"Irreversible" by Gaspar Noé (2002)

Irreversible is a very confronting raw and violent French movie that tells the story, in reverse chronological order, of a serious of violent events happened during the return home of the female protagonist Alex. The least you know, the more shocking and though-provoking the movie will be.

Three main themes are explored in this movie. 
1/ The movie is an exploration of Sexuality - Sex as mean of human communication and love, versus love as a mean of hatred and subjugation. Sex as pleasure versus sex as abuse. The intimate scenes of Alex and Marcus are all sensuality, playfulness, joy and love. The conversations about sex between Alex, Marcus and Pierre explore the matter of pleasure and human connection, of what makes humans click sexually. The rape scene is an antithesis to all of that.

2/  The movie reminds the viewer that there is nothing to forget or forgive about rape. The movie is a brutal depiction of the brutality that any rape against any woman is. One of the most asked questions regarding this movie is, did the rape scene need to be so brutal and 9-minute long? Despite how hard was watching it, especially if you are a woman, I think the answer is yes, for several reasons:

• Because (too) many people out there consider rape a second-rate crime and somewhat blame the victim or excuse the perpetrator. There are judges around the world saying that the victim somewhat provoked the rapist with her sexiness or behaviour.
• Because the effects of rape are very damaging, emotionally and mentally, and some people cannot understand them unless they have been raped or seen a rape. 
  
• Because the erotic industry somewhat glamorises women being raped. Rape is always a brutal act, even if the rapist does not beat you, but there are rapists doing nasty brutal things to women, something worse than anything depicted in this or any other movie.  

3/ The movie is a successful reflection on the double-side of human nature and of the two faces of violence. The messages embedded in the story are important and offer a glimpse of what is having a normal life full of hopes and joy, to found it completely turned over and ruined by violence in a matter of hours. Telling the story backwards makes the story not only more interesting and intellectually engaging (or is it puzzling?!), but also a very successful way of exploring this theme as we feel an instant repulsion and disgust towards the characters that appear at the beginning of the film, and towards their language and behaviour. Some of the ethical questions posed by Noé are: Even if there is a good reason for such acts, is violence justified? Who is more ethically an morally reprehensible, the nasty person who does a nasty thing, or the good person who does a nasty thing? Does nastiness and violence have class or gender? Noé's message is that violence is always repulsive no matter the reasons (or lack of them) behind and that normal people can be as violent as violent people in certain circumstances. If we had seen the events narrated in chronological order, we would have, perhaps, justified them.

The atmosphere of the movie is excellent, as well as its hues and music. The use of strobist images is sickening, but it helps to unsettle the viewer since the beginning. However, there wasn't any need to use so many strobist images and for so long as, by doing so, the movie becomes a little bit hallucinogen and the viewer loses focus; to be honest, I would used strobist images quite differently and with a different timing.

I found Monica Belluci great as Alex both in the sweet and playful scenes, and it the harsh ones; she demonstrates here that she is not just a pretty face. Jo Prestia is superb as the disturbing disgusting rapist Le Tenia. Vincent Cassel is just OK as Alex's boyfriend Marcus, while Albert Dupontel is good as Alex's best friend Pierre.

Among the downsides, beyond the overuse of strobist effects, I would mention two. The first is the opening scene, which is irrelevant and does not add anything to the story. Moreover, All the gay thing was really unnecessary as does not add anything to the story and is very negative bordering homophobic. There are heterosexuals who would have similar sort of clubs and behaviour. 

This is not an easy film to watch, and it really gets you upset. In that regard, it achieves what aimed, as it makes you think and react against the motto of "an eye for an eye", violence confronted by violence, and reminds you that rape is a brutal act of violence, not just an act of sexual abuse. 

If you can stand the whole ordeal and reach the last minutes of the movie, you will get to the start of a relaxing bright day that was full of promises, which is how most of our days start  before something bad happens. That is life in its full splendour and nastiness.

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