Irreversible: Straight Cut review: New version of notorious French drama remains a difficult watch
Gaspar Noé's re-edit of his graphic, controversial 2002 film still has much to say about toxic masculinity
Film Reviews Rape
Gaspar Noé’s 2002 French language drama Irreversible is one of those films that routinely appears on lists of “The Best Movies You Never Want To See Again,” as well as many critics’ personal all-time worsts. Regardless of where you stand, it’s not an easy sit—even Noé’s biggest defenders will concede he likes to provoke with deliberate ugliness. (Irreversible contains not just a 9-minute rape scene, but characters displaying racism, homophobia, transphobia, and pedophilic tendencies.) Like Memento, the original film plays its scenes, most of which appear as single-takes, in reverse order. The action begins with a maelstrom of violence in a subterranean sex club. As the story continues backward, we learn that the violence is payback for a brutal rape and assault that happened earlier; going even further back, we experience the life of a loving couple before all the violence took place. In the newly re-edited and restored Irreversible: Straight Cut, the story is now told in chronological order, which mainly reveals that all men are awful. At least in this story.
It seems unlikely that any viewer would come to either cut of Irreversible without knowing that it infamously centers on a brutal rape. So whichever direction one watches it in, the shadow of the act hangs over everything, delivering a stomach-churning inevitability en route to the reveal. In reverse order, we first see the violence that the rape provokes, then we wonder how these aggressive men got that way, then we learn about their motivation, and then we feel sad upon seeing how good things were before it all happened. But once the timeline goes linear, that all proves to be relative.
Originally, the idyllic scenes with Alex (Monica Bellucci) and Marcus (Vincent Cassel) played after the rape. In the recut, the story starts with them, so a different picture emerges, beginning with Marcus playfully ignoring Alex’s many requests to stop doing things she finds annoying, like stealing money from her to buy booze for a party. She doesn’t indicate that it bothers her—she comes across as fairly expert in handling insecure male egos—but for this new version of the story, it’s now the beginning of a slippery slope.
Alex and Marcus are in an odd friendship triangle with Pierre (Albert Dupontel), who used to date Alex, while Marcus, although passionate about Alex, still wants to do cocaine and kiss other girls in the bathroom. While both men try to cock-block each other, Alex leaves them both at a party to go home early, leading to the film’s most infamous scene.
Early on in this cut, Marcus makes a comment about having stolen Pierre’s girl. Alex corrects his language: she is not an object to be stolen; she has made up her own mind, thanks. But once she’s assaulted, she becomes a transactional object to everyone—to the cops, to the local gangs willing to name the rapist for a fee, and even to Marcus and Pierre, who would rather inflict violence on the perpetrator than sit by Alex’s hospital bed. In the reverse-order cut, it might have taken a second viewing to realize that the man beaten to death in vengeance is not the rapist known as the Tenia, but rather his friend. The Tenia (Jo Prestia) gets off scot-free, which is clear immediately this way around, and emphasizes the utter futility of the violence and hate that Marcus and Pierre engage in.
Pierre offers Marcus a final lifeline before they take that fateful step into the dark, disorienting sex club called The Rectum—he suggests they go see Alex in the hospital, and Marcus responds by smashing the car he’s in with a metal bar. From there, it’s Pierre who loses all control. Full of resentment for his unfulfilling sex life with Alex—which was mainly his fault—he unloads with every ounce of built-up frustration on the man he believes to be the Tenia, anger that’s been ignited by the sparks of rage and revenge.
Noé isn’t wrong to suggest that Irreversible: Straight Cut is a different movie, even a revelatory one, from the original, though it’s still capable of leaving a viewer shaken despite knowledge of what’s coming. For a movie known for being one you never want to see again, its director has created a compelling reason to watch it anew. The rape and beating remain horrific, while the bigotry and slurs have aged poorly. Ever the provocateur, Noé likely doesn’t care if you think the hate is his rather than his characters’, but he signals even more clearly here that the protagonists you thought were good—at least in intent—actually aren’t. Not everyone’s ready for such a nihilistic worldview. But one could argue that it explains a lot about toxic masculinity today.
(Irreversible: Straight Cut opens theatrically on February 10)
86 Comments
Definitely one of those “Nah, I can’t” flicks for me.
Yeah, I picked it up on sale years ago and it’s still sitting there in the shrink wrap because I just can’t bring myself to watch it.
A few years or so back I hit a point where I was like, “Y’know? I just never need to see rape on screen ever again.” I know it exists, I know it’s an easy way to convey visceral violence (particularly in patriarchal and/or property-focused societies), but I just…nah. No need to see it. It’s been done. Though I feel that I should have watched this beforehand, because it’s apparently *that* damned effective.
It is extremely effective. And I fully support the notion of never watching it, though this review has me tempted. This is not a slight or an argument: When you say “It’s been done”, I don’t think that’s accurate to the scene in Irreversible. For good or ill, that has not been done.Blergh. Impressive in its way, but blergh.
“It’s been done.” Not like this. It really is that bad, like 100x worse than any similar scene. It never ends.
I feel like this is one of the only rape scenes that really works, as a cinematic depiction. People talk about movies being “unflinching,” but this is just on its own level. It’s long and brutal and just exhausting.
