Psychedelic fit-inducing credits.

Then a dingy flat, albeit with a balcony, overlooking technicoloured Tokyo.

A boy smokes some sordid drug. Oh, except it's filmed to persuade you to believe that it could be you yourself smoking this sordid drug.

The sordid drug takes effect and the boy floats off on some extraordinary psychedelic trip. So the screen fills with this sort of stuff.

For minutes at a time.

And so goes Enter The Void. Directed by Gaspar Noé. Featuring a remarkably unattractive adolescent boy and a remarkably attractive I suppose she's meant to be adolescent but may be a little older girl. Gorgeous, in fact.

So boy trips. Girl (sister) gives him a row. Boy deals in drugs. Girl is none too pure herself as she's taken to lapdancing / shagging some older man for who knows what ends. Boy unfortunately gets shot on account of having carelessly shagged the mother of a friend who vengefully tips off the police about his drug dealing. Lots of shots of boy lying hugging the filthy urinal with the blood draining out of him as the camera goes a bit shaky and weird to show that the life is also draining out of him....

And then eventually the story gets going again. Girl is carelessly shagging her older man when the call comes from a long-haired friend who wanders into the police corral and discovers the misfortune. Girl is sad. Very sad. Lots of flashbacks explaining how they all got to this miserable position. (Bloody bloody car crash (think squashed heads), parents dead, boy and girl separated, make a sinister blood pact to never be separated again, o but he lied, she's carted off to a separate foster home crying and wailing, he at some point wanders off to Tokyo, becomes a dealer to pay for a plane ticket for little sister - though honestly, their relationship is pure - she pitches up, full of joy and so it begins.)

Now I must be honest. This is a long film. Two and a half hours. With a series of long ponderous psychedelic sequences. And lots of very clever camera stuff that is lovely to look at and all very atmospheric but slow so slow. The plot advances in sudden fits and starts and then not at all. As I was there purely for the cinematography, I don't mind this in the slightest. And it meant I ducked out early with an almost clear conscience.

Obligingly, Russell stayed til the end. O so I've missed out a lovely graphic abortion scene (but whose baby?) with the girl. So let's consult Russell's text:

Well, after the 10 minute orgy in the neon love hotel, the artist (long-haired guy and sis hooked up. Cue the ******** scene (can't print this) and our hero (unattractive boy) chose their offspring to be reincarnated in. All a bit bonkers.

Indeed. But it looked gorgeous.