Climax (2018) on Netflix
R20181h 37mDramaHorrorMusicThriller
In 1996, a French dance troupe rehearses in an abandoned school under manager Emmanuelle and choreographer Selva. Their after-party sangria is spiked, and the dancers turn on one another.
- Netflix2.5/5
- IMDb6.9/1091,213 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes68%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the winter of 1996, a group of French dancers takes over an abandoned school to rehearse an upcoming performance, with Emmanuelle as manager and Selva as choreographer. The elaborate closing piece goes well, and afterwards they hold a party with sangria that Emmanuelle made, while DJ Daddy supplies the music. As the night goes on, the dancers become agitated and confused, and they conclude that the sangria was dosed with a hallucinogen, most likely LSD. Emmanuelle comes under suspicion because she prepared the drink, but she has been drinking it too and shows the same symptoms. Taylor, who resents Omar for dating his sister Gazelle, notices that Omar has touched no sangria, since his religion forbids alcohol, and the group forces him out into the snow.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Climax (2018)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Gaspar Noé conceived and pre-produced Climax in four weeks and shot it in 15 days, in chronological order, letting the cast improvise the bulk of the film; they were given no lines of dialogue in advance.
- Climax is loosely based on a real 1990s French dance troupe whose after-party drink was spiked with LSD, and unlike in the film nothing further happened at the actual event.
- The film's first long take, over 12 minutes and opening with five minutes of fully choreographed dance, was never rehearsed: the cast built the dance take by take with choreographer McNeely, and the fifteenth of sixteen takes made the film.
- Souheila Yacoub was cast after an agent suggested her when Noé asked for a dancer able to scream and shout on demand; she was excellent at a quick audition and thought he was joking when he asked if she could start on Monday.
- Noé cast a contortionist from Congo whom he had heard of while looking for unusual dancers, getting in touch with him and flying him to France.
- The film's snow-covered opening image of a woman bloody and crying was unplanned: it happened to snow in Paris for two days, so Noé sent up a drone to film her from above, unsure at first how he would use the footage.
