Irreversible

Rating:
Summary: Interesting,to say the least
Review: I can't deny that Irreversible is an interesting,intriguing film. It is definately original, and well put together.It also happens to include a scene of brutal violence,involving a man's head beaten down to the bones with a fire extinguisher, and an absolutely heart wrenching rape scene that lasts for something of 10 minutes, involving the gorgeous Monica Bellucci.

I feel that the ULTRA violence is crucial to the way the film works, because, since the movie runs in reverse sequence,a la Memento, you start out with the bloody violent end, and "end" with the clean,pure,and happy beginning. That is one of the top reasons I praise this film; its ability to take you from a place so dark and sinister you couldn't even imagine, into a peacful world without blinking once, and losing its intensity.Also,I want to add that I can understand how some would be turned off by the heavy content of the rape scene, but don't go calling it gratituous,or revolting. Rape is a SERIOUS,SERIOUS crime, and I'm sick of it being glossed over in the movies.If you find it revolting,then don't pick a movie that deals with the subject.Seriously, people, it's time that rape was handled honestly in a film.Safe to say, this film achieves that to the max.

Director Gaspar Noe masterfully creates a dark,creepy,sinister atmosphere through the use of lighting,soundtrack and nauseating camera shifts.The actors also seem very natural in their roles-it really doesn't feel like they're acting at all, which is the case with many European films of quality.Monica Bellucci is lovely and full of inexplicable,irresistible charm.Towards the end of the film, where you get to know these people prior to the horrific events that took place, you see a vivid portrait of a young couple.Vincent Cassel, who is Bellucci's real life husband, worked well alongside Monica as her boyfriend in the film.The film created a compelling,tender portrait of their relationship, making it all the more heart wrenching to think of the way things turned out.The film's reverse order workes perfectly, and I believe the film would not have achieved it's effect without this technique.

All in all, I'll say that the latter,toned down parts towards the film's end do not pale at all in comparison to the film's brutal beginning.They're just different, putting it mildly.Another interesting prospect the film brings up through a series of hints, and silent gestures, is that perhaps all this horror was just imagined inside the female protagonist's head.Pretty to think so, ain't it?

Irreversible is not for the squeamish, but if you're up for an interesting,altogether different film, see it once.I'm not going to call it a work of art, or claim it as life-changing.What it is, however, is a worthy, albeit challenging film that will leave you truly immersed in thought.

Rating:
Summary: Very Disturbing
Review: This movie was very difficult to watch. I don't think that I have ever seen a more violent opening seen or quite as disturbing rape scene. The movie is well laid out and at the end you almost have contradictory feelings because you see the couple when everything is ok, but at the same time you know what is going to happen later that night. The reason I didn't give this movie 5 stars is because of the camera work at the very beginning of the movie. I think that the varying angles were used to help illustrate the insanity of the situation, but to me it seemed a little over done. I also was confused by the very end of the movie and have heard people say that it could be a dream, but I am not sure I saw it that way.

Either way very moving, very disturbing movie.

If you do decide to watch it, be warned that there is extreme violence and some not so main stream sexual acts.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to watch, and not because of the rape scene.
Review: It's hard to watch because it's hard to take ANY of the main characters seriously, because they're all classic French drama queens! Every second, every one of them is practically bursting with comically exaggerated emotions (unintentionally comic, that is), foaming at the mouth, convulsed by kaleidoscopic and manic flashes of existential angst/despair/desire/frustration/rage/etc. It's like watching a bunch of moths on PCP bouncing off the insides of a Mason jar. Ah, the passion, the passion...

(So THIS is what the Buddhists call "the comedy of the ego.")

The film is kind of like a film version of Martin Amis' book, "Time's Arrow" which tells a story backwards. Interesting gimmick/concept, but results in a barely watchable film, especially given the erratic and deliberately artsy-fartsy camera work (practically nauseating during the beginning of the film).

Rating:
Summary: No reason to make such a movie; even less reason to watch it
Review: Reading the cautionary reviews, I expected a controversial avante gard film.

This is perversity personified, ugly, awful, horrific, mind-scarring.
I've never been so revolted by a film in my life, and that's saying alot.
It's not drama, it's beastiality; the worst views of humanity I've ever seen.

Nightmares tonight; this scramble of psychotic sadism is shattering.
It says nothing, not in film techique, acting, directing or concept. It has no reason to be.

If you get it, except to see it once, but probably not all the way through.
Then you'll consider giving it to your worst enemy. Arrrrrgh!

I'm obviously still cringing at the images. Oh, The Horror!
(I can't stop ranting! Hope I can forget this monster!)

