Friday, August 31, 2007

Irreversable


Irreversable (2002, France) is a movie written, directed, edited, and photographed by Gaspar Noé. It stars Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel. Several reviewers declared it one of the most disturbing and controversial movies of 2002, due to its explicit depiction of rape and murder. Much like Pinter's Betrayal, the events of the movie are portrayed with a reverse chronology.
So, my pal Josh and I were standing around drinking and talking about movies and this one came up. He'd said that there was no other, more disturbing movie. I thought of Pasolini's Salo... at first, and then Un chien andalou...In a Glass Cage. But he held to his own and told me to just rent it.
So I did. I was all alone in my apartment, at night, lying on my couch, coiling in revulsion as image after image of human carnage spun backward into the inevitable scene that, for me, undeniably cinched it for Josh.
The scene is with the thoroughly convincing (and by this I'm not sure what I mean exactly, as at times, certainly here, i simply do not understand the differences between acting and real life) Monica Bellucci.
I watched as in a darkened Paris tunnel, she is, at the risk of sounding thoroughly redundant, raped savagely. And the scene just goes on and on. And on. And then something happened to me. Out of nowhere, i nearly jumped up and off of my couch. I, quite literally, let out a gasp and scream utterly involuntarily. I actually had to get up and turn the dvd off for a while. Suffice to say, this movie fucked me up!

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