Product Description: When Alex is brutally raped, her friend and her friend's husband take revenge. Genre: Foreign Film - Other Rating: UN Release Date: 5-AUG-2003 Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com: Irreversible begins with the closing credits running backwards before the film begins (or ends) with Marcus (Vincent Cassell) and Pierre (Albert Dupontel) being escorted out of a gay S&M club by the cops, Marcus with his arm broken and Pierre in handcuffs. The "story" proceeds to unwind in a series of single-take scenes that unfold Memento-style, with each scene giving more context to what we have seen previously. Each scenario depicts actions, dialogue, incident, behavior, and circumstances that the lead characters might have wished didn't happen, ranging from extreme violence through awkward social situations to mild embarrassment. The central character (and possible dreamer of this whole what-if story) emerges as Alex (Monica Bellucci), who suffers the worst in a very hard-to-watch rape sequence in an underpass. Semi-improvised, the scenes all have attack and power as themes, with later/earlier conversational sequences that suggest life isn't all sexual assaults in the dark, showing equal cinematic imagination with the horrors. Arguably, this is not a film most would subject themselves to twice, but it is something that stays in the mind for days after viewing, sparking far more ideas and emotions than most wallow-in-nastiness pictures. --Kim Newman
Irréversible is not Pornography. "Le temps détruit tout" (Time Destroys All Things).
"Irréversible," Roger Ebert writes, "is a movie so violent and cruel that most people will find it unwatchable." But it would be wrong to dismiss this film as pornography. Gaspar Noé's controversial French film stars Monica Bellucci (The Passion of the Christ; How Much Do You Love Me?) and Vincent Cassel (Read My Lips; La Haine (Criterion Collection)) as two playful lovers, Alex and Marcus. (Bellucci and Cassel are married in real life.) Alex and Marcus are very much in love. After discovering that she is pregnant, Alex is brutally raped and then beaten in a pedestrian underpass. Filmed using a widescreen 16mm process, Irréversible is told using thirteen scenes in reverse chronological order, beginning with the closing credits, and ending with Alex peacefully reading An Experiment With Time (Studies in Consciousness) by John William Dunne in a park, unaware of her impending fate. The violent rape scene itself is filmed in a single, graphic shot, lasting nine minutes. Marcus and his friend Pierre (Albert Dupontel) then seek revenge on the rapist (Jo Prestia) nicknamed "le Tenia " (the tapeworm), but they savagely attack the wrong man outside a gay S&M nightclub, Club Rectum. In his review, Roger Ebert correctly observes that the reverse chronology of Irréversible argues against rape and violence. "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." Nevertheless, because of its graphic violence, Irréversible is not a film for most people. Others will find it to be a rewarding cinematic experience in all that is good and evil in human nature.
G. Merritt
One Seemingly Innocent Wrong Move And It All Spirals Out Of Control ! "Irreversible" is a perfect exercise in dangerously original filmmaking. The film is a thriller like no other and is disturbingly hard to watch, both physically and mentally. The camera is constantly twisting, turning and jumping as to compliment/run parallel with the emotional and truly disturbing content in the film. Evryone involved did a great job, you couldn't ask for a better preformance by the actors. Monica Bellucci is an amazing actress, it also does not hurt that she happends to be one of the most beautiful creatures on the planet. Vincent Cassel is simply one of the most underrated actors in showbiz. "Irreversible" is yet another french masterpiece that belongs in every Horror/thriller fans collection.
Oppressive and disturbing This film reminded me of Man Bites Dog, another film that made me feel sick. But this is possibly worse than MBD. Irreversible is gimmicky pretentious camera work and oppressive soundtrack which makes you want to throw up, and an unnecessarily long rape scene which is only one of the scenes of sordid and sickening violence. There is something peculiarly poignant about how it ends, but it is not enough to redeem the film. Monica Belluci is amazing, especially in the play of emotions over her pregnancy test. But again, not enough to redeem a film that is essentially designed to shock and disturb. Life can be pretty grim as it is without even grimmer fiction thrown in for good measure. It may be worth seeing this once for academic interest, but only just. If you want to be kind to yourself, don't (it is not going to enrich your life).
Horrific and Shocking I'm not sure that this movie qualifies as a "good" movie. It's so gruesome that watching it will probably make you physically ill. Even by today's standards this is probably the most disturbing movie ever made. For those that can sit through it, it is a good exploration of what chance plays in our life and the horrible inhumanity man is capable of.
Terrible, terrible film... This was, without question, one of the worst films I have ever seen. The camera work was shoddy with way too much movement (my wife was getting dizzy watching it), and the colors were completely washed out in the few daylight scenes. A total waste of money. I'd give it zero stars if Amazon would let me.
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