The story behind the latest film of French cinema’s most terrible enfant, Gaspar Noé, goes a little bit like this: at the end of 2019 (on the 29th of December, to be precise), the director suddenly had a brain hemorrhage. His chances of survival were 50/50. Fate flipped its coin, which landed right side up – however, right around the time that he was discharged from the hospital, the COVID-19 pandemic kicked in. Inspired by the empty streets of Paris, his experience in handling his sick, elderly parents, and his fear that he might have suffered brain damage, Noé used an invitation to write a project that could be shot during lockdown to pen a sketch of the script of what was to become Vortex, a psychological drama which focuses on the last few months in the lives of a couple of elderly French intellectuals, performed by Dario Argento and Françoise Lebrun.

Flavia Dima

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Film critic & journalist. Collaborates with local and international outlets, programs a short film festival - BIEFF, does occasional moderating gigs and is working on a PhD thesis about home movies. At Films in Frame, she writes the monthly editorial - The State of Cinema and is the magazine's main festival reporter.

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