Irréversible is a 2002 film directed by Gaspar Noé, with Monica Bellucci (of Malena and Le Pacte des Loups), Vincent Cassel (of La Haine and Le Pacte des Loups, and Bellucci's husband which is apparent from their on screen chemistry), and Albert Dupontel. It was nominated for a Palme d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, while attracting quite a bit of controversy.

This controversy concerns the quite explicit scenes of sex, violence, and rape, in particular a 9-minute scene in which Bellucci's character, Alex, is raped by a stranger in an underground passage.

The movie opens with a very odd générique; the end credits are played backwards, eventually leaning over to the side before the title appears. This serves as foreshadowing in a way. The entire film is shot in a very disorienting style. Cameras seem to be suspended from the ceiling by strings, and sent spinning willy-nilly.

The first characters to appear are two old men, sitting on a bed and smoking cigarettes. One is in his underwear and the other is fully clothed. They talk for a little while, then we go towards a nightclub called the Rectum. Inside are quite a number of men taking drugs, having sex, watching porn, or tending bar. We first see Cassel's character, Marcus, and Dupontel's character, Pierre, being escorted by police out of the club. Marcus is unconscious, and his arm is in a cast, while Pierre is simply cuffed and led into a police car.

From there, we go inside the club, to a few moments before the previous scene. This the worst of the camera-induced vertigo, augmented by blurry vision and very poor red lighting. We see Marcus and Pierre making their way through the club, asking for a man (le Tenia or the Tapeworm). Eventually, they find him and start a fight. Marcus's arm is broken, and while he is down, two club patrons pull down his pants and prepare to rape him. They are interrupted, however, by Pierre slamming a fire extinguisher onto someone's head repeatedly, until the head resembles something you'd find on rotten.com.

So if you haven't guessed by now, this story is told completely in reverse. At the beginning, we are introduced to Marcus and Pierre as bloodthirsty psychos, and only later do we eventually discover the roots of their rage.

Perhaps this has something to do with context? I don't know. I'm not a very good explainer of films.

If you're at all squeamish, close your eyes until you hear lots of house music. That's the end of the violence. Anything more will be a spoiler.

Worthy of note is that the music for this film was composed by Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk. He may have made a sans-robot-mask cameo as a DJ, but I don't know what he looks like!

Oh yes, there are NO end credits. At all.

If you haven't seen Irreversible, there are spoilers in this post. This post is mainly for myself, as I've just seen the film and need to get this out of my system.

I don't remember how long ago I saw Irreversible, but I still think about it sometimes. It's one of those movies that you can't get out of your head. It was something that was often times difficult to watch, it is a movie that has stuck with me. Irreversible plays in reverse-chronological order, which lends itself to being a movie that you have to think back on to really understand. It's a grueling movie, but one that is somehow brilliant. I find myself wanting to watch it again, as abhorrent as it is. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. Just know that it's not for the faint of heart, and that there is quite a bit of very realistic violence and sex. Spoilers follow. You have been warned.

The ending to Irreversible (the first scene chronologically) is both unsettling and horrible. It shows Alex from an above view lying on a towel in some grass, presumably at a park. She's reading a book, which she references earlier in the movie to her boyfriend and other friend. The book has to do with premonition, and the idea that the future is already mapped out. This is particularly ironic considering what happens to her.

In a way, it's almost like there is a happy ending. Alex, in a park on a beautiful day. The same day that she finds out she's pregnant. The same day she is brutally raped and assaulted.

It is a happy ending only because it is the last scene of the movie, and it is a pleasant one. Yet, this movie is anything but happy, and certainly does not have a happy ending.

When Alex is raped, there is no escape. Not for her, or you. The camera is not afraid of what is happening; it doesn't shy away from it. It's made all the more horrible when you find out later in the movie that Alex is pregnant, and that the man murdered in the beginning of the film for her rape is not, in fact, the man who raped her.

The camera work in the film is excellent, some of the best I've seen in a while. Something about how shaky and uncertain it is... it's jarring. It puts you into the scene. While this is good, it also makes many of the scenes hard to watch because of how real is feels, namely the rape scene and the scene in 'Le Rectum'. The camera doesn't play any tricks on you, it shows you what you would have seen had you been there, placing you into the setting in an unsettling way.

There is an underlying theme in Irreversible that time destroys everything. This isn't a secret, those very words are shown at the end of the film, in place of credits. In the the first scene shown, a man is seen saying so. It seems only fitting then, that a movie called "Irreversible" is shown in reverse-chronological order. It makes no difference to the events at hand, however. It just skews your view of what's happening. You see revenge in the form of murder, but you don't know why it happens until after you've already seen it. You see a woman raped and beaten, but don't know how truly horrible it is until after it happens. It eats away at your brain like a little, writhing worm, and there's nothing you can do about it. The title of the movie is fitting - once Alex is raped there is no going back. Her life, if she survives, will never be the same. The lives of her and her friends have all been altered in a very significant, permanent way. There is no going back, because these things are irreversible. Time destroys all things.

Ir`re*vers"i*ble (?), a.

1.

Incapable of being reversed or turned about or back; incapable of being made to run backward; as, an irreversible engine.

2.

Incapable of being reversed, recalled, repealed, or annulled; as, an irreversible sentence or decree.

This rejection of the Jews, as it is not universal, so neither is it final and irreversible. Jortin.

Syn. -- Irrevocable; irrepealable; unchangeable.

 

© Webster 1913.