Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Good stuff. At this point, I’m not listening to any more buzz, positive or negative, on this one. I just want to see the movie and judge for myself. Still, I gotta thank Strangelove, one of our regular chatters, for dropping this one off...
Hey Moriarty, here's the IRRÉVERSIBLE review i promised... Thanks to the wonderfull doings of my ISP I wasn't able to send e-mail for the last 2 days...
Dr. Strangelove here with a review of the French film IRRÉVERSIBLE made by the much praised French-Argentine auteur Gaspar Noé (SEUL CONTRE TOUS) who served as a writer, director, editor and one of the cinematographers (other being Benoit Debbie). SEUL CONTRE TOUS was a favorite at Cannes and therefore IRRÉVERSIBLE was much anticipated.
IRRÉVERSIBLE is one of those rare movies that manage to feverishly polarize an audience; you either like it or hate it, with little middle ground in between. This movie, like SEUL CONTRE TOUS before it, just doesn’t leave anyone feeling indifferent. I like this movie, while it’s not a great masterpiece; it’s a truly well done, intelligent, provocative and innovative piece of work, a really masterful exercise in style. I liked what Noé did in SEUL CONTRE TOUS, I thought it was a smartly done, mind boggling and challenging movie, and with IRRÉVERSIBLE he proves yet again his reputation as the auteur to watch for.
While liking and admiring IRRÉVERSIBLE, I can at the same also understand how some where repulsed, disgusted and revolted, for thou I have heard accounts of viewers being disgusted, shocked and appalled at earlier screenings, woman being dragged out in ambulance at Cannes, people furiously leaving,… Nothing could have quite prepared me for the sheer mood of great unease and apprehension present all through this movie. IRRÉVERSIBLE is not for the fainthearted and timid, the violence and misery present is depicted in a ghastly way, it hits you hard and it lingers in your psyche, haunting it for some time.
It’s a tough beating story of one man’s (Vincent Cassel as “Marcus”) and his best friends (Albert Dupontel as “Pierre”) pointless quest for revenge, and of the horror that creeps into their lives when his girlfriend (Monica Bellucci as “Alex”) is raped, viciously beaten and sent into a coma by a stranger inside the subway (Jo Prestia as the pimp “Le Tenia”), truly a passage from heaven to hell. As unorthodox and innovative in its storytelling method as the last year’s MEMENTO, IRRÉVERSIBLE is structured backwards so that the depressive, infernal looking first scene we see is actually the ending act of the ill-fated chain of events, and the last, a great deal lighter and optimistic scene, almost heavenly, the opening act.
As innovative structure wise, IRRÉVERSIBLE also breaks new ground visually; the whole movie is made of just a dozen scenes filmed in just one continuous take and filled with inventive camera techniques, moody lighting and chill set design. The movie opens with the cleverly devised opening credits after whom we are taken into the interior of a Paris gay club “Rectum” where we find Marcus and Pierre frenetically searching for the pimp Le Tenia. This whole 20 minute sequence is stunningly executed in one continuous long shoot, with appropriate frenzied, chaotic camera work, dim, sinister blood red lighting and an infuriating score, all of them giving a hellish look that culminates when two man find their suspect and in a brutal beating obliterate his face with a fire extinguisher.
The club scene itself has to be one of the most violent things filmed in recent times, by the time it ended people where leaving the theater, and those who stayed had to endure thru another grizzly scene, the now famous nine minute rape and beating of Monica Bellucci. Thou not chaotic like the club scene, the rape is itself exceedingly difficult to watch even for a seasoned moviegoer, and it climaxes whit a bloody beating where Jo Prestia sends Bellucci's character into a coma. Like with the head smashing in the club, most of the blood and gore was added digitally in the post production. Following the rape sequence, the film gradually settles down and becomes lighter, we find characters living their normal lives and it ends with moments of happiness.
Most of the dialogue was improvised on set by the actors and director. As always, worthy of nothing is the excellent performance by the great Vincent Cassel, thru the whole movie he manages to find the perfectly right tone for all of the scenes, be it romantic flirting, or raging madness, charisma just emanates out of him, and he helps a lot to keep the movie together. Cassel is backed up with strong showings by both Bellucci and Albert Dupontel. All three have a great chemistry when togeather and are truly among best eurpoean actors working today.
All the great visual stylistic achievements are certainly equally matched with a groovy electronic score by Thomas Bangalter from the famed euro-dance duo Daft Punk. His vibrant scoring perfectly manages to set up the atmosphere and sentiment for each of the scenes, be it a grisly rape, frenetic search for the rapist inside of a gay club or the resulting head smashing beating. IRRÉVERSIBLE has one another innovative aspect that I feel has unjustly been left out of the discussions, its sinister and eerie sound design, certainly a superb work on its own.
In closing, IRRÉVERSIBLE is a movie that awards the viewer if he manages to undergo thru two extremely difficult scenes, it’s not for the light of hearted, yet if you endure, you will see a really, really good movie with some remarkable stylization. It certainly is a first grade exercise in style, filled with great acting in between the eye candy. And remember as the movie says “Time destructs everything, and every little action affects the future”.
IRRÉVERSIBLE was shoot on 35 mm and has a running time of varying between 99 and 95 minutes. Wanna critic the critic? Send me love letters? Freakin’ Death threats? Or just wanna buy me a drink... clickee here and get in touch with you'r humble reviewer. What ever it is, send me mail. I'd be happy to reply.
