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Vortex

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Vortex

Name: Vortex
Director: Gaspar Noé
Genre: Drama, Arts and culture
Released: 2021
Duration: 2 h 22 min
Cast: Dario Argento, Françoise Lebrun, Alex Lutz, Kylian Dheret

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Drama
Arts and culture

2021
Gaspar Noé
142 mins
15

Summary

French drama exploring the last days of an elderly couple stricken by dementia. With subtitles.

IMDB

Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Jeremy Aspinall

Better known as the director of taboo-testing films such as Irreversible and Enter the Void, provocateur Gaspar Noé takes a more sensitive approach to this drama about the twilight days of an elderly French couple. Inspired by his own brush with death, Noé takes a strikingly unsentimental stance, beginning the film with the dedication: "To all those whose brains will decompose before their hearts." Italian horror director Dario Argento stars as the film critic husband to Françoise Lebrun's retired psychiatrist wife, whose onset dementia is revealed following an unnerving night's sleep. Noé introduces a split-screen to emphasise the subsequent divide between the ailing pair, while dual cameras simultaneously observe their parallel lives as they potter about a mazey, book-cluttered apartment. The triviality of their everyday existence soon takes on a riveting new dimension as her deterioration and his frustration increase in terrible tandem, forcing their son to find a solution. The result is a painfully honest portrait of the withering effects of age, beautifully performed by the leads. This may be gruelling in length and sobering as an experience, but it is also powerful, moving and unforgettable.

imdb-square

7.4/10