Irreversible : The pornography of Art… or is it?
Art can take several forms, serve several functions. It can reveal or emphasize an expression, an emotion or a mood, or it can tell a compelling story. All cinema is essentially art. However, art house cinema is simply a term used to describe a genre of cinema not bound by box office returns, saleability of stars, censorship issues and global reach. It is a genre of cinema which entertains the audience by entwining them in the visual narrative and the skill of the craft of filmmaking. ‘Irreversible’, directed by French director Gaspar Noe and starring Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel, falls under this category.
Alex (Monica Bellucci), a gorgeous 30-something woman, attends a party with her testosterone-charged boyfriend Marcus (Vincent Cassel) and her neurotic George Costanza-ish ex-husband Pierre (Albert Duponteil). She leaves the party in a huff after Marcus cokes himself up. As she is heading back, she is raped and beaten up brutally in an underground tunnel. Marcus, distraught with agony when he finds out, goes on a rampage of revenge, with a protesting Pierre in tow advising him to show restraint, searching for the man they come to know is called ‘The Tapeworm’, who they find in a gay club called ‘The Rectum’ (sic). Amidst a bunch of sadomasochist fags, the two of them accost the culprit, and ironically it is the mild-mannered Pierre who savagely smashes his face in with a fire extinguisher (shown in explicit, graphic detail with the aid of CGI). The plot sounds simple enough, which it is – except that the story is told in reverse order.
The movie opens with a roving camera, floating around a seedy jail cell. The camera moves around, in all directions to create a disoriented sort of a feel, matching the rhythm of the techno music playing in the dingy confines of The Rectum. The effect is harrowing. As the story progresses (regresses?), the camera movements become less edgy and less disorienting. The infamous rape scene is nearly 9 minutes long and is probably one of the most gruesome and disturbing rape scenes ever captured on film, far more disturbing than the controversial ‘Baise Moi’ (also a French film). I watched it with a fist clenched tight and my teeth gnawing away at my knuckles. I have no idea how Monica Bellucci even agreed to do it, but my word, the woman has guts. This is a film which challenges the limits of censorship (it was released unrated) and the limits of acceptance by an audience.
How does one rate this film? There is often a tendency to evaluate a film based on the overall experience of watching it. You know, screw the details, just tell me what the experience was like. If thats the case then here it is – watching ‘Irreversible’ is like putting your mind through a wringer. It is a vile, unpleasant experience that makes you sick to your stomach, which makes you doubt morals, principles and your faith in humanity. It IS art; art that plays on a fundamental human emotion – disgust. ‘Irreversible’ takes you through the pitch dark underbelly of Parisian life – it is, in fact, the antithesis in every sense of what ‘Amelie’ (assuming that is one French film most people have seen) portrayed this beautiful city as. Ugliness, decay, depravity – these are prevelant and pervasive in this motion picture. Shots of breasts, penises, fellatio are common in this film, but they are all absolutely devoid of any sexuality. Sex is a major undercurrent and an important agent of causality, but believe me, this movie is anything BUT sexy.
However, all said and done, this is also a bloody brilliant piece of cinema in several aspects. The reverse narrative has been criticised by some as a gimmick. My foot. Its a friggin’ smart storytelling device which hides details about the characters and the situation which the audience must then reason out or guess. As the story progresses, our expectations are sometimes met, sometimes thwarted and other times completely overturned. As a viewer, I was aware of the conflict between what had just been revealed about a character and what my prejudiced and judgmental mind had predicted. The script plays around with the themes of morality, sexual independence and man’s raw, animalistic nature and ends in a surprisingly subtle manner, with Marcus and Alex enjoying each other’s company in bed and a revelation about Alex. The characters are extremely well-written and believable; the conversation between Alex, Marcus and Pierre on the train ride to the party deserves special mention. Ultimately, the irony strikes us – we see the story in reverse and at the same time we also realise how all the events that occur are, in fact, irreversible.
‘Irreversible’ is also famous for it’s groundbreaking camerawork and for the fact that there are virtually no cuts in the entire film. This is, again, achieved with the aid of special effects. Whenever the scene shifts, the camera floats up like a gas balloon, meanders through the skies of Paris and arrives at the location for the next…err… previous scene . The motive for this was, presumably, the need to maintain continuity, to maintain the leash around the viewer. While this succeeds to a large extent, the roller-coastering camerawork in the beginning of the movie goes on a little too long and gets extremely monotonous after a while; the dark, shocking subject matter just about rescues it. Some of the visual effects, particularly the flickering in the end are overdone and seem unnecessary; they do nothing but nearly induce an epileptic fit. The stark cinematography captures the seedy red-light districts of Paris in a raw and sensationalist manner. The background music is sparse and situation-dependent.
