Irreversible (2002)

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Directed by Gaspar Noé.

Starring Albert Dupontel, Monica Bellucci, Philippe Nahon, Vincent Cassel, Jo Prestia.

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Gaspar Noé's Irreversible utilizes the same storytelling technique used by Christopher Nolan in Memento and Harold Pinter in Betrayal. Consisting of about a dozen scenes, all shot in single takes, Irreversible charts a disturbing night in the life of Marcus (Vincent Cassel), but presents the events in reverse chronological order. The audience eventually learns how the beautiful Alex (Cassel's real-life partner Monica Bellucci) is involved. The film opens with a violent altercation at a gay sex club and works backward to explain how and why the violence occurred. The actors improvised the vast majority of the dialogue starting from a four-page story outline. Irreversible was screened in competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

New wave french horror??
by Macabre_FilmNut in HORROR MOVIES 101

loved it.

"I remember that opening scene in the vehicle and the killer is proceeding to do something with a skull. Now for alll you that have seen Haute Tension, you know what I am talking about? From that point on after he is done and discards the head out the window, the movie proceeds to get better with plot and gore! After seeing that and not being disapointed. I have proceeded to watch most films from France. Since Malefique (2003) there has been a huge sucess in Movies over there. Problem with France is that only movies tthat are allowed on tv , are the only ones really allowed to be filmed over there. So movies like haute tension(High Tension (2003)), Sheitan (2006), Ils(Them (2006)), Calvaire (2004) and my favorite for this year À l'intérieur (2007). If it wasn't for StudioCanal releasing these, we may have never seen them this quick! Also Movies like Gasper Noe's Irreversible (2002) and I Stand Alone (1998) were really well done and not for the faint of heart. ... " [More]

Definitions of Art. Unclassific ...
by tinokiev in Asian Art Cinema

loved it.

"Personally I often find myself trying to classify or rate a film, specially asian ones and not finding a term or a category to put it on. It is like " a wong kar wai" film. Wong Kar Wai himself is a category of his own approach to aesthetics's, or you could said a "takashi mike" film and you know you are going to expect lots of blood. But still are hard to categorized. You cannot say "The postmen in the mountain" is a father-son movie only, or that "scent of the green papaya" is maturity. Etc. I think everyone is clear that there are just movies that do not fall into a genre and explore here and there into different categories that we recognize. And many of those movies ended up being referred to as "Art Film" or "Experimental". Anyway, I called this group "Asian Art Cinema" and while I was looking through some of the films I put in I found myself wondering. Is this and this film an "Asian art" film ?. And many people will probably argue and disagree with my concept or art. B ... " [More]

Back to the start
by mnoo in mnoo Blog

liked it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"This was certainly a difficult film to watch and to digest. The whole film is played backwards, starting from the most ugliest and uncomfortable scenes I've ever seen and slowly returning to the start where everything was still ok. Even though it was a hard film to watch (and definitely not the best choice for a Saturday evening chilling with friends... :|) I did find it intriguing. It illustrated with terrifying clarity how fragile life is and how every small decision can affect the way things turn out. At the start you can't help but wonder what freaks these people are and how everything about them seems so fucked up, until you find out why and eventually discover that at the start, they were all indeed perfectly normal and happy. Horrible things happen in life – to completely normal people. And apparently even to people are gorgeous as Monica Bellucci. " [More]

A Difficult Watch
by animerion in Movie Musings

liked it.

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"It has been a while since I have affected by a film to the degree that Irreversable has affected me. It hasn’t given me nightmares, but there are instances where this film plays out like one. While there is little French cinema that I have enjoyed, this is actually one of the few that I could sit all the way through. And honestly, I can’t say I even enjoyed this movie because the experience itself was emotionally taxing, I don’t think I can ever watch this film again, at least anytime soon.It’s hard to describe the film without mentioning the format of this film. The movie occurs in a backwards fashion, much like Memento, but with a few differences. In Memento, when a scene ended it ended fairly abruptly and also featured the first few seconds of the previous scene to put the scene into context within the story. This is honestly preferable because in Irreversible, instead of a scene just ending, there is a camera move to transition between the scenes i ... " [More]

Re: Telling A Story Backwards
by Risselada in PulpFiction1975

hasn't rated it.

"The most extreme example of non-linear structure I've seen is probably 21 Grams. I consideration of how cut up and rearranged the timeline is, it's pretty amazing how well it flows and reveals different parts of the timeline in the most effective way. Another recent film that I have heard uses the non-linear story telling technique quite well is Irreversible. I hope to be able to see this pretty soon because it sounds amazing. I did a search on IMDB for keywords that might relate. There is one called "Nonlinear Timeline". The earliest movie that has this tag associated with it is actually Un chien andalou in 1929. But since this film doesn't really have a coherent narrative, I'm not sure if it's really applicable to call it storytelling in the same sense that I think we are referring to. The next earliest film to have this tag is The Big Clock in 1948 which I've actually heard is among the best film noirs ever made. Now I'm even more excited to see it. There's also a catego ... " [More]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

lost interest.

Formally audacious, stylistically sound, and stomach-sickeningly grisly, Gaspar Noé's stateside breakthrough is unarguably the work of a filmmaker with technique to spare. Whether or not this year's Gallic enfant terrible has anything to contribute to cinema other than skillful button-pushing, however, remains to be seen. Irreversible's facile tale of a once-idyllic couple caught in a torpor of rape, drugs, and retribution is loaded with easy ironies and horror-flick set pieces. Noé's technical gymnastics keep it undeniably compelling: Shot in fluid, color-saturated, whirling-dervish long takes, edited in reverse, and given a throbbing, hypnotic sound design from Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter, Irreversible's deft moves don't allow the viewer a second to ponder some of the script's more implausible, trumped-up conceits. An early-film cab-ride in which our anti-heroes assault a foreigner, for instance, serves as little more than an intentionally disorienting emotional red herring. Likewise, copious screen time is allotted to setting up the three lead characters' dynamic, which is of little use to Noé other than to upset audience expectations. And it's more than a little disingenuous that Monica Bellucci's much-discussed rape scene happens to be the only sequence shot with a steady camera. Noé purportedly relished the severe reactions provoked by screenings of Irreversible -- walk-outs, cat calls, and the like -- which would only make sense for a person whose ultimate goal is to create the cinematic equivalent of car-wreck gawking. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Tags: rape , intense , tragic , pointless , brutal
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