Irréversible (2002)

Director:

Gaspar Noé

Writer:

Gaspar Noé (writer)

Release Date:

22 May 2002 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Le temps détruit tout - Time destroys everything

Plot:

Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the...

Plot Keywords:

Graphic Violence | Drinking | Male Frontal Nudity | Hate | Darkness

Awards:

2 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Monica Bellucci	...	Alex
Vincent Cassel	...	Marcus
Albert Dupontel	...	Pierre
Jo Prestia	...	Le Tenia
Philippe Nahon	...	Philippe
Stéphane Drouot	...	Stéphane
Jean-Louis Costes	...	Fistman
Michel Gondoin	...	Mick
Mourad Khima	...	Mourad
Hellal	...	Layde
Nato	...	Commissaire
Fesche	...	Chauffeur Taxi
Jara-Millo	...	Concha
Le Quellec	...	Inspecteur
Giami	...	Isabelle

Runtime:

97 min | Canada:99 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

France

Language:

French | Spanish | Italian | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Brazil:18 | Canada:R (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Portugal:M/18 | Canada:18+ (Québec) | Argentina:18 | Peru:18 | Iceland:16 | Australia:R | Austria:18 | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-18 | France:-16 | Germany:18 | Hong Kong:III (cut) | Ireland:18 | Italy:VM18 | Japan:R-18 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:(Banned) (video rating) | New Zealand:R18 (film festival rating) | Norway:18 | Singapore:R(A) (original rating) | Singapore:R21 (re-rating) | South Korea:18 (cut) | Spain:18 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Buttes Chaumont, Paris 19, Paris, France

Company:

120 Films

Trivia:

The entire story is told backwards which means that each sequence starts at that moment where the next sequence in the film ends.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Alex walks down the stairs of the tunnel, the knot of her dress around her neck and her hairstyle change after the camera shows the sign "passage" and comes back to Alex's back.

Quotes:

[to Alex, just before she is raped in the underpass]
Woman on Street: Take the underpass. It's safer.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Last Exit (2003)

Soundtrack:

Symphony No 7 in A Major op. 92

Makes an irreversible feeling...

Cinema is a multifaceted medium, with its limits extending in various dimensions…What I felt after watching Irreversible is, this movie is staged at the edge of one of the possible dimensions. I don't think another movie can be crueler. I was warned enough by the information I got from IMDb and I was determined to finish it what ever comes. The spinning camera work and the intentionally added noise made me literally sick, (may be because I am sensitive) but I persisted to continue. I read so many threads here in IMDb saying many people turned on watching the rape. To me, it seemed unattractively cruel, and I don't know whether it is close to reality as I have never witnessed or experienced a rape. But my conscience tells me, it is the worst thing a man can do. What more, I could not continue without a break. The entire story is told backwards, and if you see it from the end, in the reverse order, the murder at the Rectum is a real slap on the face, for who all turned on watching the rape.

I haven't seen another movie by Casper Noe, but this one was very powerful indeed. This will make you hate the heinous crime like a rape or a murder, even more intensely as you do now. I remember seeing a movie by Hitchcock, The torn Curtain, in which he shot a murder scene, to show how difficult it is and how cruel you need to be to murder another human being. Irreversible evokes a same feeling; it tells you how cruel you need to be, to be so.

I appreciate the intention. But, I don't agree, presenting all the graphic details as the only way to evoke a similar emotion or feeling. I will mention another movie here, Bhoothakkannadi (eye lens), a movie made in Malayalam, my mother tongue. It was so powerful and it evoked a similar feeling in me, against humiliation and crimes like rape without delineating all those cruelty in detail. Irreversible, in a sense, diminish your soul rather than ameliorating it, what an art form is really meant to do. It even made me to hate the entire medium of cinema for a few days, and I recovered because I have an immutable faith in the potential of cinema. This is not a film to enjoy. You may not like this. I don't like this movie. But still I say it is powerful, as it says something very clearly.