Irreversible (2002)

Good but disturbing

Its a fairly good movie. Runs from the end to the front in sections. It is a french movie with English subtitles. Has a realistic, brutal rap scene that is extremely disturbing. Affected me for 3 days. October 3, 2008

Can't even begin to explain..

..how this movie gets to your mind then to your heart. First shock and confussion, perpetrated by images so brilliantly real and painfully brutal, followed by an intriguing -but not that uncommon- plot that slowly unfolds the real story of Irreversible: one about LOVE AND CHOICES. That's what this movie is about, how sometimes we are just blind enough to not see the danger or what we are truly putting in risk in every decision we make, even when it is in front of our eyes. Or in the worst case, when we willingly sacrifice our good inner self for other temporary pleasures that ultimately lead us to a nightmare.
So, putting aside the violence and revenge secuences (that just enhance the whole storytelling) you'll get an actual love story.
In short..it's just a wonderful film about LIFE itself just like it is, inmensely beautiful and cruel. October 2, 2008

Emotionally and Pyschologically Challenging Movie

I just finished watching this film, and I found it to be more different than any movie I have ever seen. As other reviewers have said, the story plot is told in reverse. The urban feel of it appealed to me, the setting so to speak. The actors were brilliant in this. I have never seen such strong emotional parts being played. At first, I really wondered what was going on with the camera moving all kind of ways showing walls, street scenes, and a man raging with anger. The raging man, Marcus, played by Vincent Cassel really drew me into the film. I didn't want to stop watching.

Many have given the story plot here in reviews, so I really do not need to go back over that. If you do decide to watch this move, make sure you can handle realistic graphic scenes. There is not a cut and dry here. It is an 'in your face' type of movie. There is nothing left to the imgination when it comes to the rape scene or anything else. You can almost feel what is happening. It challenged me emotionally as well as psychologically.

As the story ended, that is when I felt attached to Alex played by Monica Bellucci. I saw a beautiful happy woman face torment, but never knew the real Alex till the end.

As for the director, Gaspar Noe, I really think he was challenging the viewer. Sometimes we do not want to face reality, and he makes you face it straight on. If you are an emotional person, this will touch you in many ways. I got to say, it is one of the best movies that I have ever seen. It is a very different type of film and the ending is wild. I do not know another word for the ending.

In closing, I would like to say Mr. Noe was very creative and artistic in his use of the camera. It is just brilliant work by him!! The acting is surperb. This is NOT a film for the squeamish.



September 28, 2008

Horrible

Just horrible. Stopped watching. Bought this because I thought it would be artsy, but it was wasn't. What I watched was just really bad. September 19, 2008

Irréversible is not Pornography.

"Le temps détruit tout" (Time Destroys All Things).

"Irréversible," Roger Ebert writes, "is a movie so violent and cruel that most people will find it unwatchable." But it would be wrong to dismiss this film as pornography. Gaspar Noé's controversial French film stars Monica Bellucci (The Passion of the Christ; How Much Do You Love Me?) and Vincent Cassel (Read My Lips; La Haine (Criterion Collection)) as two playful lovers, Alex and Marcus. (Bellucci and Cassel are married in real life.) Alex and Marcus are very much in love. After discovering that she is pregnant, Alex is brutally raped and then beaten in a pedestrian underpass. Filmed using a widescreen 16mm process, Irréversible is told using thirteen scenes in reverse chronological order, beginning with the closing credits, and ending with Alex peacefully reading An Experiment With Time (Studies in Consciousness) by John William Dunne in a park, unaware of her impending fate. The violent rape scene itself is filmed in a single, graphic shot, lasting nine minutes. Marcus and his friend Pierre (Albert Dupontel) then seek revenge on the rapist (Jo Prestia) nicknamed "le Tenia " (the tapeworm), but they savagely attack the wrong man outside a gay S&M nightclub, Club Rectum. In his review, Roger Ebert correctly observes that the reverse chronology of Irréversible argues against rape and violence. "The movie does not end with rape as its climax and send us out of the theater as if something had been communicated. It starts with it, and asks us to sit there for another hour and process our thoughts. It is therefore moral - at a structural level." Nevertheless, because of its graphic violence, Irréversible is not a film for most people. Others will find it to be a rewarding cinematic experience in all that is good and evil in human nature.

G. Merritt September 7, 2008

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