Gaspar Noe’s provocative films have earned him the title of enfant terrible; at the same time, his audacious use of cinema language has marked him as a visionary auteur. Vortex sees Noe abandon his usual Bacchanalian excess to make a melancholy, even tender film about ageing and death. An elderly couple, played by legendary director Dario Argento and Francoise LeBrun, are frail in different ways. Using a split screen, Noe shows them padding between rooms, dimly connected as they drift through the day - until tragedy strikes.