Life disturbed
This movie is not for everyone. Did you get that? This movie is not for everyone.
There are two scenes so grotesque and disturbing that despite even the most advanced form of repression, there’s no way to remove them from your mind.
Irreversible can be compared to Vanilla Sky in that it examines the consequences of our decisions.
Marcus, the erratic and self-absorbed boyfriend, finds out his girlfriend has been brutally raped.
With the help of her ex-boyfriend, the two go searching for the perpetrator. This search takes them to a club called “The Rectum.” And, yes, this is a club for guys interested in guys.
The structure of Irreversible is much like Memento in that the story is told backwards. However, the film expands on this unconventional narrative by not having each segment connect to its prior.
This technique provides for a complex puzzle that legitimizes the film as an expression, as opposed to a free-reign exploitation of sex and violence.
It’s one of those heavy, in your face, walk-out-of-the-theater type films. But for those who can stomach the unthinkable images and remain in the theater, there exists a film with a tremendous amount of substance and meaning. Irreversible is one of the most disturbing films to ever gain such wide distribution.
The subject matter necessitates the majority of the horror, but the use of long camera shots emphasizes the reality of the scenes.
The running time for Irreversible is 92 minutes and this is broken down to just 12 individual shots. That is to say, the camera follows the characters into dark alleys, captures the action and dialogue and then traverses onward to pick up action from a different location. All of this is accomplished without stopping the camera.
In one scene the three main characters enter a subway, get on the train, wait through three stops and then get off at the fourth.
The camera follows their every move without stopping to switch angles. The amount of time devoted to planning and rehearsal must have been extensive.
There is no film that compares. Once the lights go down you’re in for an unparalleled cinematic ride.
And for enduring the film’s horror, the director rewards the audience with one of the most intriguing light shows ever seen.
It’s clear that Gaspar Noé is paying homage to Stanley Kubrick’s transcendental inter-dimensional light sequence in 2001.
In each case the audience is given the opportunity to “see the light” and what appears is different for everybody. This is one aspect that you must be present for to understand – no words do it justice.
Beyond its technical appeal, Irreversible can be summed up as a balance between the outer edge of two arenas – one of gruesome, sexual horror that drags you into settings only the most deviant minds have ever imagined and the other, one of illusion and spontaneity that revolves in directions no story has ever gone. Your basic yin-yang story structure, the meaning of the film is achieved through the balance of each extreme.
The film is storytelling at its finest. Although it’s as explicit as possible, beneath the surface exists a metaphysical puzzle that yields a unique answer to all.
The audience is in for a ride that cycles from the depths of perverse homoerotic domination to a meticulously constructed and highly imaginative metaphorical realm. Enjoy at your own risk.