Rating:
Summary: NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH....
Review: I gave this film 5 stars because it's one of the most challenging films I've ever sat through. Any filmmaker with this much audacity and imagination has my attention. The credits roll in reverse (as in "Kiss Me Deadly") and the film does the same. It opens with a horrifying descent into a horrifying gay S&M club called the Rectum by a crazed Marcus (Vincent Cassel) searching for a character called Tenio (tapeworm) with his friend Pierre (Albert Dupontel) desperately trying to stop him. The camera work in this scene does gymnastics and is dizzying and uncomfortable. They find Tenio (or so they think) and when he breaks Marcus' arm, Pierre grabs a fire extinguisher and pulverizes the man's face. What follows are the events (in reverse) that lead up to this violent encounter including one of the most repulsive rape scenes I've ever seen in a film. I had to look away a couple of times. Marcus is in love with Alex (Monica Bellucci) who left Pierre for him. They're all still good friends. But at a party, Marcus does coke and gets out of hand causing Alex to walk out without him---leading to the vicious rape. All of this supposedly takes place over the course of a day and may or may not be a fantasy indulged in by Alex. Whatever your interpretation is of this film will no doubt influence whether you like it or not. The violence is incredible and stomach churning. Yet the film goes from all out horror to softer and softer scenes until it reaches a dream-like conclusion---which is actually the beginning. And therein lies the mystery. Was it all just a fantasy or was it real? The acting is excellent, especially Dupontel as Pierre who, as we see in reverse, goes from ballistic violence to an eloquent, gentle intellectual. Alex left Pierre because he wasn't exciting. So the fantasy aspect does have some credence. Anyway, viewers should beware the box warning of graphic violence. Once you get past this, if possible, "Irreversible" is a most curious film. But not for the squeamish.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult to Watch
Review: "Irreversible" is one of the most violent and cruel films I have ever seen. The rape scene is brutally honest, shot in one long eight minute take without interruption, and the beating at the beginning is so graphic you feel as if the camera is participating in the violence, rising and falling with the blunt instrument.
And yet, because of the films honesty, it becomes a film that does not at all condone violence. Instead, it seems to demonstrate it's unnecessary existence in society as it completely destroys two lives, seemingly bound to this destiny by fate as the movie is told in reverse.
Brilliant, althought unwatchable to most.

Rating:
Summary: More than just the graphic scenes you've heard about
Review: French films ... what can I say about them? They can be raw, violent, timid or just weird. Irreversible is a VERY interesting film, simply because it is thought provoking. When was the last time you saw a film which engrossed you so much, but at the same time you wanted to switch it off?

Right from the beginning, IRREVERSIBLE pulls you in and while the initial camera work is annoying, it helps create a mood of sheer eeeriness. When the siren-like music begins, you know it's not going to be a pleasant ride.

The film makes you question human behaviour, and the total disrepect that humans can have towards other humans. The film is shown backwards and it really works in this format. You know what is going to happen to the characters, before they do. This of course will make you cry because the main characters do not deserve what happens to them.

SUMMARY:
IRREVERSIBLE is a very sad film which shows the disgusting side of human behaviour, while in so many ways it is a beautiful film. The two awful scenes are what everyone is talking about. However, if you can get through these scenes, you will be rewarded ... simply because beyond those scenes, the film has much more to tell.

Rating:
Summary: Soul shattering
Review: After witnessing the nightmare of Gaspar Noe's "I Stand Alone," a movie that left me in open-mouthed awe for days afterwards, I just knew I had to see "Irreversible." I am not a big foreign film aficionado, not by a long shot, but Noe's films are worth watching simply because they are deeply disturbing jaunts into the darkest recesses of the human psyche. He's not above showing life as it really is, and he does it in ways that make you laugh at the cleverness of the presentation even as you cringe in disgust at the subject matter. In other words, his pictures are right up my alley. I always love to watch cinema that challenges the viewer on some level, something rare indeed in an age of the American special effects laden summer blockbusters. That doesn't necessarily mean I always like these types of films; oftentimes I don't when the fine line between challenging and pretentiousness is crossed, but Noe's stuff is great because it is premium grade weirdness. "Irreversible" will remind many viewers of the American film "Memento," except Noe's film is darker, oh so much darker, than that movie.

