Playlist: I Stand Alone

Gaspar Noe is the Vincent Gallo of French Directors. Uncompromising, controversial, has made too few films for his long time in film, and he presses your buttons.

I Stand Alone is tough to watch...not gory or little action. Noe has here a character study. Most American films do well outside of America because their is a lot of action, and therefore very little talking..and so foreign audiences don't have to read a lot...here the subtitles are rapid fire...the character's inner monologue never stops...his ideas about humanity and the loss he feels are never ending. This film is like Taxi Driver meets Up...and by Up I mean the Pixar Up....no there is no house or balloons..but there is a grumpy old man who is selfish and wants to bring an innocent child down with him.

At one point the film stops...a warning comes on the screen for any audience member to leave the film...and an actual countdown clock begins..it starts at 30 and that's all you see...literally the Director Noe is actively engaging us in the film and saying there is no turning back to what we will see as the film's ultimate horrors begin. It's nothing we haven't seen already...just done in a very jarring way. These Foreign directors like to manipulate us...Funny Games comes to mind where Micheal Haneke uses the manipulation of the audience and a remote control to let the audience know that we...the audience sitting and watching are as much to blame for the torture of the family in the movie as to two criminals in his film.

Noe uses these techniques...also very unnerving soundscapes (Lynchian) and a camera rush and special effects with loud sound to jolt us during high tension. Noe has made very few films.. I really liked the action and mood of Irreversible, and I am highly anticipating the US release of Enter the Void. I Stand Alone is the start of feature films for this 40 something director...he has many TV and short film releases...he is visually different and his direction is great, even though disturbing...and not in a gore way again...just unease...like I said, like a David Lynch met up with Martin Scorsese...even that comparison eliminates the great and subtle special effects he uses.

To anticipate Enter the Void, click the link.