The ethereal Monica Bellucci gives the performance of a lifetime in a role NO actress of her stature would or should have accepted. She is perfectly alluring, sexy and charming whenever she needs to be. I’m not even going to talk about the rape scene – I’d rather not picture it right now. Vincent Cassel is astounding as the immature, philandering, Neanderthal of a boyfriend that Marcus is. As Albert Duponteil’s Pierre observes about him – “I fuck, I eat, I Marcus”. Cassel’s performance captures that thought marvellously.
‘Irreversible’ has controversy written all over it. For most, it will be an unwatchable, intolerable experience. Gaspar Noe’s intention is to shock people and question their judgements. Only those with cast-iron stomachs should watch this film but, be warned, this is not a film you will enjoy or savour. You will be drawn in and hooked by it, affected by it and walk out of the movie feeling sick to your stomach. You might applaud the brilliance of the direction, the performances and the editing, for this is a brilliant film. And you might argue that it is Art, which by definition should know no boundaries.
Or should it? I don’t know. No one knows the answer to that.
All I know is I don’t have any plans to watch ‘Irreversible’ a second time. Not as of now anyway.
Tags: French cinema, French movies, Irreversible, Monica Bellucci, Movies, Reviews, World Cinema
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Finally Irreversible comes along here..was thinkin of writing @ this but thanks Suprateek for brining this out..
For me the endlessly circularly moving camera very headache inducing and also to the eye esp in the complete gay pub episode..I couldn’t watch the rape scene completely. Noe took it really overboard I felt. 9 minutes – yes that I calculated..but its extremely distressing a scene. It starts off pretty simply n I thot she could make a run but then….
Rightly you’ve said, thot there’d be nothing if this was a normal chronologically told tale. Backwards it really gets from hyper to halyconic..I felt so helpless for Alex at the last scene. The first of the story. I know whats in store. Does she? Do Marcus and Pierre? Its really very different but at the same time it pushed me away from a rerun. Once is def enough…
@ SC: Thanks for this post. heard abt this film an year ago, from a sadist frnd of mine, who actually enjoyed every bit of this movie. i do not have an appetite for such art, almost like y i fail to appreciate picasso, i m glad u brought this up & presented it so clinically. i hated this when the sadist frnd narrated it, but now i am intrigued. may b some night after getting sloshed out, i just might see this… thanks again.
Dude-Amazing co-incidence.I just finished watching Irreversibles(2 seconds ago)..found some articles here on PFC..and as I go onto the home section-I see an article on it!
But not sure if i liked it or not-I wasnt shocked or disturbed as much-but surely wont see it again =P
haven’t seen the film but this article reminded me about how i felt after watching matrubhoomi. the female lead in the film keeps getting raped and beaten for a large part of the movie and i couldn’t enjoy the film no matter how good filmmaker’s intentions were.
The scene where the hero’s friend hit the ‘mistaken’ guy with cylinder(I suppose) was brutality at it’s best.
The funny thing is we don’t know ,at the end,if the guy who raped Monica gets killed.I had my doubts and I thought he was the same guy but I went to IMDB and found a whole lot of people fighting over the issue.Guess only the director can answer it.
When the camera starts going all over the place with that grim and disorienting music, I kinda expected a fucked up movie and that was exactly what it was.
The movie seemingly, has been made only to shock the audiences.I have seen my share of gore flicks but this is the only movie that made me literally throw up.Saving Private Ryan’s opening scenes were like a Disney movie compared to this one.
The movie is truly known or watched for its Art, and not content. if simply content was to retained without the art then it would have been nothing at all compared to the Japanese Movies.
I just couldn’t get myself to watch it. That rape scene is- I don’t have words- except, Monica Belluci has balls.
its so gritty, so dark , so disturbing, so depressing. so stark that i have seen it thrice…loved every bit of it…
Yeah, the movie is made with the only intent of upsetting the viewers. And in a very sadistic way. To make you feel even more uneasy, the director has used some frequency that makes people throw up. You can feel the difference when the movie goes beyond the cylinder scene. Till then there is this hum that goes on and on.
Hated it!
While I haven’t seen the movie, people have told me about the gruesome rape scene, which is what the movie will always be remembered for, I guess.
Interesting review. I’ll put it in my downloading list
Pretentious crap made by wannabe’s with grand illusions of moviemaking excellence,basically a b-movie like i spit on your grave for the art-house crowd with gimmicks like reverse narrative and the kubrick 2001 reference in the end,funnily reminds one of the fictionalized meeting between Ed Wood and Orson Welles in the fantastic biopic Ed Wood.The art house crowd like the mainstream crowd is pathetically inept in distinguishing the truly great movies from the average and crap,which is a surprise considering the smug superiority complex of art movie lovers.For instance Fahrenheit 9/11 winning Golden Palm over Oldboy in the Cannes circus.Oldboy is perhaps the most influential film of this 2000’s,the pulp-fiction of this decade.There you go:There are only two types of movies:good ones and the junk,irreversible falls in the junk category.