| Irréversible | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Gaspar Noé |
| Produced by | Brahim Chioua Vincent Cassel |
| Written by | Gaspar Noé |
| Starring | Monica Bellucci Vincent Cassel Albert Dupontel |
| Music by | Thomas Bangalter |
| Cinematography | Benoît Debie Gaspar Noé |
| Editing by | Gaspar Noé |
| Studio | Les Cinémas de la Zone StudioCanal |
| Distributed by | Mars Distribution |
| Release date(s) | 22 May 2002 |
| Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Box office | $792,200 |
Irréversible is a 2002 French drama film written and directed by Gaspar Noé, starring Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel and Albert Dupontel. The film employs a non-linear narrative and follows two men as they try to avenge a brutally raped girlfriend. The soundtrack was composed by the electronic musician Thomas Bangalter, who is best known as half of the band Daft Punk.
Several reviewers declared it one of the most disturbing and controversial films of 2002. Irréversible competed at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and won the Stockholm International Film Festival's award for best film.
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Irréversible contains thirteen scenes presented in reverse chronological order. They are discussed here in chronological order.
A young woman named Alex is reading An Experiment with Time by John William Dunne in a park, surrounded by playing children. Beethoven's 7th Symphony is heard in the background. The camera spins around faster and faster until it blacks out into a strobe effect, accompanied by a pulsing, roaring sound. A rapidly-spinning image of the cosmos can be dimly perceived. A title card reads: "Time destroys everything" — a phrase uttered in the film's first scene.
Marcus and Alex now lie in bed after sex. Alex reveals she might be pregnant, and Marcus is pleased with the possibility. They prepare to go to a party, and Marcus leaves to buy wine. Alex takes a shower, then uses a home pregnancy test that confirms she is pregnant. She is elated. She sits on the bed clothed, her hand on her belly. A poster for Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, with the tagline "The Ultimate Trip", is above the headboard.
At a nearby Paris Métro station and aboard a subway train, the trio discuss sex in a metro station. Pierre refers to the fact that he and Alex were once dating, but are no longer in a relationship. He implies that Marcus stole Alex from him.
Some time passes. Alex and two male friends, Marcus and Pierre, at a party. Alex is annoyed by Marcus' unrestrained use of drugs and alcohol and his flirtatious behavior with other women, and consequently decides to leave the party.
On her way home, Alex sees a man (le Tenia, or "the Tapeworm") beating a transsexual prostitute named Concha in a pedestrian underpass. Once he sees Alex, he lets go of Concha and turns his attention to Alex. Alex attempts to flee, but le Tenia catches her and threatens her with a knife. Le Tenia pins Alex to the ground and brutally rapes Alex anally for several minutes of screentime. Le Tenia then brutally beats her.
A short period of time passes. The audience learns Alex is in a coma. Marcus and Pierre are questioned by the police. They then talk to a street thug named Mourad and his friend Layde. The two gangsters promise to help them find the rapist, whom Mouard claims is le Tenia, if they get paid. Marcus and Pierre go looking for the man who raped Alex.
Marcus and Pierre track down Concha, the rapist's last victim. At first, she refuses to talk to them. After Marcus threatens to slash her with a piece of broken glass, she identifies le Tenia as the rapist and says he can be found at a gay BDSM nightclub called The Rectum.
Marcus and Pierre go to The Rectum. Marcus finds le Tenia standing with another man. Thinking this is Le Tenia, he assaults him but this person wrestles Marcus to the ground, breaks Marcus' arm, and attempts to rape Marcus on the club floor. Pierre grabs a fire extinguisher and kills this unknown individual by crushing his skull whilst Le Tenia - the source of all the havoc - stands there groggily (perhaps not believing he got away). Police arrest Pierre and put him in handcuffs. An ambulance arrives, and Marcus is put on a stretcher and taken from the club. Outside, a group of men shout homophobic insults at them. The audience learns that the murdered man was not le Tenia after all. Rather, the man standing next to him in the club was the real le Tenia.
Across the street in a small apartment, two men are talking about sex. One of them is "the Butcher", the protagonist of Noé's previous film, I Stand Alone. In a drunken monologue, the Butcher reveals that he was arrested for having sex with his daughter. Their philosophical musings shift to the subject of the commotion in the streets outside. Without looking out the window, they derisively attribute the commotion to the patrons of The Rectum.
Irréversible was shot using a widescreen 16mm process. Many of the scenes were shot with multiple takes that were then invisibly edited together using digital processing, creating the illusion that the scene is filmed all in one shot, with no cuts or edits. This included the rape scene, portrayed in a single, unbroken shot, lasting nine minutes. Although the penis can be seen after the rape, this was later digitally added in editing with computer-generated imagery. Another example is with the scene where Pierre bludgeons a man to death, crushing his skull. Computer graphics were brought in to augment the results, as initial footage using a conventional latex dummy proved unconvincing. The process can be watched in the bonus material of the film's DVD. The film uses extremely low-frequency sound during the opening 20 to 30 minutes to create a state of disorientation and unease in the audience, including during the nine-minute rape scene.
The film premiered in France on 22 May 2002 through Mars Distribution. It competed at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.[1] It was released in the United Kingdom on 31 January 2003 through Metro Tartan Distribution, and the United States on 7 March 2003 through Lions Gate Films. Audience reactions to both the rape scene and the murder scene have ranged from appreciation of their artistic merits to leaving the theater in disgust.[2] Newsweek's David Ansen stated that "If outraged viewers (mostly women) at the Cannes Film Festival are any indication, this will be the most walked-out-of movie of 2003." In the same review, Ansen suggested that the film displayed "an adolescent pride in its own ugliness".[3]
Critical response to the film was divided. As of 2011, it held a score of 56% positive verdict from 119 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.7/10.[4] The American film critic Roger Ebert argued that the film's structure makes it inherently moral; that by presenting vengeance before the acts that inspire it, we are forced to process the vengeance first, and therefore think more deeply about its implications.[5]
The film won the top award, the Bronze Horse for best film, at the 2002 Stockholm International Film Festival. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Award by the Film Critics Circle of Australia. It was voted Best Foreign Language Film by the San Diego Film Critics Society, tied with Les Invasions Barbares. It grossed $792,200 from theatrical screenings.[6]
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