Irreversible Movie

Theatrically released in France, the United Kingdom and the United States, Irréversible competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and won the Bronze Horse at the Stockholm International Film Festival. Critical reception was mixed, with praise towards the performances and Noé's direction, but criticism towards its graphic portrayal of violence and rape. American film critic Roger Ebert called Irréversible "a movie so violent and cruel that most people will find it unwatchable".[5]

Irreversible Movie

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.[23] 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".[24]

Film critic David Edelstein argued "Irréversible might be the most homophobic movie ever made."[29] Noé's depiction of gay criminal Le Tenia raping the female lead, Alex, remains the film's most controversial image. In his defense, Noé stated, "I'm not homophobic", noting "I also appear in Irréversible, masturbating at the gay club", as a means of showing "I didn't feel superior to gay people".[30]

The camera looks on unflinchingly as a woman is raped and beaten for several long, unrelenting minutes, and as a man has his face pounded in with a fire extinguisher, in an attack that continues until after he is apparently dead. That the movie has a serious purpose is to its credit but makes it no more bearable. Some of the critics at the screening walked out, but I stayed, sometimes closing my eyes, and now I will try to tell you why I think the writer and director, Gaspar Noe, made the film in this way.

Now consider "Irreversible." If it were told in chronological order, we would meet a couple very much in love: Alex (Monica Bellucci) and Marcus (Vincent Cassel). In a movie that is frank and free about nudity and sex, we see them relaxed and playful in bed, having sex and sharing time. Bellucci and Cassel were married in real life at the time the film was made and are at ease with each other.

5. We know by the time we see Alex at the party, and earlier in bed, that she is not simply a sex object or a romantic partner, but a fierce woman who fights the rapist for every second of the rape. Who uses every tactic at her command to stop him. Who loses but does not surrender. It makes her sweetness and warmth much richer when we realize what darker weathers she harbors. This woman is not simply a sensuous being, as women so often simply are in the movies, but a fighter with a fierce survival instinct.

The fact is, the reverse chronology makes "Irreversible" a film that structurally argues against rape and violence, while ordinary chronology would lead us down a seductive narrative path toward a shocking, exploitative payoff. By placing the ugliness at the beginning, Gaspar Noe forces us to think seriously about the sexual violence involved. 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.

Raquel (she/her) is a freelance movie and TV features writer for Collider. She is currently working on her PhD in English Literature with a focus on the rhetorical significance of borders within horror. When she's not writing, she's most likely covered in her dog's fur while playing video games or watching yet another horror film.

Two years ago, the owners of the rights to the movie called me to see if I wanted to supervise the remastering of the movie in digital DCP for Blu-ray. Of course, I want to make sure that for the future world, the movie is transferred in the best condition, so I checked all the color grading and the sound, etc.

The movie is being released now in the States, but it was already released two years ago in France, Japan, Russia, and other countries. So I already know how people react to the movie. [The reaction was largely the same, with a mix of the very positive and very negative.]

It seems kind of weird that this movie is coming out now, because it was shot 20 years ago, and it was already a daring way to portray it at the time. But now, it seems even more daring, because no one would get the financing to portray such a scene in that way now.

Also, the editing process becomes much longer, because you over-edit or over-cover the scene. Since I had to shoot the whole movie in six weeks, I thought doing every scene in one long take would be easier.

Until now, IRREVERSIBLE was a deliberate puzzle. Presented clockwise, everything is clear, and also darker, making it easier to identify with the characters and understand the tale unfolding. The same story is no longer a tragedy, this time it is a drama that brings out the psychology of the characters and the mechanisms that lead some of them to a murderous barbarity. While IRREVERSIBLE has sometimes been wrongly perceived as a 'rape and revenge' B movie, here the deadly outcome is all the more depressing. IRREVERSIBLE: STRAIGHT CUT can be more easily seen as a fable on the contagion of barbarity and the command of the reptilian brain over the rational mind. This new cut is another film. You will see. Time reveals all things."

