Let us nevertheless assume that you do not know what to think when you read that “Lux Aeterna” is in fact “Lux Æterna – A Film by Gaspar Noé.” This is how the film is advertised here, a reflection of Noé’s at once whimsical and self-serious form of gallows humor. This is a film in which a trio of actresses – Beatrice Dalle, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Abbey Lee – are driven out of their minds and then posed as witches who are burned at the stake during the production of “God’s Work”, a film in the film .For some reason, only two of these women are going to play the lead role in a dialogue presented through a diptych with a split screen. It’s the film’s best – and largely improvised – introductory scene, and it contains only the two French co-leads (Lee is good, but her part is not much).
All three women in “Lux Aeterna” have anxiety that slowly escalates instead of character traits that develop meaningfully. It’s allowed, especially in a 50-minute short film that is more about mood than about plot. Still, it’s hard not to finally see the sketchy character of these protagonists as a revealing reflection, especially knowing that Noé shot this film in five days, so that it can be considered for the Cannes Film Festival 2019 (where it eventually premiered) .
In a series of quotes, “Lux Aeterna” claims to be about filmmaking and demonization of women as reciprocal parts of art as an icon-making process. The film’s reflections on filmmaking as a gendered art based on unfriendly “sex murder” (Noah’s phrase, in the film’s press notes) can be gleaned from clips from previous films, most notably “Day of Wrath” and “Haxan: Witchcraft through the Ages”. about the film’s role, all from passionate directors such as Luis Buñuel, Carl Theodor Dreyer and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Buñuel gets the last word in the film after the closing credits: “Thank God I’m an atheist.”
There are also some election details in Dalle and Gainsbourg’s establishing conversation, in which those who play versions of themselves talk about their respective film acting careers. Dalle jokingly jokes about the variable quality of her work and then goes on to threaten and push back against the male filmmakers of “God’s Work,” who are either paranoid or apathetic or both.
Countless distractions and annoyances plague Dalle, Gainsbourg and Lee: An intrusive boyfriend, a paranoid producer, a home situation involving a tattoo over a young girl’s “foo-foo”. Of the three women, Gainsbourg’s mood gets the most development and consideration. She passively listens to Dalle during the above impromptu conversation and then struggles to understand a litany of demanding hangers swarming her as soon as she and Dalle separate. Gainsbourg also serves as the focal point of the film’s striking conclusion: a battery of strumming primary colors. Noe’s split screens also tend to be an effective alienating showcase for his heroines’ united but separate afflictions.