A film called Irreversible

[baba]

Has anyone else seen it? My fella and I saw it tonight - we popped into the Watershed Cinema by the River on the off chance - maybe for a cosy little cinema experience - I'm still a bit poorly and need a little cosying up - we walked into the foyer -
"o what is this film 'Irreversible' I have not heard anything about it - its French and it stars that bloke out of La Haine"

FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!! - one of the most intense film experiences of my life -and believe me I've had a few !!! Anyone else seen it? If not GO AND SEE IT

[Spewis]

I've heard this film features the most brutal and graphic rape scene ever filmed. Apparently people were walking out when it was shown at Canne. Was it that bad??

[aleks]

the beautiful monica bellucci is raped for about 10 minutes in that flick... sounds sick

[4md]

Yeah this film is well known here in France, it's with Vincent Cassel ,
it makes a big "scandal " right here ...

[Sheridan]

you know a movie is good when people start walking out of it. a friend of mine was living in boston when requiem for a dream came out. it was the american release at the boston film festivel and darren aranofsky (spell check) was there and so was some of the cast. anyway my friend was watching the movie and about half way through some guy got up and screamed at darren that 'this movie is fucking disgusting' and stormed out of the theater. oh how right he was. ;)

[invisibleplanet]

i haven't seen it, but i don't think i could watch someone else being raped, even if it is acting.
i'm guessing the rape-scene is crucial to the plot..but i remember the Clockwork Orange rape scene making it impossible to ever listen to 'eroica' for many years thereafter.

[baba]

put it this way- I was holding back the sobs during the rape scene . Its the only time I've ever thought of walking out of a film - it was quite an endurance test and pushed your spectatorship about as far as it could go. Yet, despite the violence or maybe because of it - violence should be an uncomfortable almost unbearable thing to watch as violence is uncomfortable and unbearable - it is one the best and erotic (in the George Bataille sense) films I've seen. Everything about it is so well done - from the titles at the beginning to the wierd droning soundtrack to the mad flicker sequence at the end (or beginning). very rarely do I come out of a cinema feeling like i have had an actual experience . much harder/better than Requium for a Dream -different kettle of fish. its 3 in the morning now and i can't sleep for thinking about it...

[7875]

anyone ever see the Gerard Depardue(sp?)film called Matrise? he falls in love with a dominatrix and we get to see her skewer a man's wank with a needle.

[Andreas]

i saw together with my girlfriend. in total there were 6 other people in the cinema, and it ended up me and my girlie girl alone... very intense movie, the plot is cool, irreversible! by the way the soundtrack is done by daft punk, out on vinyl as well, thomas bangalter made a stomping techno tracks mixed with a beethoven track...
but the movie is for sure not recommended for the most sensible ones...

[bitch one]

who's george bataille?

[bitch one]

ok i just did a google on him. nutter.

[baba]

George Bataille was a french intellectual/writer who wrote a lot about excess, eroticism,violence ,literature, Facism and poetry amongst other things. He was affiliated to the Paris Surrealists for a while til a bust up with Andre Breton. He is dead now.

[mr franks]

Originally posted by Sheridan
you know a movie is good when people start walking out of it. a friend of mine was living in boston when requiem for a dream came out. it was the american release at the boston film festivel and darren aranofsky (spell check) was there and so was some of the cast. anyway my friend was watching the movie and about half way through some guy got up and screamed at darren that 'this movie is fucking disgusting' and stormed out of the theater. oh how right he was. ;)


i liked that film

[Yer_Maw]

the ugc cinema in glasgow have just withdrew it this week due to complaints and it was the only place showing it. man, i knew so many folk that went last week as well...!!!

[splatter_kts]

dope dope dope. what else can one say.
another movie which takes controversy to a new level.
a movie where rape itself is not even half as scary as the very beginning or should i rather say first 12 minutes of the movie..if you dont hang out in hard s&m gay bars you're bound to have a heavy treat visually and a nice aural experience :)
a muct watch. in my country it was rated 21!

