While the low res of this image may make the lady appear to be naked, we assure you she is not.

“Irreversible”
Lion’s Gate Films
Written and Directed by Gaspar Noé
Produced by Christophe Rossignon
Starring Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel, Philippe Nahon, Jo Prestia, Stephane Drouot, Mourad Khima
Not rated, but this isn’t something you want to watch with the toddlers
In French with English subtitles
Opens Friday at the Tower
(out of four)

“Time Destroys Everything”

This epitaph to Gaspar Noé’s “Irreversible” drives home the point of the film, which starts off with life-changing events and then looks back on the daily lives of three people who will never live the same way again. The early scenes are shockingly violent and unmercifully explicit, but this adds to the value of the rest of the film.

Much has been made of the brutal murder and rape scenes that occur early in the film, which received heavily mixed receptions from audiences at various film festivals. Critics have accused the film of exploitation and gratuitous shock. While it’s true that the scenes are rather difficult to watch and are not for people who shy away from disturbing realism, that’s sort of the point.

The film shows the events of a day starting from the end, as police haul two men out of a gay club called The Rectum where, in the next scene, a man is brutally beaten to death in an act of revenge. Then scenes show the quest for revenge, what the revenge was for and finally, in the film’s saddest scenes, the characters living their lives in ways that will be impossible after the beginning of the film.

The bedroom play of Marcus (Vincent Cassel) and his girlfriend Alex (Monica Bellucci), which the innocent characters see as playful and loving, includes conversation topics and actions that no one would say to Alex after she’s raped in the earlier scenes—and that’s assuming she survives. The conversations with Alex’s ex boyfriend Pierre (Albert Dupontel), who goes to a party with Alex and Marcus, also take on a completely different meaning.

At the end of the story (and beginning of the film), we shortly learn that Alex is in a coma, her face bloodied beyond all recognition after a stranger anally rapes her in an underground walkway. Up to this point in the film, writer/director Noé’s camera has been moving and spinning around in anger and confusion, sparing us a few, although not many, details of the killing and continued beating of a man with a fire extinguisher.
If this scene is painful and harsh, the camera is not so kind during the rape scene. In one stationary shot that’s so excruciating that it seems to play out for hours, the rape plays out in horrifying real time. At one point, a silhouette enters the end of the tunnel, looks at what’s happening and leaves. “Irreversible” gives no such luxury (unless you’re among the many who walk out), and watches the act get worse and worse, even when it seems like it’s almost over.

There are several ways that the film justifies this scene and proves itself to be more than exploitation. The key is the backward structure, which makes the unbearable scenes the subject of the film instead of gratuitous violence at the end. The characters in the film will likely look back at the memories from earlier in the day in context to what happened. Noé simulates this dark memory by making the event the memory of the film. The words and actions of the rape haunt everything that happened before it.

Of the famous backward films, “Irreversible” is closer to “Betrayal” (1983) than Christopher Nolan’s interesting “Memento” (2000), which, despite its intrigue, was more of a jerk-around mystery than an emotional exploration. Bellucci’s brave performance reveals Alex to be much more than a sex object, and her seductive dress, which reveals the shape of her breasts to the details of the nipples, isn’t seductive at all, but risky and dangerous in light of what happened.

While many people won’t want to watch “Irreversible” at all, it should be watched all the way through if started. Don’t walk out after the rape scene, as the rest of the film is an opportunity to reflect on what’s been on screen, not a bombardment on the senses. If accepted and considered, the film is a moral and stunning critique on rape, violence and the objectification of women. It doesn’t just make you watch the unthinkable actions, it makes you think about them.
jeremy@red-mag.com