Enter the Void is a 2009 English-language art film[8] written and directed by Gaspar Noé and starring Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, and Cyril Roy.

A fantasy psychological drama set in the neon-lit nightclub environments of Tokyo, the story follows Oscar, a young American drug dealer who gets fatally shot by the police, but continues to watch subsequent events during an out-of-body experience.

The film is shot from a first-person viewpoint, which often floats above the city streets, and occasionally features Oscar staring over his own shoulder as he recalls moments from his past.

[9] Noé's dream project for many years, the production was made possible after the commercial success of his earlier feature film Irréversible (2002).

With a mix of professionals and newcomers, the film makes heavy use of imagery inspired by experimental cinema and psychedelic drug experiences.

American siblings Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) and Linda (Paz de la Huerta) live in an apartment in Tokyo, and have vowed to stay together following the accidental death of their parents.

One evening, after Linda has left for work, Oscar smokes DMT and indulges in a hallucinogenic trip until his friend Victor (Olly Alexander) summons him to a drug deal at "The Void" bar.

On the way, Alex discusses The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a Buddhist scripture on reincarnation, and anticipates the events to come by describing the process of death.

The lives of Oscar and Linda are presented in short non-chronological flashbacks; in the midst of a happy childhood, their parents were killed in a violent car crash.

Greatly distressed by the presence of her deceased brother's cremated remains in her home, and constantly plagued by nightmares about the loss of him, she dumps the ashes down the drain of her kitchen sink.

He then travels inside Linda's vagina to witness Alex's penis thrusting into it, then observes his ejaculation and follows the channel of sperm into the fertilization of his sister's ovum.

[11] The director, who opposes all religious beliefs, says that "the whole movie is a dream of someone who read The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and heard about it before being [shot by a gun].

[13] The director also leaves open the possibility that Oscar's life starts over again in an endless loop, due to the human brain's perception of time.

[9] Tokyo was chosen because it could provide colourful environments required for the film's hallucinogenic aspects, and because Japan's repressive drug laws add to the drama, explaining the intensity of the main character's fear of the police.

Several producers responded positively to the script, and it was briefly under development for Tom Tykwer's German company X-Filme Creative Pool.

The project was once again considered too expensive in relation to its commercial potential, but when Wild Bunch discovered that Noé had started to develop the film for Pathé instead of them, they said that they were willing to fund it.

French co-producers included Noé's company Les Cinémas de la Zone and the visual effects studio BUF Compagnie.

Noé feared that a professional actor would be frustrated by being shown almost exclusively from behind, but he felt that Brown, an aspiring director, would find it stimulating to merely be present on the set.

"[10] Since few on the design team had ever taken a hallucinogen, it was necessary for Noé to collect and provide visual references in the forms of paintings, photographs, music videos, and excerpts from films.

[23] For shots from high altitudes, the team started with helicopter footage from video, and then created computer models of the neighbourhoods with textures from photographs.

[22] Noé initially asked the Daft Punk member Thomas Bangalter, who had composed the music for Irréversible, to create an original soundtrack for Enter the Void.

"[33] Bangalter is billed in the credits as sound effects director, and the film features his track "Désaccords" originally composed for Irréversible.

One of the sources of inspiration for the soundtrack was "Revolution 9" by The Beatles, a sound collage which Noé describes as a work "where you catch the beginning of a note, or of a melody and then it's already somewhere else.

[18] At the Cannes premiere, the film had alternatively been listed with the French title Soudain le vide, which means "Suddenly the void".

"[13] The reason the shorter version was made was that Noé had promised the investors to make an alternative edit if the film ended up being longer than two hours and 20 minutes.

[32][48] Thomas Sotinel of Le Monde started his review by recalling the irritation the film caused upon its world premiere in Cannes, and compared the cut he had seen there to the final version: "In all honesty, the difference does not jump to my eyes.

"[50] Ouest-France's critic, on the other hand, was immensely bored by the film, and called it "a padding of simple ideas, stereotypes and cliches in a heap of contrived and vain images which think they're technical prowess.

The website's critics' consensus reads: "Grimy and psychedelic, Enter the Void ushers audiences through an out-of-body experience with the eye for extremity and technical wizardry that Gaspar Noé fans have come to expect.

But despite its querulous melodrama and crazed Freudian pedantries, it has a human purpose the previous film lacked, and its sheer deranged brilliance is magnificent.

She thought that the characters lacked emotional depth and called the story "a lame fusion of stoner lifestyle, sexual fetish, and philosophical inquiry", but still ended the review: "I could stare at this movie for days and not get tired of the sensation.