I only saw this film once before, many years ago during my graphic violence stage, and I forgot a very, very important thing about it: just how disturbing and stressful it is.

The beauty of this film is not only in the cleverness of the way it is shot or in the plot; the beauty of it is that, compared to other horror films, this is not the worse thing you can watch inside the genre, but it's definitely the worst thing you'll ever see because it's realistic. You can see this happening in the real world, and something like this has probably happened more times than we care to imagine. This is not about some sort of supernatural or far-fetched element, this is about people. People doing disgusting, unforgivable, awful things to other people. Which is why this is a film you can't easily shake off. You will sit there for quite a while after it's done, trust me. That is, if you make it through the whole thing.

At once, this film stresses you out. The first sequences, [spoiler] of Marcus walking around a disgusting gay S&M club [/spoiler], will give you an instant headache. The shakiness of the camera is Gaspar Noé's way of placing you, very much against your will, in the shoes of the characters and what they're going through; the anger, the blinding rage, the stress, the impatience, the extremely bad feeling in your gut. You feel it all, and you have no choice. When the camera is still, you're forced to watch one of the most terrible, violent things being done to another human being, and if you're a woman, the experience of watching it is much worse. And when the scenes are not violent and because the plot is presented in a non-linear way, you mourn over the life that the characters had before everything happened, you mourn because they will never be the same.

This film offers no truce; you will feel awful--whether it's because you're angry, shocked, disgusted or sad--the whole time. And if you don't, my friend, you should really consider self-exploration and therapy, because there must be something wrong with you.

This film features one of the most vivid rape scenes you'll ever see. [spoiler] You see her going into that underpass and you just want to pull her back, you see her not running away when she encounters Le Tenia hitting a transsexual hooker and you want to yell at her and push her to run, then finally you accept her fate and you want to scream just as she's screaming, because it shouldn't have happened to her, and it shouldn't happen to anyone ever. [/spoiler]

The polemic scene is cruel in every possible way, and the whole film is cruel in every possible way. Everything escalates incredibly fast and [spoiler] nothing good comes in the end. Marcus is badly hurt and will probably remain broken by -somewhat unearned- guilt and regret (what happened to Alex isn't his fault, but he could've been there to help her avoid it; that would fuck anyone up), Pierre will probably spend the rest of his life in prison and it's not even worth it because he killed the wrong guy, Alex is in a coma and if she makes it out she will never be the same, she will be more broken than any of them, and Le Tenia is left unscathed. [/spoiler] If that's not cruel...

The bottom line is that this film definitely demands strenght to get through it. And yet, it is so well done that the effort is worth it, even if you're not happy that you saw it.

An annoying movie with annoying characters. Although I can see the art in it: the underlying story with the camera and the scenes in reverse, the deescalating of the violence and chaos the more the movie progresses (the more we travel back in time), the contrast between party A and party B, the different types of violence between the lovescene and the rapescene, the 2001 Space Odyssey poster etc. It's there, and it's good but it's a little on the nose... Like [spoiler]Bellucci's dream about the red corridor breaking in two. [/spoiler]

This whole movie basically is a depiction of violence and strife in a world where love, all different kinds, also exists.
As a piece of art this movie is good, not great... just good. As a movie it fails for me due to the characters who, to me, are a bunch of grandstanding dickheads. Dickheads I've encountered plenty of times going out, dickheads I might have been at some point or the other.

I also can't help but feel that this is a bit of a anti-male movie; portraying them as violent, sex oriented brutes and whiney losers wanting to suckle one last time on Monica's breasts whereas women are pure, true, beings who read and bare innocence in their wombs. Which is fine by me, you're allowed to say that in a movie, there's plenty others as well.

I don't agree that this movie isn't for the faint of heart and by the end scene I had one to many "oh yeah, you HAD to put that in there to make it worse" but I simply do not enjoy dickheads and assholes and this movie made me feel like I was surrounded by them for 1:33mins without a way to get out.

Time destroys all things... Deep... But without time there isn't anything and time also creates everything so without time there isn't anything. Maybe that sums this movie up (it did for the director) but it merely tells me this is just "arty farty"... And I've been around those people a little too much too in the past. I'd have enjoyed this more when I was 16 and fully developing in artschool, not at my 38 having already seen what it really is.

tl;dr at the bottom of this piece

Well, I definitely procrastinated watching this due to *the scene*, and I don't regret that. I wanted to be "ready" but nothing really prepares you for that goddamn red tunnel. Accusations of gratuitousness, vulgarity, callousness and even immaturity aimed at Noé probably have some truth to them. Was he trying to be edgy? I think it's safe to say, yes, but to reduce Irreversible (2002) to Noé's masturbatory navel gazing would be a mistake, in my opinion. I have to stress though, I totally understand why people find this unwatchable.

