Film Review: Irreversible (2002)

3 months ago

(source: tmdb.org)

While both graphic sex and graphic violence are traditionally considered inappropriate content for “proper” and “dignified” forms of mainstream cinema, it is usually the former rather than latter that causes outrage and calls for censorship. This happens even in seemingly open-minded and progressive places like Europe. An illustration can be found in an event when happened in Croatia years ago when state television aired two “problematic” films back-to-back. The first was Ridley Scott’s Hannibal, and the second was Irreversible, 2002 French drama written and directed by Gaspar Noé. While Croatian public saw nothing wrong in Scott’s graphic depictions of sadistic cannibalism, Noé’s film caused scandal over using CGI to depict certain details of male anatomy.

The plot revolves around three major characters – Marcus (played by Vincent Cassell), Marcus’ best friend Pierre (played by Albert Dupontel) and Marcus’ beautiful girlfriend Alex (played by Monica Bellucci). Alex loves Marcus and is even, unbeknownst to him, became pregnant. But Marcus’ behaviour at house party makes Alex leave and take fatal decision to use pedestrian underpass. There she notices transgender prostitute Concha (played by Jaramillo) being abused by man called La Tenia (played by Jo Prestia). Concha escapes, but La Tenia switches attention to Alex who is anally raped and brutalyl beaten. As paramedics take away Alex who is barely clinging to life, two street criminals – Mourad (played by Mourad Khima) and Layde (played by Hillal) – approach Marcus and Pierre and volunteer to help them find culprit, who is later identified as La Tenia. The trail leads to gay BDSM club where Marcus and Pierre would get into altercation, face attempted rape and confrontation resolved in spectacularly violent and bloody manner.

Irreversible is in its essence rape and revenge film, subgenre of exploitation cinema that thrived in more permissive era of 1970s before being expunged from video stores during Video Nasties moral panic of 1980s. Gaspar Noé tries to hide this by wrapping his film with the content and style that belongs to art cinema, especially the brand that tries to win critics and snobs by being “edgy” and controversial. The content of Irreversible is indeed more extreme than any 1970s rape and revenge author could have ever dreamed. This includes not only plenty of nudity, simulated sex and even some anatomical details being reconstructed by CGI, but also the violence being more explicit and disturbing, including the scene where CGI is used to realistically depict what happens when someone’s head gets repeatedly hit with a fire extinguisher. The most disturbing and the most talked about scene, which brought Irreversible much infamy and free publicity, depicts the rape that goes in underpass. The scene, which seems to go on forever, is one of the most unpleasant pieces of 21st Century cinema that would represent challenge even to viewers accustomed to the standards of New French Extremity. Yet, it isn’t as graphic as many would have thought, with some of the most revolting details not being shown, but actually narrated by the rapist in a manner that might not be too realistic.

Apart from controversial content, Irreversible is best known for its unusual narrative structure. Noé, inspired by Nolan’s Memento, decided to show the events in reverse chronological order. The film begins with the aftermath of violence, which is observed by Butcher, unnamed protagonist of Noé’s previous film I Stand Alone, thus making Irreversible its sequel. The entire plot consists of thirteen chapters, being shown in single continuous shots and each chapter is shown in slightly different manner. The violence at the beginning/end is shown through dark cinematography, jerky camera movements and soundtrack that makes whole affair unpleasant, while the atmosphere lightens up as the plot moves into the past. The acting is very good, with Vincent Cassell and Monica Bellucci, who were a real couple at the time, showing great chemistry and willingness to spend large part of running time in their birthday suits. However, couple of Noé’s creative choices, like titles “Time destroys everything” near the end or overly intellectual discussions between Pierre and Marcus, might look pretentious and too snobbish, thus making this generally unplesant film even less approachable to general audience. Noé, however, shows great skill and Irreversible, for better and for worse, has won its place in cinema history. At 2019 Venice Film Festival Noé at presented new version called Irreversible: Straight Cut, with slight alterations and events shown in chronological order.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)