Irréversible (2002)

Director:

Gaspar Noé

Writer:

Gaspar Noé (writer)

Release Date:

22 May 2002 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | 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:

Rapist | Revenge | Night | Penis | Curtain

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

Also Known As:

Irreversible (USA)

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:

Portugal:M/18 | Peru:18 | Argentina:18 | Brazil:18 | Iceland:16 | Canada:18+ (Québec) | Canada:R (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | 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:R18 (with restriction) | 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 film was shot on Super 16, telecined to high-def video for color tweaking and editing, and then exported to Super 35. For many of the handheld shots, the director used the smallest existing 16mm camera, the Minima.

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:

[First lines]
Philippe: You want me to say it? Time destroys everything.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Family Guy: Peter's Daughter (#6.7)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Symphony No. 7 in A Major op. 92

more than the sum of its shocks

I'm a sucker for film-world hype--always have been, and probably always will be. When I stumble across a film that is so controversial it inspires both gasps of horror and cheers of praise, I flock to it. There is something intriguing about film's capacity to house unpleasantness, and just how far a director will go in conveying his message (it's always interesting to see whether or not they have a justified reason for the excess). "Irreversible," the backward-structured film from French shock auteur Gaspar Noe ("I Stand Alone") spins you out of control with as much regularity as his camera and characters will allow. It's a curious piece of work designed to provoke the audience--at the beginning, you're disoriented and confused (and, if you're like me, getting carsick from the deliberately erratic camera movements), and even repulsed by the actions of the unfamiliar characters hassling the patrons of a seedy homosexual club, a sequence that ends with a ghastly murder. Okay, then, so what? Clearly the rest of the movie is going to give us an explanation...but would the film have had a similar effect if it were told in a straightforward manner? Is the backward motion of "Irreversible" just a gimmick used by Noe (who is not immune from snobbery and pretension) to draw attention to his film? It's hard to say. Personally, I reject the notion of the reverse storyline being used as a gimmick, simply because of how deliberately the previous pieces fit (certain passages of dialog, particularly a discussion of orgasms that serves as a prelude to one of the most horrifying rape scenes in film history); Noe certainly wasn't asleep in his construction of the film. "Irreversible" displays the type of oppressive misanthropy (the dialog is loaded with racial and homophobic slurs) evidenced in Noe's "I Stand Alone" (the tale of an out-of-work butcher driven to madness by everyone around him), but then pulls back from the hard-edged violence to show a tender humanity that might be even more startling, since the film could have easily played itself for nothing but shock value the entire time. "Irreversible" is an unsettling conundrum that guides us through the highs and lows of the human condition--it pushes buttons of morality, shows in graphic detail what others would only suggest, and brings us out the end of the tunnel exhausted, invigorated, and breathless. A stunning film, somewhat hampered by its excessive dialog.