FILM 2125: CLIMAX (2018)

TRIVIA: It took between 15 and 16 takes to shoot the first ten-minute opening scene which is all one continuous shot.

Shot with a 5-page script.

The cast consists of professional dancers with no prior acting experience, with the exception of Sofia Boutella who is the only professional actress. Although Boutella had the dancing experience that the part required, she hesitated to join the film since there was no script. Director Gaspar Noé encouraged his cast to improvise extensively, with the only limitation that they couldn't reference contemporary things like smartphones, since the story is set in the 1990s.

In the sequence when we see 'audition tapes' on a TV screen, also various books and VHS covers are in the frame, that provide clues to Gaspar Noé's inspirations: Visible are titles that reference Luis Buñuel, Dario Argento and Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran, famous for his ultra-negative views on life and humanity.

One of Gaspar Noé's best reviewed movies, a fact that, by his own admission, made him somewhat suspicious, as he believes art in general and his movies in particular should be divisive and make the audience uncomfortable.

The end credits appear 2 minutes into the film. Additionally, the main credits appear 45 minutes into the film and the title is revealed in the final 8 seconds.

Loosely inspired by a French urban legend from the 1990s. While Gaspar Noe and several other members of the crew claim to recall reading about similar incidents in the news, none can recall any specific details.

Some psychotic scenes that were choreographed in Possession (1981) inspired some of the scenes in Climax.

Gaspar Noé used 1970s films for additional inspiration, including The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure and Shivers.

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