.weiver mlif A (Irreversible (DVD))

Member Name: theediscerning

Product:	Irreversible (DVD)
Date:	02/10/05 (234 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brave performances; unique format and style

Disadvantages: Some undeleted scenes.

Where to begin?

This film looks back on a night in the life of three people - Alex is dating Marcus, but used to be going out with Pierre. We take a long time to meet Alex, but she's mentioned enough. What the film starts with, however, is a frantic search through a very dark and seedy gay sex club, the Rectum, as the two guys go on a trail of vicious revenge.

Flash back to the two guys searching out a guy called Le Tenia in the Rectum, then flash back to the two guys seeking out another chap whose name they have uncovered, and then flash back to the two guys leaving a party together.

If you flash back far enough you get to the three friends all going to the party together, and back before that to earlier in that afternoon, and before then...

That's right, this is that film you've vaguely heard of that is played backward - no, people don't walk and talk backwards, rather every scene comes before the one before. It's been done in fiction already - Martin Amis's Times Arrow, and others, and most probably this idea has been experimented with for cinema or TV too, but this is the most well-known and notorious example.

Notorious partly for the viciousness of two graphic scenes - the horrific act that is the centre of the film, and the violence of the revenge that follows on (or comes first, of course).

Notorious partly for the horrendously dizzying camera footage - between each flashback is what appears at least to be a very long and complex single take, and the camera is permanently restless. Between scene changes it swings up to the sky, swoops round and round, concentrating on vertiginous alley walls or, more commonly, harsh neon lights.

Notorious partly for allegedly having sub-frequencies buried low in the soundtrack (which is already garish, droning and disturbing) that by some accounts led to 10% of the premiere audience in Cannes walking out, as it triggered nausea and other upset. (That and the large-screen effect of the roller-coaster camerawork, especially near the beginning when it seems stuck on a ridiculously drunken crane, are greatly lost with the DVD release, but more of what the DVD does include later).

You can try and discuss until the cows come home (backward, of course) what is gained by the reverse narrative. Are we made to feel horrified by the end of the two men's evening, only to feel it's OK when we're forced to watch, with for once a completely still camera, the horror that caused it? Or is it just a director with the carte blanche from his financial backers to screen strong violence and a clever idea to make it look artistic?

In actual fact, if you stick with the film, it proves to be safely a third option, as the end / beginning adds a new twist that makes you thinking further.

Taking a back-seat from the swooping camera work, and the seemless long takes (which they admit were digitally pasted together from shorter takes now and again), the making of the film must be very highly recommended. The acting especially is of top quality. It helps that Vincent Cassel, as Marcus, and Monica Bellucci as Alex are happily married in real life, and have worked together for at least a half dozen films before this, as their nakedly intimate scene together near the end / beginning shows. But even if Vincent drops out of character somewhen to say his name is "Vincent" and not "Marcus", his performance away from his wife is excellent. Frantic, anxious, monged, happily bantering, loving - he's all, and very realistic.

You'll note of course the skirting round the central scene, and what it contains - well, did the preview audiences get told what it was, and why should you have an advantage over them? Monica Bellucci, who is rightly considered one of the most appealing actresses in European cinema (fluent in both Italian and French, accent-lovers), is incredibly believable, as is her playing partner for that long take of traumatic viewing. It's hard to see why, or indeed how, they could film it six times.

Albert Dupontel as the friend is a good performance, but unfortunately his scenes and his studious character do not fit in well with the modern feel of the film's making. (Although this does help when he gets feisty.) He just stands around at the party, anxiously being protective of Alex, and professorially moaning about Marcus. Later / earlier, a character-driven scene as they ride the underground to get to the party is just awkward, repetitive in subject, a bit lame, and highlighting one flaw the film as a whole has - nowhere is there less than two people talking nineteen to the dozen at any one time. Obviously the subtitles can't keep up, and it's hard to see that even the most garrulous French viewer would have taken all the script in.

Improvise, yes, make the dialogue realistic yes, but add just one more layer of busy-ness to the whole film? That might be a little too much.

What there is of the script is also viciously blue, especially in the central scene - the male character proving to be a right idiot, even if we didn't already hate him. There's also hard drug-taking, the violence, the hyperactive camera-work, the droning soundtrack (which also accompanies all the disc menus too) - there's certainly enough to put you off liking the film.

However Gaspar Noe, whose previous career has also had at least one eye on the shocking or goading, has pulled off a very brave and compelling production. He wrote it, edited it, shot a lot of it, heck he's even in a quick cut in the Rectum doing something you shouldn't want your mother to catch you doing - he's a brave guy, this is a brave film, and this is a successful film.

Where to end? You can end in the unique end of this film, which is strobing white light, with subliminal shots cut in. This creates such a blinding effect anyone with epilepsy *must* take care for this last minute. It also makes the DVD essential, for you to freeze frame and see just what the images are. If they help at all...


The DVD also includes biographical notes for the director and leads, which are far too basic, and an essay by someone else. There are six tiny scenes borrowed from the film and called "teasers" - who they were supposed to tease and when (and how) are unknown. You also get the trailer (twice - the certificate 18 one has drugs and punches in it, the 15 one cuts away to journalistic quotes). All in all not an awful lot of extras, but the film stands alone as most memorable, and well worth braving. It gets four stars only, however, as the underground scene is just too dull, the everyday too much so, and the camera stuff is just a bit too much. Oh, and the film *actually* begins (after the end credits, that is) with a naked fat bloke and another chap talking about incest and the end of the world, or something, which helps no-one.



Here beginneth the lesson.

Summary: Very audience unfriendly look at violent night, filmed very kinetically - and shown backwards.