I want to be 100% honest at the start of this review. I am actively asking people NOT to watch this film. And I have not even seen the entirety of this film. I’d actually say, I’ve probably seen 70% or so? It’s way way too troubling. Way too eye twitchingly painful to watch. I mean, even in the normal scenes, the sound, the editing, the color formatting, all of it, it’s just hard to watch. And that is before we get to the 10 minute, one take rape scene that incinerates the middle section of this movie. It is just the epitome of film-brutalism.
If you haven’t seen this film – just don’t. Move on to a happy movie. I’ve got plenty that I recommend. Like, oh, I don’t know, Buster’s Mal Heart, Free Fire, The Invitation, Coherence, Time Lapse… really, anything other than this movie.
So yeah, please just assume that every single word on this page is a spoiler. If you’ve seen the movie, and are confused… you might find some answers here. But otherwise, take a pass on this movie, this review, and really go spend time in Disneyland instead. Really, anywhere but here.
From here on out – here be spoiler dragons.
The first thing we have to grapple with, is that the movie Irréversible, is um, told backwards. Heh. I know, right. There are 10 to 15 (depending on how you count) sections of movie, and they spliced and severed and played perfectly backwards from the end of the events to the beginning. And unless you can grock this particular detail, I got nothing for you. And for me, I had to literally write them down front to back, and then back to front in order to really understand it. And so, here is basically what I wrote in my notebook for myself to wrap my head around it, maybe it’ll help you as well:
The Timeline of the Movie Irréversible
| Film Forwards (Backwards) | Film Backwards (Forwards) | |
| 10. Across the street, the butcher is talking to another man. And he mentions he got busted for having sex with his daughter. They notice a commotion on the street. | 1. Events begin with Alex reading Experiment with Time in the park, surrounded by children happily playing – “Time Destroys Everything”. | |
| 9. Pierre is arrested for the murder and Marcus is ambulanced out. The two learn that the murdered man wasn’t Le Tenia. But rather the man standing next to him. | 2. Alex reveals to Marcus that she might be pregnant. Takes a test, and confirms her suspicions. | |
| 8. They steal a taxi and head to the club, but can’t ID Le Tenia. Picking the wrong man, Marcus assaults him. And attempts to rape him. Pierre protects Marcus and bashes the assailant’s face in and kills him. | 3. Alex, Marcus, and Pierre go to a party via Métro. Alex is angry that Marcus is flirting and doing lots of drugs. Decides to leave by herself. | |
| 7. Finding Concha, Marcus threatens her and she names Le Tenia as the rapist and says he can be found at a club nearby. Sex workers chase the men off. | 4. A pimp named “Le Tenia” is beating a transsexual prostitute named Concha in a tunnel, Alex intervenes. Le Tenia rapes her brutally and then beats her into unconsciousness. | |
| 6. Alex is in a coma in the hospital. Trying to figure out what happened, Marcus and Pierre talk to Mourad who will help him find Le Tenia. | 5. When Pierre and Marcus finally leave the party, they see the police in the street. When Marcus sees Alex’s battered body he flips out. | |
| 5. When Pierre and Marcus finally leave the party, they see the police in the street. When Marcus sees Alex’s battered body he flips out. | 6. Alex is in a coma in the hospital. Trying to figure out what happened, Marcus and Pierre talk to Mourad who will help him find Le Tenia. | |
| 4. A pimp named “Le Tenia” is beating a transsexual prostitute named Concha in a tunnel, Alex intervenes. Le Tenia rapes her brutally and then beats her into unconsciousness. | 7. Finding Concha, Marcus threatens her and she names Le Tenia as the rapist and says he can be found at a club nearby. Sex workers chase the men off. | |
| 3. Alex, Marcus, and Pierre go to a party via Métro. Alex is angry that Marcus is flirting and doing lots of drugs. Decides to leave by herself. | 8. They steal a taxi and head to the club, but can’t ID Le Tenia. Picking the wrong man, Marcus assaults him. And attempts to rape him. Pierre protects Marcus and bashes the assailant’s face in and kills him. | |
| 2. Alex reveals to Marcus that she might be pregnant. Takes a test, and confirms her suspicions. | 9. Pierre is arrested for the murder and Marcus is ambulanced out. The two learn that the murdered man wasn’t Le Tenia. But rather the man standing next to him. | |
| 1. Events begin with Alex reading Experiment with Time in the park, surrounded by children happily playing – “Time Destroys Everything”. | 10. Across the street, the butcher is talking to another man. And he mentions he got busted for having sex with his daughter. They notice a commotion on the street. |
Yes/No? Good. Glad it helped. I’m always there for you Mrs. Internet Denizen. No seriously, do this for me – erase your memory of this movie and its progress… and walk it through from back to front – that is, in the correct chronological order. The movie changes drastically, doesn’t it? In the correct order, it’s a movie about a couple, maybe a lover’s triangle, that is then violently ended with tragedy and a wrongful revenge. But in Noé’s order, the very first time we meet Alex, she has been horribly harmed and is being wheeled away. By seeing the events in this order, we watch Alex’s life unfurl under the tragic knowledge that everything is leading up to this cliff. That her entire life is under the shadow of the end. Ok, enough on that for now.
The next thing you need to understand is that Irréversible is actually loosely connected with Gaspar Noé’s first movie entitled I Stand Alone, which featured a character named The Butcher. Do not go looking for this movie in an attempt to grasp this movie. The only thing you need to know is that the opening scene where The Butcher references raping his daughter. That event, happens AFTER he commits 90 other atrocities, and continues to vow to be good, to change, to really do it this time and be a different man. So yeah, that doesn’t happen.
The third thing you need to understand is that this movie is a filmic version of the brutalist movement – or more succinctly, the French Extremity Movement. Like it’s Russian, and Eastern Bloc architectural counterpart, the French Extremity Movement lacks compassion or a real human heart. Here’s an example of a brutalist architecture church that has been converted into an art museum.
The New French Extremity movement is traced through a long line of mainly French painters, writers, and directors. It all started with the one and only, Marquis de Sade. (Allow me a quick story about de Sade? Oh, right, this is my blog… I almost forgot for a second. When I started high school… the ninth grade, I totally started crushing on Robert Smith and The Cure. And, one of their songs I adored, but didn’t understand, was entitled, Killing an Arab. Anyway, not understanding that the song was a literary reference, my (super cool) Literature teacher, who was also a Cure fan, tipped me off to Camus’ book, The Stranger. (Which is one of my favorite authors to this day.) The book totally blew my mind. I even spent time after school with my teacher discussing it and unraveling it. Next, I came to him with questions about the band Enigma’s album, Sadeness. And he said, well, that my friend, is another literary reference, this time to the Marquis de Sade. I’m like, huh, what’s a Marquis de Sade? And he says… I’m sorry, but I can’t talk to you about that particular author. But you are a clever young man, and I’m sure you can figure it out on your own. Well, when my local library didn’t have any books by the Marquis my interest was piqued. And so I wandered up to the University library in town, and when they didn’t have any either, I was startled. And now I was completely baffled. Well, I wasn’t too worried, because my Interlibrary Loan kung fu was pretty impressive at this point. (I adored obliging other libraries to send me their stuff for free.) Eventually I got my hands on a couple of his books and was just blown away at the plutonium I’d gotten my hands on. Sure, it was sexual, but damn, was de Sade horrifically violent to boot! Eventually I circled back out with my Lit. teacher and said… yeah, I get it now. And his response? “I have literally no idea what you are talking about.”) After de Sade, Extremity moves through a long line of intense authors, painters and screenplay writers that were all hell-bent on “shocking audiences into consciousness.” And that is exactly what Gaspar Noé is attempting to do here with Irréversible.
New French Extremity primarily deals with violence, and sex. Or sex, as violence. Both and. It can see all sex as violence on the continuum of things. It is, at its root, a primarily unapologetically transgressive movement. It’s really quite similar to American exploitation cinema of the 70’s. Films like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Fly. Basically they are movies that setup an adversarial relationship between their art and contemporary culture, contemporary society. Honestly? New French Extremity explicitly criticized bourgeois ideas and ideals.
(I literally thought I’d write 500 words about this movie and be done. Hahaha.)
But The Movie Man! Explain!
I thought I was discussing the movie, sorry mate! Anyway. All that brings us to the movie Irréversible, and its horrifying downward spiral (upward spiral?) The very first point that Noé is making through this film is that this life is tragically and irreparably violent. That we all (Alex is us after all) live in a fantasy bubble of unrealistic assumptions if we believe otherwise. That Alex’s misunderstanding that she chooses partners seems to be a bedrock belief that is obviously wrong. That any man could choose her at will if he is horrible enough.
But the reversed nature of the film flips this idea on its head. Our experience with Alex’s life (whether in the park, or riding the Métro, whatever) is only viewed under the shadow of this atrocious event. It just doesn’t matter that she is having a conversation with her boyfriend, it’s 100% viewed from the perspective of the rape that has already occurred in the future. (Hahahah, yeah, I totally did that on purpose.) Which has the effect of our looking at every encounter we have under the guise and potential future horrors. Right?
Think of it this way. You and your boyfriend, blissfully playing, flirting, frolicking at the park. Whatever. By the way, did you know that the odds of someone, dying by an assault with a firearm over the course of their life is like 1 in 285? Better yet, did you know that the odds of your being poisoned is something like 1 in 70?!? I can’t see your happy, frolic worthy life in reverse. But if I could, I may see you dying of an opioid overdose (1 in 75). Or maybe, of your dying in a flood? (1 in 97,882). Maybe I see you die in a car accident at the stop light near your house. (1 in 102). How does that change our (yours more specifically) view of that happy park moment? Fairly unnervingly, it changes everything, really. Did I mention that your odds of dying in that, or some other pool, during your lifetime is 1 in 5,272? Yeah. Which leans further in to the point that Noé is making.
And yet, Noé is making a different and more violent point. I’m actually giving the guy too much credit here with my actuarial two-step I did there. I really think he is literally going nine steps further to make the point that heterosexual sex, of any kind, is abusive. Regardless of whether the female involved believes she willingly chose to participate. No? Feels like that is what he is saying here. Could be wrong. Why else do we get the conversations between Alex and the ex-boyfriend and her current boyfriend? In light of her previous (future) assault, it casts a serious shadow on those conversations, those experiences.
Time is Irreversible
So yes. The obvious statement of the day award goes to… Taylor Holmes! Time, just so happens to only move forward. And never backwards. (Thanks genius.) You can never go backwards. And with those five words, we have the key to understanding the vantage and perspective of this movie in its entirety.
Marcus.
Think about it. Marcus, in an overly assertive and insistent moment asks for a fairly selfish moment with Alex. She says no. Marcus, Alex and Pierre have an awkward and candid conversation about Alex’s past relationship with Pierre on the Métro. Marcus gets hammered and acts stupid at the party, causing Alex to leave the party by herself, which results in her being violently raped, and sent into a coma that she doesn’t awake from. Marcus then goes hunting for Le Tenia, and this ends up in the death of someone else instead.
And all of this is completely and totally irreversible. This is Marcus, thinking about the events of the past few hours. Maybe he’s in a police car. Maybe it’s years later. We don’t know. But we can be fairly certain that it is Marcus that is walking these events back, trying to understand how exactly he ended up in this horrific spot.
TIME DESTROYS ALL THINGS
Think of the ending scene. It could be Alex, as a young mother, watching over her daughter playing in the park. The ending could be a lost potential future. (We can assume that the baby was killed in the attack). The ending can be scene as a lost opportunity that spirals out of control and downwards through the events we’ve already experienced, that she has yet to. Because, yeah, regardless of how things went, and regardless of her life choices, time still destroys all things.
Edited by, CY