That being said, how everything is framed here is going to drag my mind back to this film. Like Memento (2000), the reversed timeline plays a crucial role in the telling. [spoiler]Instead of the men riding to commit to the act of revenge after the rape, we have them (well, specifically Marcus) pushing themselves on other women and then Alex herself (chronologically backwards). In fact, she leaves the party in the first place because she's made uncomfortable by Marcus. Even as Pierre says farewell to Alex he is lusting after her.[/spoiler] Therein lies the shame and guilt that spurs them both along in the first (last) half. What's more is that we have the illuminating conversation between Pierre and Alex, now ex-lovers, talking candidly about their sex life in front of Marcus (who quietly chuckles throughout). In short, Alex tries to make Pierre see that good sex is reciprocal, and that if the man is not enjoying himself then the woman can't enjoy herself. This statement is a sick twist of irony, given what we have just witnessed in the tunnel. Of course, Alex tries to amend her statement by saying that there's a je ne sais quoi to sex; something that she can't put into words (she does say that after years of talking sometimes you just have to fuck). That very je ne sais quoi is illucidated by the negation of the rape. Whatever happened in that tunnel, we can all agree that it was not "good sex".

I've read some reactions to the film in comment sections and reviews on this site and I think these strong negative responses are absolutely valid. I don't see this as a misogynistic film though, quite the opposite. It shows in brutal totality what one man is capable of, and then cuts to other men not doing *the same* thing, but acting in ways that absolutely suggest that under the right sociological circumstances, they would. Instead of realising this fact, these men other the rapist and seek to kill him, as if to emptily emphasise that they're *not* him. The message, to me, is that vengeance does not redeem, and Marcus' urge to get revenge is in the end emotionally recursive. What comes of it other than more pain and a descent into what looks like hell itself?

The first half of this movie means that you can't watch the second half passively, even though your brain is begging to switch off and retreat.

In the final scenes, [spoiler]in Alex's apartment with Marcus playfully broaching the subject of anal sex with her, the film is screaming at you to understand that there's something deeply wrong in the gender status quo, and it's not coming from women. That the assaults start very small, subtle, and with a smile. Even as they are in each other's arms, lovingly, Alex is trying to explain to Marcus something that should be so basic and elementary that I scoffed audibly. She's telling him that she's not something to be stolen from Pierre, she's not a thing to be taken and that she made the decision.[/spoiler]

I think this is a begrudging 9/10. I hate to love to hate to give it what it deserves. Honestly I prefer Enter the Void (2009) and that's a worse film no matter which way I slice it. It makes Lux Æterna (2019) look innocuous and futile. Will I watch Irreversible (2002) again? Odds are, no, and if I do, it will be alone, again. Don't know if I could sit with anyone on planet earth watching the tunnel scene.

tl;dr [spoiler]if you can stomach graphic rape, then this film has a lot to offer in what it's saying. if sexual assault triggers you in any way do not watch this film, it's simply not worth it.[/spoiler]

The definition of trying way too hard. It’s very desperate to get a reaction out of you, and while it succeeded, it definitely wasn’t earned. Picture the shock value and excess of _Requiem for a Dream_ or _Pusher_, except sucky and cheap. Picture the storytelling format of _Memento_, except its pointless to the story. Picture the long takes you often find in the films from Cuaron, Scorsese or Inarritu, except with execution that leaves a lot to be desired. The first third straight up looks like trash, it’s not even defensible as interesting, artistic handheld. If anything, it looks like a one take version of those bad shaky cam action movies that were popular in the 2000s. It’s mildly effective as a mood piece, sure, but that’s where the praise ends as far as I’m concerned. I’m convinced the violence and disturbing content will be too challenging for some people, but I don’t have much of a problem with that in concept. I do, however, have a problem with it being mostly empty and vapid; the characters are uninteresting, the plot’s pretty barebones, nor is the acting all that impressive. There’s some interesting subtext (you can see it as [spoiler] a statement against unchecked male lust and the pointlessness of revenge[/spoiler]), but there are still so many films that comment on these topics in a more interesting way and without the edgelord tendencies.

3.5/10