[Sheridan]

Originally posted by splatter_kts
. in my country it was rated 21!

21! what kind of scale do you guys use?
usually for us it is 5 stars max. or the trusted two thumbs up.
unless of course you are reffering to ratings for films where no one under 21 years old can see it. we have that too, but ours only goes up to nc-17. and then there is porn, but jez you only have to be 18 to see that stuff, so how is this film worse?

[splatter_kts]

yup Sheridan.. the number in the rating system is the age under which noone should see it. why is it so harsh you ask? well in my understanding it would kinda ruin some teens their sex life thats number 1 .. and number 2 is that some scenes in it could be easilly scenes from some snuff/gore movie.. you'll know why they rated it this way when you see the movie..
anyways two titles I recommend for relaxation - KUNG PAW: enter the fist.. one of the stupid, hilarious movies to watch when you're feeling like you could burn some time. and the second movie would be HELLRAISER V: inferno (a bit less scary ..you probably all have seen it already)..

[pille'ocheoni]

strange,i thought every one had what we had. 2 thumbs up or 5 stars. whats noone?

[bitch one]

i once sat down for a quiet night in with my lady with the film 'happiness', not knowing what it was like...the final scene when the dog eats the spunk was particularly romantic

[invisibleplanet]

i've got Irreversible for 2 days. i'll let u know what i think when i've watched it.

[baba]

i reckon it won't be the same on video. think the fact you are in the cinema with other people around you makes you more aware of your own pervy voyeuristic situation - v intense. Also - you can cry out lou at home. Can't do that at the flicks without disturbing others. be interesting to hear what you think tho.

[emef]

Originally posted by invisibleplanet
i haven't seen it, but i don't think i could watch someone else being raped, even if it is acting.
i'm guessing the rape-scene is crucial to the plot..but i remember the Clockwork Orange rape scene making it impossible to ever listen to 'eroica' for many years thereafter.

is murder more palettable?
we seem to get depictions of that fed to us on tv and film with ever increasing regularity.
filmed images of (acted) murder really offend me, i wonder why we as a society need to see that stuff, no-one ever seems that bothered about it when the subject crops up in conversation.

[karitek]

i love films that make me feel uncomfortable. the last one like that that comes to mind was festen (or The Celebration in english). i think part of the power of that film was that it talked about these sensitive sexual issue (in that film, child abuse) without showing it. there is something about alluding to stuff that is really powerful (look to horror films for that - scenes like the shower scene in psycho are way scarier than blood bath horror flicks.)

saything that. i really want to see this film. thanks baba.

[penciLneck]

Festen was a fantastic movie. I've seen irreversible too, and apart from the rape scene it was pretty damn clever - I love weird uses of narrative in movies, 'momento' was also quite cool in that sense. 'irreversible' really got me thinking about those big questions, and surprisingly longer than most movies do. The way I see it - some people think 'requiem' and others use violence and extreme situations for shock value, but I say isn't that a great device to engage the viewer, and once you have them you can really take them on a journey.

[phil]

have u seen the film Communion with chirstopher walken. that film was very scary when i watched on my own. It's hard to know exactly what Walken is attempting in "Communion," but whatever it is, it's irresistible. This is a deeply eccentric, immensely watchable actor, one with a bafflingly elusive grasp of character and an unnerving, electrifying presence. Here he plays the New York novelist Whitley Strieber, who published an account of his alleged contact with extrahuman creatures that made the bestseller list in 1987 and is still collecting followers.

[penciLneck]

Yes, seen it and dug it - but couldn't help thinking this film is also about anal rape, and the darkness of someones psyche - he is especially unhinged in this film.

[karitek]

momento gave me a headache, with all that jumping around through time. i really did not like that film - everyone else seemed to though.

everyone talks about how disturbing requiem is, but i didnt find it really disturbing - depressing yes, disturbing, no. i thought Pi was a lot more of a head fuck, but maybe that was because i saw it after exams at uni, having not slept really in days.