It's easy to reduce Irreversible down to a single phrase: "that movie." It's "that movie" that made audiences leave theaters in disgust, "that movie" with one of the most sickening depictions of sexual assault put to film, "that movie" you'll likely never want to see again. It was even dubbed by esteemed critic Roger Ebert as "a movie so violent and cruel that most people will find it unwatchable." If you're willing to push your own boundaries of taste, however, what you'll find is a film experience that'll stick with you long after your first viewing, one that purposefully twists what would've been a standard revenge story into something a little more profound.

The reputation of Gaspar Noé's nightmare revenge film "Irreversible" precedes it. As a cornerstone of the New French Extremity movement of the late 1990s and 2000s, its legacy looms large in audiences' minds as a worthy entry too brutal for a second viewing. I took one for the team, though, and subjected myself to a second viewing of this depravity in the form of a new cut for the film's 20th anniversary. Fortunately, last week's Brooklyn Horror Film Festival screening wasn't a fruitless one, as watching the movie more than once just for fun feels like an entirely masochistic task.

This cut also illuminates how the dramatic aspects of this film work towards its most crushing elements. According to Eric Thirteen, a cinematographer who introduced the straight cut at the festival screening I saw, movies like "Irreversible" and other New French Extremity staples were originally looked at as dramas in France. Later, they were considered differently in America, using their strong fears of the "other" and the ways we can be pitted against one another even when there is little reason for it. Those fears feel uniquely American today, but pervade French culture in much the same stroke. Noé's film is a high drama about the ways we both connect and refuse to do so, refusing to see others for what they truly are: just people, trying to live in the best way they can.

You made this movie with Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci when they were at the height of national obsession as a married couple, on the level of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Did this movie affect them or their reputation? They stayed married for another 10 years afterward.

The film's unorthodox presentation enables it to show an examination of the destructive nature of cause and effect, steeped in Dramatic Irony as it reveals just how irreversible the events that unfold truly are.

Watching the film, you know he is a master filmmaker. He knows how to push the envelope without being exploitative. He understands the cinematic language perfectly. He knows exactly how to film each scene to gain the most powerful effect. The film destroys all of Hollywood's conventions of the happy ending and what violence really is. I will never look at violence the same way again. I probably won't have a more visceral and thought provoking movie experience the rest of the year.

Rick DeMott is the Senior Content Associate for Barbie.com at Mattel. Previously, he served as Director of Content for AWN. The animation writer, film school graduate, movie geek reviews from a story-based perspective, giving pros and fans a different perspective from your typical mainstream reviews. Read more non animation and visual effects related reviews at Rick's Flicks Picks.

EconPapers FAQ Archive maintainers FAQ Cookies at EconPapers Format for printing The RePEc blog The RePEc plagiarism page Plant-Level Irreversible Investment and Equilibrium Business CyclesMarcelo VeraciertoAmerican Economic Review, 2002, vol. 92, issue 1, 181-197Abstract:This paper evaluates the importance of microeconomic irreversibilities for aggregate dynamics using a real-business-cycle (RBC) model characterized by investment irreversibilities at the establishment level. The main finding is that investment irreversibilities do not play a significant role in an otherwise standard realbusiness-cycle model: Even though investment irreversibilities are crucial for establishment-level dynamics, aggregate fluctuations are basically the same under fully flexible or completely irreversible investment. (JEL E22, E32)Date: 2002Note: DOI: 10.1257/000282802760015667References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc Citations: View citations in EconPapers (132) Track citations by RSS feedDownloads: (external link) =10.1257/000282802760015667 (application/pdf)Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.Related works:Working Paper: Plant level irreversible investment and equilibrium business cycles (1998) Working Paper: Plant level irreversible investment and equilibrium business cycles (1997) This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/TextPersistent link: :aea:aecrev:v:92:y:2002:i:1:p:181-197Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Statistics for this articleAmerican Economic Review is currently edited by Esther DufloMore articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert (Obfuscate( 'aeapubs.org', 'mpa' )). var addthis_config = "data_track_clickback":true; var addthis_share = url:" :aea:aecrev:v:92:y:2002:i:1:p:181-197"Share This site is part of RePEc and all the data displayed here is part of the RePEc data set. Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute. Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to Obfuscate( 'oru.se', 'econpapers' ). EconPapers is hosted by the Örebro University School of Business. 041b061a72