Irreversible (1 Star)

Before watching this film I knew it was controversial. It's won a series of awards, but when it was shown at film festivals in 2002 many people walked out. It's a film people either love or hate. I hate it.

In the film two men and a woman go out together. Marcus and Pierre are both in love with Alex. Pierre and Alex used to be lovers, but she left him three years ago, and he's never moved on. She's now living with Marcus.

At the party Marcus gets high on cocaine and behaves badly, so Alex leaves early. On her way to get a taxi, Alex is raped. Marcus and Pierre try to find the rapist and get revenge.

That's a simple enough story, but it's told very extravagantly. The scenes are shown in reverse order, which works well, because it gives an air of mystery. It starts with violent scenes, and we gradually find out what caused them. There are philosophical statements thrown into the conversations about the future already being written. Alex even has a dream about what will happen to her, the things that we've already seen.

So what don't I like? The cinematography in the opening scenes annoys me. The picture is constantly rotating from side to side, even upside down. But the worst part is the rape scene. It's too long and too realistic. Supposedly the director gave the actress Monica Bellucci the artistic freedom to let the scene be as long or as short as she wanted. He says that she directed it herself. It's too much. I almost turned the film off.

The film ends with totally unnecessary flickering lights. It hurt my eyes.

I have one piece of advice for anyone who wants to watch the film. Don't use subtitles. Let it be dubbed into English or whatever language is available. It's a very colourful film, sometimes dark, sometimes bright. The white subtitle text disturbs the viewing experience.

Success Rate:  - 0.7

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de