"Irreversible" flows backwards, with the closing credits opening the film and each scene shown from the end towards the beginning. Right from the start, you know you're going to see something different. Boy, are you ever! A sex club with fleeting sounds and images of pornographic behaviors, a sickening scene of a human head being bashed in with a fire extinguisher, and an arrest quickly start you wondering about what it all means. As the film progresses (regresses?), we learn why one man killed another in that seedy bar. Alex (Monica Bellucci), a rather carefree soul, was brutally raped and beaten by a thuggish French pimp in a subway tunnel. Her boyfriend Marcus (Vincent Cassel) promptly had an emotional meltdown when he discovered what happened to his lovely woman. Full of seething rage, he goes on a rampage through the city looking for the man who maimed Alex. Along for the ride is Pierre (Albert Dupontel), Alex's former boyfriend who desperately attempts to rein in Marcus's reckless quest for vengeance.

Surprises abound in "Irreversible," surprises that will leave you thinking about the film long after it ends. I was a little amazed I figured out how the film concludes (begins, actually) long before I got there. You just knew there had to be some big, explosive revelation that would give Alex's victimization even more pathos. Well, there is and it's quite shocking. In fact, it would have worked almost as well had the film been shown in chronological order. Since Noe chose to reverse the sequence of the scenes, he not only retains the film's shock value but also imbues it with a frequently recurring sense of "what if." If only Marcus had paid more attention to his wife at that party. If only Alex had listened to Pierre and not gone out alone in a dangerous neighborhood. If only, if only, if only. You get the idea. This sense of identification gives the movie its edge. We've all done the same thing, asked the same questions, after a personal tragedy. I know I have.

What shocks even more are the things Gaspar Noe can get away with showing in a French film. The French have little problem with overt pornography, morally repugnant violence, and lengthy discussions on the most intimate details of sexual relationships. Sure, American films are violent and sometimes crass in their discussions of sex, but not like the French films I have seen lately. I can't imagine any mainstream film made here that would show a rape sequence that runs for nearly ten minutes, or the weird goings on in a club. If you have a serious problem with any of these issues, stay far, FAR away from "Irreversible." For that matter, stay just as far away from Noe's "I Stand Alone," a movie that shows in gruesome detail a murder/suicide. I will say that the filmmaker does not in anyway attempt to glorify the vicious acts of cruelty and barbarism he depicts in his movies. That doesn't mean it makes these incidents any easier to watch, however.

"Irreversible" is a shocker on many levels, a film not suited to a majority of the movie going public. It's not the sort of movie you would take a date to, or watch with members of your family unless you're a member of the Manson family. It should go without saying that Noe's picture is not suitable for young children. I recommend watching "Irreversible" alone so that it becomes a personal experience. I don't know what Gaspar Noe will come out with next, or if he'll ever make another film again, but I want to see it whatever it ends up being. If you haven't seen "I Stand Alone" before watching this one, make sure you see it soon. Fans of this type of cinema should also check out "Baise-Moi," another French film filled with even greater amounts of nihilism and despair than this one.

Rating:
Summary: Sickening But Realistic As Intended
Review: If I were to rate this movie based on how it made me feel, then I would have given it one star instead of 4 stars, but that would not be fair to the director & actors. The movie achieves what was intended by the director, which really challenged my senses. The rape scene left me numb & stunned. I understand why many people got up and left the theater during that 10-min scene because it's so realistic & brutal unlike anything I've seen before. The movie left me so unsatisfied, which I think is why many viewers gave this a low rating because a high rating might sound like they enjoyed watching the movie. I wanted the satisfaction of seeing revenge on the rapist, but instead the wrong man was brutally murdered and the man (Alex's ex-boy friend) was going to spend yrs in prison as a result of it. I kept hoping for someone to walk through the underpass and disrupted the rape but that did not happen. After the rape, I felt sick watching the woman dragging herself away and held my breath for the rapist to let her go. Instead he brutalized her in a way as shocking & sickening as during the rape. As much as we don't want to acknowlege it, the sickening acts portrayed in this movie do happen in real life. Also, how many times in real life have we seen a trivial decision (such as the woman's decision to leave the party early by herself) led to some event that turned one's life totally upside down? I give 5 stars to the superb acting throughout the movie (esp the rape scene). I felt like those people weren't acting at all. I do agree w/ other viewers that the rotating camera angle during the 1st 30 minutes is just way overdone & totally unnecessary (which is why 4 instead of 5 stars).

Rating:
Summary: a reversal of opinion
Review: i must admit to disliking this film intensely upon my first exposure to it. i still feel that it reeks of pretention, is unintentually erotic and that its creator grossly misjudges the impact images in film have on the human mind. but i now realize that this exercise in artristic experimentation is as effective as it intends to be despite some minor flaws and the directors irresponsability. it effected me. and because of this i cannot condemn it.