Film review: Irreversible

Admittedly this film is fairly old now, but it is one which will haunt my mind forever.  It is a must see for all.

From an artistic perspective, it is amazing, modern, dynamic, and the result of a brilliant mind.  From a viewer perspective, it is sick, disturbing, distasteful, and the result of a deranged mind.  You will see it from either perspective, and those who choose to, will understand the film’s true meaning, those who don’t will probably switch the film off, shortly after the main element of the film.  Either way, you probably won’t want to walk the street alone at night again.

Time destroys everything.  That is the catchphrase of the film, and one which I find difficult to understand.  One part of me took it as a deformation of the age old phrase "time heals all wounds", but another part of me took it to be more sinister than that.  Could it possibly mean that whatever happiness and enjoyment we build up in our lives can be destroyed in an instant?  I’d like to believe it is the former, but recent experience in my own life tends to make me believe it is the latter.  In my opinion, time does not heal wounds; it only patches them up until they can break once and for all.

The story of the film itself is shot backwards.  It begins with the end credits, and then dynamically goes into an apartment where a man talks about how he was arrested for sleeping with his daughter.  He mentions that time destroys everything. The film then moves on to the outside of a gay club called Rectum where we see one man taken away in an ambulance (Vincent Cassel as Marcus) and another in a police car (Albert Dupontel as Pierre). 

The film then shows what these two men did in the club.  They were looking for a man known as Le Tenia (The Tapeworm), for reasons which are made very apparent later in the film.  The internal scenes of the club are very graphic, depicting gay sex, sadomasochism, and later, brutal violence. 

The essence of the story is about the brutal rape of Alex (Monica Bellucci), Marcus’ pregnant girlfriend, after she leaves a party and enters a subway at night.  Marcus and Pierre then go on a rampage looking for the man responsible – Le Tenia.  The rape scene is in no way glorified by the director.  It was shot with as much brutality as the victim felt.  It is not short, and I found myself shaking in horror once it finished.

The story then moves backwards to scenes of a happy beginning.  The irony of this is that although the film ends on happiness, the viewer is left with a harassed feeling, knowing full well how the film really ends in terms of time perspective.  We know there is no happy end.  You are left with a feeling that you have been literally drawn into the film, as if watching someone’s life unfold from the third view, and nothing can be more horrifying than that when you know you cannot do anything about it.

The sound and music is perfect for the film.  The first 30 minutes of the film contains a background noise with a frequency of 28Hz (low frequency, almost inaudible), similar to the noise produced by an earthquake. In humans, it causes nausea, sickness and vertigo.  During the Cannes film festival (for which this film was nominated a Golden Palm), 200 of the 2400 people in attendance walked out; the majority of whom, left due to the 28Hz noise making them feel sick.

I was disgusted by this film, however, I find myself recommending it.  It is a masterpiece; a work of sheer genius, the work of a diabolical mind, yes, but genius.  I seriously doubt a lot of you will make it through this film without wanting to be violently sick, I almost was, and it was not because of the sound. 

Irreversible is available on DVD on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, or to rent from Radost FX.

10/10

Irreversible (2002) – France
Tagline: Le temps détruit tout - Time destroys everything
Director: Gaspar Noe
Starring: Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel