Irreversible
Directed and written by Gaspar Noe.
Acted by Monica Belluci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel, Philippe
Nahon, Jo Prestia.
It is not surprising that the Attorney General was advised to ban this uncompromising and disturbing film. But I do not abide by censorship and am grateful that I was able to preview it.
Irreversible begins with the final credits and ends in a white noise of the most abstract Expressionism. It does not return to the beginning. It uses a short reverse time looping which intensifies edginess.
For those fruit cakes down stairs there is no beginning or end. "They are always stirring shit". Downstairs is the Rectum. "Fag city here". Tenia has hurt Alex. Marcus, a man possessed, is bent on revenge. He forges his way through the bowels of inferno. The annals of desire. Flesh reaching for flesh in never ending anticipation. Desperation. Wailing moans of ecstasy and lack. The emptiness to be fucked and fisted and fucked till the end of time.
Heterosexuality and homosexuality are provocatively juxtaposed. ‘Only a fag would let his woman dress so seductively.’ Homosexuality of a most confronting kind steeps the opening scenes and the heterosexual primary relationship is developed later in the film.
This film, famous for its 9 minute rape scene, adds yet another mien to that act. It is not the first, nor will it be the last to do so. That act that treads the razor’s edge. Earlier, the victim herself has said that a man’s pleasure can in itself give a woman pleasure. We know she did not mean this and therein lies an irony. In between the initial and final trauma, this scene takes a break. We over stay the usual time allowed. The rapist takes time out to ’sniff’. We start to look around the subway. We wonder at the audacity of this action. A man appears in the distance. He turns and leaves.
Gaspar Noe displays skill which challenges accusations of sheer sensationalism.
Looking down on a giddying twirl of green grass. Neophytes, learning the game of pleasure, zigzag playfully across the sprinkled swirls of water.
Lou Crow
