Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in an underpass tunnel.Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in an underpass tunnel.Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in an underpass tunnel.
- Awards
- 3 wins & 13 nominations
Monica Bellucci
- Alex
- (as Bellucci)
Vincent Cassel
- Marcus
- (as Cassel)
Albert Dupontel
- Pierre
- (as Dupontel)
Philippe Nahon
- L'homme
- (as Nahon)
Jo Prestia
- Le Tenia
- (as Prestia)
Stéphane Drouot
- Stéphane
- (as Drouot)
Jean-Louis Costes
- Fistman
- (as Costes)
Mick Gondouin
- Mick
- (as Gondouin)
Mourad Khima
- Mourad
- (as Khima)
Layde Hellal
- Layde
- (as Hellal)
Dominique Nato
- Commissaire
- (as Nato)
Michel Fesche
- Chauffeur Taxi
- (as Fesche)
Victoria Jaramillo
- Concha
- (as Jaramillo)
Jean-Yves Le Quellec
- Inspecteur
- (as Le Quellec)
Isabelle Giami
- Copine d'Alex enceinte
- (as Giami)
Fatima Adoum
- Fatima
- (as Adoum)
Janice Foulaux
- Janice
- (as Foulaux)
Stéphane Derdérian
- Client du Rectum
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe first thirty minutes of the film has a background sound with a low frequency of 27 Hz which is almost infrasonic (this sounds like a rumble/vibration), similar types of noises are at times used by police to stop riots. According to Gaspar himself, this could only be heard in theaters (which usually have huge sound systems/subwoofers) and not from headphones or regular home theaters. In humans, this noise causes nausea, sickness, and vertigo. It was one of the reasons people walked out of screenings during the first part of the film. In fact, it was added by Thomas Bangalter (from the electronic music group Daft Punk) to get this reaction.
- GoofsAt the party Vincent Cassel gives his characters name as "Vincent" instead of "Marcus." He quickly covers his mistake and saves the scene.
- Crazy creditsAs would be expected of a film that runs backwards, the "end credits" appear at the beginning of the film and scroll in reverse. There are no credits or studio logos at the end of the film, only the title card "Le temps détruit tout" ("Time destroys everything").
- Alternate versionsA new version, called "Irréversible - Inversion Intégrale" ("Irréversible - Straight Cut" in English), was screened in 2019 at the 76th annual Venice International Film Festival. It has been recut to put the narration in chronological order.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Zomergasten: Episode #18.6 (2005)
Featured review
Hits you in the face like a ten ton hammer!
Holy Macaroni! Believe the hype, folks...this really IS one of the most shocking, confronting and raw movies ever made! It actually is one of those rare purchases that makes you wonder what the role of cinema is in modern society. Irréversible certainly can't be classified as 'entertainment', that's for sure. It merely looks like a brutal eye-opener, highly unpleasant to watch at times and it sometimes makes you even feel ashamed to be human! Some of the stuff here goes beyond your most feared nightmares and could easily provoke depression, anti-social behavior and anxiety among influential viewers. It's real-life drama and that makes it so powerful and shocking. Irréversible is told backwards, 'Memento'-style if you wish...only it's a lot more effective here as it was in Memento, which actually was a pretty boring and extremely overrated movie. This very simple backwards-structure aspect gives Irréversible the opportunity to implement a couple of unique and rarely seen style elements. The first half hour (which actually is the end of the story) smacks you in the face right away sets the tone for a non-stop, raw experience. Also, you don't really get to know the characters until the last chapter (which is actually the beginning of the film) The characters are a riddle to you constantly and you can't symphatise with any of them, since you just know too little. Through wild camera movements and simplistic techno-music, a claustrophobic and horrifying atmosphere gets created and the violence is really hard to digest. The infamous scene in which Monica Belluci brutally gets raped is one of the most perverted things I've ever seen. It seems to go on forever and you can really visiualise the painful hell the poor girl is going through. I'd call Irréversible a successful combination of ancient, rough exploitation and modern art-house film-making. The brutality portrayed here is typical for the euro-shock cinema but the stylish shooting lifts it up to Cannes Festival material. Cult as pure as it comes!
helpful•314128
- Coventry
- Feb 14, 2004
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Irréversible
- Filming locations
- Buttes Chaumont, Paris 19, Paris, France(subway station)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $803,491
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $60,086
- Mar 9, 2003
- Gross worldwide
- $6,490,733
- Runtime1 hour 37 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content