[invisibleplanet]

Irréversible is now released on dvd/vhs, so I hired it.
i watched the film, and in many ways, i agree with splatter_kts that
" another movie which takes controversy to a new level.
a movie where rape itself is not even half as scary as the very beginning or should i rather say first 12 minutes of the movie..if you dont hang out in hard s&m gay bars you're bound to have a heavy treat visually and a nice aural experience
a muct watch."

i enjoyed very much the method of filming initially, until i stopped paying attention to it and became submersed in the plot.
i found the backwards plot worked ok, despite the slating reviews some british reviewers had given the film. I must say, that after watching this tale of real human horror, I cannot take some of the reactions to Irréversible seriously, especially when films such as Event Horizon pass through without a similar stir...

In many ways, i feel that every new film of violence or brutality deserves a similar reaction to the reaction which the censors/critics/audience gave to the release of Irréversible. Every new violent film presesnts us with another aspect of brutality, from the setting to the execution of violent acts. To me, this is film-critic-hypocrisy at it's worse, and also shows how the portrayal of the dark traits of humanity is still taboo and subject to censorship, whilst these self-same instinctual traits carried out on subjects other than humans -eg. alien-life forms or the undead , slip by with with no outcry and a even some encouragement to view: 'this horror will have u gripping the edge of your seat' see it! it's a must!'


Irréversible is a very clever portrayal of the effects of rape on everyone but the rapee. In my opinon, the makers of the film were constrained by the knowledge that to portray the rape scene as a normal sex scene gone awry could leave a question in the viewer that the rapee was in some way enjoying the experience, and so we cannot blame the director for using this particular atypical type of rape. In fact, by ensuring that victim and rapist did not know each other, and by filming the rape as an anal rape, the director ensures that we are under no illusions of that rape is a brutal, painful and criminal act.

As a woman, I found the exploration of the reactionary rage of the men a refreshing change from the more usual rape-trauma exploration. As a woman, I know how insanely crazy my dearest male friend gets by way of protection over me, and so I can imagine a response of similar magnitude from among my male friends, and although i'm certain they would not take matters into their own hands like that, this violent reaction is very much a part of human male expression, and the filmmakers are true to life therefore in their portrayal of this rage. By contrast, i believe that to have explored the theme of the effect upon the woman of this rape, would have been far more emotionally shocking and harrowing than the censors would currently allow to be portrayed.

I felt weakened and physically sick from the 9 minute scene of rape, and endured it in a state of helpless horror, but despite the extreme personal revulsion to this scene, it's occurrance at this late point i meant that i felt compelled to continue watching.

n my opinion, this story was worth telling backwards, and had the effect of increasing the impact of the violent scenes which sparked the descent into the sub_human scenes of bloodlust and revenge. Reverse engineering the plot to it's mundande origins reminds all of us of the fragility and susecptibility of our own lives to follow a route built upon circumstances, and by people, who are beyond the reach of our control.

I think really this is a film about men, and their instinctive emotional reaction to the rape of someone close to them, more than it is a film about rape, and how it affects women emotionally. We don't see the female response to gather around. Of course, it's not likely that a gangster would approach you and offer you hired-vigilante hoods to express these raw emotions through.

In Saxon(??) england, violent criminals were strung in bags, and hung from a tree at the outskirts of the village, and everyone entering or leaving the village would take a bash at the bag. Modern law exacts a faceless passionless punishment, which in many ways in inadequate recompense for the effect on the victims of such crime.

i recommend a viewing.

[invisibleplanet]

this reviewer saw some same same things as I, and also re-affirms the hypocrisy of the Film Censorship Board.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,817399,00.html.

this similar review means, that it's true i never have an original idea in my head.

[penciLneck]

excellent review/reaction IP, thanks for that, a jolly good read with all points well put. Refreshing to hear a womans perspective on such a sexually violent film.