Hasta La Ideas

Alarmingly frazzled from watching Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void this morning, it’s well worth checking out the equally relentless, typographic onslaught that opens the film…

The sequence begins with a no-holds-barred flash through the entirety of the film’s crew, but really kicks in at about one minute when the names of the cast are introduced.

Brilliantly it manages to use an enormous selection of type and graphics, with even the corporate logos of various film bodies and sponsors become part of the vibrant collage of words. The typography and sequence design was created by Paris-based designer and director, Tom Kan.

The intro hints at the schizophrenic nature of the characters who inhabit a claustrophic, drug- and sex-fuelled vision of Tokyo, while also reflecting the unrelenting neon light that encases the city in the film.

Oh and the fact that Noé’s story – which follows the life, death and bleak spiritual journey of its main character Oscar – is also a dizzying, psychedelic, arresting, infuriating, melodramatic 135 minutes of craziness.

The film’s digital effects team was led by Pierre Buffin of BUF Compagnie, while Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter was sound effects director.

Enter the Void opens at UK cinemas on September 24. The trailer is here.