Kanye West, Hype Williams Accused of Plagiarism by Director Gaspar Noe

Kanye West and Hype Williams have again been accused of ripping off the surreal club and drug fantasy film Enter the Void in the “All of the Lights” video, this time by the film’s director Gaspar Noé.

In an interview with the Daily Beast, Noé said he was never consulted by West or Williams during the making of the video. Instead, he discovered the similarities between the strobe-like title sequence of his 2009 film and the 2011 music video when the latter arrived on YouTube (a side-by-side comparison can be watched here).

“I was more shocked by the fact that that guy who copied all the typography of my titles put his name in it — Hype Williams — when you never usually see a director’s name in a music video,” Noé said. “He was putting his name on it over and over! It was so weird that he was not only copying it, but adding his name into the credits over and over again.”

While this is the first time Noé has addressed the “All of the Lights” video, Tom Kan, the person who designed the title sequence for Enter the Void, said in 2011, “I was amused that my work was being referenced by a well-known artist, but I was also disappointed that he had not contacted Gaspar nor myself to work on it.” Kan also called the similarities between the sequences “too blatant” and noted, “Even if it’s an homage, there must be an added personal touch.”

Noé himself was aware of the fact that good art is likely to attract imitators. “The truth is that when you put something out there, if you put any idea out there that’s kind of flashy, you have many, many people that are going to be copying it. This happens whether you do movies, paintings or music.”

The “All of the Lights” video was, however, ultimately pulled from YouTube and its flashy title sequence redesigned — not because of copyright complaints, but out of concern it would cause seizures.

As for Noé, while Enter the Void was a critical success, it struggled at the box office. The French director released his latest film, Love, a 3D drama, this summer.