Gaspar Noé's big beast of a Cannes entrant showed for the first time in the UK this week in October. Gaspar Noé was there to introduce the film, which was a great kick for me, even though he didn't do a Q&A. His intro was quite funny, because he's not a grand intellectual, he's more of a sensualist. It's clear that he had a pretty dissipated youth and he talked about his experimentation with hallucinogenics and he always wondered as a kid why nobody was making movies with the images like he was seeing whilst high in them. So this is a movie I think he's wanted to make for a very long time, perhaps a couple of decades, but only now has he been able to get the freedom and funding to do it.

He said he had seen the film Lady in the Lake after taking a magic mushroom; this is a 1947 Raymond Chandler adaptation which is shot in POV (that is, the camera is like the eyes of the lead). Gaspar had also been reading about life after death experiences, or near death experiences. So he wanted to combine the hallucinations, POV shooting, and out-of-body experience material. The result is 2 hour and 43 minutes of masterpiece. It will leave the ciné-gourmand gorged and bewildered. For me it's a clear step-up, even an evolution, from his last feature film in 2002, Irréversible. The idea of having out-of-body experiences really frees up the concept of POV, Noé's not limited by the body (which can't just glide forty feet into the air, or halfway across the city). He's really freed up to shoot the fluorescent sexual labyrinth of Tokyo, which is shot only at night-time and in POV.

The story in the movie concerns a brother and sister (Oscar and Linda) who have a childhood trauma and end up moving to Tokyo in their late teens where they become involved in a heaving underworld. I think though that Tokyo is more of a metaphor in this film, I don't think he's trying to tell you anything about Tokyo the city per se, I think it's just the perfect pre-fabricated set for Noé. In the film it's a nerve centre, it's that place in life where we meet lovers, copulate, produce new life, and die. It's the mayfly (order Ephemeroptera, from the Greek for short-lived) part of the human lifecycle, which we experience in a heightened fashion through the eyes of Oscar.

There's a lot of stuff in here for you to take offence to if you want, If you have ever taken offence to a film on content grounds as opposed to intellectual grounds, you're likely to take offence here. Pornographic linkages between adult sexuality and the Oedipus complex, for me are brilliant, but will upset many filmgoers.

Those people who have decided that Noé is homophobic or misogynistic after seeing Irréversible are not going to have their minds changed by this movie at all. There seems to be a very strong link in his mind between sex and procreation. You don't have to consume the movie in a homophobic way in my opinion, but there may be a lot of upset gays after seeing this movie. Particularly as the gay character in this movie is portrayed as being on the same level as the rapist in Irréversible. There's no direct comment, but if you read between the lines, you may not like what you read.

I think the androphiles are going to love Nathaniel Brown who plays the lead teen, Oscar, in this movie, which is his first credited role on IMDb, straight as I am, even I can tell he's a heartthrob. Paz de la Huerta as Linda, his sister, is very eye candyish too. If you like to see beautiful things writhing (we're talking eye popping next level FX hallucinations here, as well as copious sex),then this is the movie for you.

I walked out of the cinema still tripping, the POV is so spectacularly well delivered that you feel almost like you're still in the movie when you come out, because the mode of perception hasn't changed.

The lasting images I am left with are from the Love hotel, a very strange pastel and fluorescent building that has holo-reflectors design on the outside and which Noé dedicates a lot of the later part of the movie to, the FX emanations are spectacular.

Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) and his sister Linda (Paz de la Huerta) live in Tokyo. He's a small time drug dealer. His friend Alex (Cyril Roy) gives him The Tibetan Book of the Dead about the Buddhist belief in the afterlife. Oscar goes to a club called The Void. They are raided by the police. He holds out in the bathroom trying to flush his drugs and is shot through the door. His spirit rises out of his body and witnesses his life.

This gets boring after about ten minutes. The bright colors and Japanese location are visually interesting with the first person POV. It is so hypnotic that it almost puts me to sleep. This is strictly experimental and not for the wider audience. I don't know how anybody is expected to sit through the over two hours unless they're actually on something.

The movie is really long and might feel like it never ends too. But apart from the fact, that I thought it would have ended earlier (I knew how it would end, I just imagined it to be an earlier scene),there was only one other scene that I might have felt better if it would have been shorter. It's the very first visual trip we see after a few minutes into the film. It almost looks like a screen-saver. And I am not really a big fan of that in movies.

But then again, it's not about where the movie ends up being, but how it gets there. Very visual and very first person, this might feel very dizzy and like with Irreversible (you get overhead shots until you break ... you won't yearn for more I reckon though) it feels like long shots pasted together.

The other thing of course is the fact, that Noe is very explicit. He will not hold back (though there are some effects that will diffuse one or two scenes) on violence and or sex. Be aware of that, because he does not care if you think it is good taste or not. There is also quite a few moments that will shock you ... An experience you have to make, if you feel up for it.