean Climax has to do with the Dark Net? We don't know yet. But if that's so, then the word "Climax" could refer to the most fearful experiences on the Dark Net.
As soon as new information is released about Gaspar Noé's Climax (or Psyché), I'll write about it here on Sinarium.
Also read about other films being screened at Cannes 2018.
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