Lux Æterna is preceded in screenings by The Art of Filmmaking, a 15 minute montage of Cecil B. DeMille films narrated over with a hypnotic suggestion to relax alongside droning orchestration. The montage strobes through red, green and blue colorgrades of itself in rapid succession. The final clip, showing the crucifixion scene from The King of Kings, strobes in black and white.
Lux Æterna begins with a short montage of 1920’s style documentary footage of witch torture, which abruptly cuts to actresses Charlotte Gainsbourg and Béatrice Dalle playing fictional versions of themselves. About to shoot a film, God’s Craft, about witches burnt at the stake, the two actresses sit down in one of the sets and discuss the cinematic depiction of witches, the way women are treated on film sets, and anecdotes from their own film shoots.
The women are joined by a producer and assistant, who escort Gainsbourg to her dressing room while Dalle leaves to conduct directorial duties. In split screen, Gainsbourg and her co-stars are seen getting make-up and costuming done while a myriad of complications occur behind the scenes.
Of the two other actresses playing witches burnt at the stake, one only speaks English and is upset when her outfit is shown to reveal her breasts. Dalle, upset with the entire production team waiting for five hours to shoot one scene, argues with the director of photography to get the actors some rehearsal time while they wait.
The director of photography, who has been promised the role of director after Dalle is fired, refuses to do anything that she asks while the producers spend their time spying on Dalle to catch any slip-ups they can report to get her fired. A behind-the-scenes cameraman is also seen capturing unflattering moments of the production crew while friends of the crew appear on set and try to make conversation with Gainsbourg and the other actresses. Throughout the entirety of Lux Æterna, quotations from filmmakers Luis Buñuel, Carl Theodor Dreyer and Rainer Werner Fassbinder on a director’s desire for absolute control are shown on screen.
Lux Æterna is a 2019 French independent experimental meta-art film written, produced and directed by Gaspar Noé. The piece heavily employs epileptic imagery through grey and color strobes, split-screen, and uses of 1920s-esque documentary footage involving witchcraft and torture. It was screened out of competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
Lux Æterna (2022)
Directed by: Gaspar Noé
Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Béatrice Dalle, Abbey Lee, Clara 3000, Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull, Félix Maritaud, Fred Cambier. Karl Glusman, Lola Pillu Perie, Loup Brankovic, Luka Isaac
Screenplay by: Gaspar Noé
Production Design by: Camille Lepers
Cinematography by: Benoît Debie
Film Editing by: Jérôme Pesnel
Set Decoration by: Samantha Benne
Makeup Department: Rie Gibson
MPAA Rating: None
Distributed by: UFO Distribution, Potemkine Films
Release Date: May 18, 2019 (Cannes), September 23, 2020 (France), May 6, 2022 (United States)
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