I saw it on dvd years back (still own it, I think). With its notoriety, there is a zero-percent chance that there is not already a chronological version out there. No one’s going to go see this in theaters.
It isn’t such a radically different movie if it just presents all the same scenes in a different order. It’s not like you weren’t capable of reflecting on how the scenes affected each other when watching the original.
No. No way am I going back for seconds. It made me physically ill the first viewing.
By playing the scenes in chronological order, hasn’t he lost half the reason for the film’s title?The icing on the film’s traumatic cake is still the couple who enter the underpass halfway through Alex’s ordeal, see it happening, and back out and away.
irrc, they didn’t even appear to be shocked. They just kind of look curiously for a second, shrug, and turn around.
Gaspar Noé is an asshole who revels in the suffering of others, especially women. Avoid this dumb film.
Aww poor baby thinks presenting something implies approval of said thing, please don’t try to criticize media with this mindset.
Yes, all war movies are made by hawkish directors who wish there was more of it.
That may be their goal, but as has been often commented on, their films are not necessarily viewed in the way that they wished (“War is badass! I want to test myself against that!).
how responsible is an artist for their work being misinterpreted?
So needlessly glib and condescending. You really see nothing dubious about a filmmaker repeatedly depicting women getting brutalized in his work? That doesn’t seem like a troubling trend that might just reflect something about the auteur’s attitudes and predilections? I think you’re the one who maybe shouldn’t criticize media.
“You really see nothing dubious about a filmmaker repeatedly depicting women getting brutalized in his work?”
No, because it’s NOT FUCKING REAL.
Lol, yeah considering co-stars Vincent Cassel and Bellucci were married I’m pretty sure Noe wasn’t forcing anyone to do the movie, let alone “suffer” for his art.
Going into this movie, I knew about the horrific rape scene, but I didn’t know about the shot of Pierre smashing the guy’s head in with a fire extinguisher. I’ve seen a lot of gruesome horror films, but that shot is the first time a movie has actually made me come close to vomiting. (IIRC, the first half of the movie includes a low-frequency sound designed to nauseate viewers, which doesn’t help.)
Yeah, it’s a really impressive technical feat, considering the budget and the era (there’s a great making of featurette on it) but yeah, absolutely hideous. I’ve of course never seen anyone have their head disintegrated by a fire extinguisher irl, but I kinda feel like I have.
Same. As horrifying as the rape scene is, that act of violence is visceral and disgusting and troubling. And that it comes so early in the movie makes it even more shocking.
Here is the Making Of:You can change the closed captioning to English in settings btw…
Such a dumb idea, to undo one element that made your film notable. How about Nolan doing a chronological re-cut of Memento and making that “straight”? So dumb.This is just a cash grab by Noe, yes? It’s not like he has been running out of ideas in the past ten years. He’s one of the few filmmakers (whether I like them or not) who keeps making really uniquely interesting, challenging films. He didn’t need to do this.
Interestingly, the special edition DVD of Memento includes a chronological cut.
it was less of a cut and more of a weird interactive menu that let you play the scenes in order, but if i remember correctly it loaded kinda weird.
According to DVDtalk, you needed to navigate a weird menu to get it to play, but it played as a complete movie. You couldn’t skip around, though. I think I only watched it once. The original is obviously superior.Nolan also had different commentaries where he explained the ending in different ways (Teddy is lying…or he’s not). There was also one that was completely garbled for the ending. They just don’t make dvds like they use to.
That’s the version I watched when I rented the movie since I’ve already seen it in theaters.
i thought climax was some of his best work.
It’s easily some of the most dazzling use of camera movement and framing that I’ve seen in a good long while.
Yeah, this wasn’t a one-trick pony of a movie. There were at least 4 or 5 tricks the pony knew that it then trampled you into an awful emotional state with. The chaos camera that felt like the POV of a drunk gerbil in a ball, the hedonistic sex and violence of The Rectum, the backwards order, the long takes, the unrelenting camera angle of the tunnel scene, the weird static ending, just a misery of a film. My buddies and I rented it not knowing anything about it other than Monica Belucci was on the cover and it warned of graphic sex and violence. We started as 6 viewers, we ended with 3.
Agreed.
Nolan did that for the special edition of the movie’s DVD.
I think the review does a good job of explaining why it’s an interesting decision.
nothing says “cash grab” like a re-edit of the 20-year-old brutal-rape movie nobody wants to see a second time
It does sound like this film uses a similar trick to Memento beyond the reverse chronological order, i.e. using what you don’t yet know as misdirection (in Memento, Pearce deliberately putting himself on the trail of the wrong guy, here the wrong person being beaten for the rape). But in this case it’s not as readily evident since Memento uses it as the main plot twist.
There’s no misdirection like Memento. I’m not sure what Thompson is talking about regarding possibly only realizing the guy killed in the beginning (the end chronologically) is not le Tenia until a second viewing. You would have to not be paying any attention at all to not realize this. The guy Pierre kills is with le Tenia at the club and camera lingers on le Tenia, who has a bemused expression as Pierre kills the wrong guy. The actor who plays le Tenia is pretty unmistakable, as he’s a kickboxer in real life, and has an unnaturally wide and flattened boxer’s nose from it being broken repeatedly. He’s also wearing a distinctive suit jacket.Then the rape scene is a few scenes later and you realize this is le Tenia, Pierre killed the wrong guy, and le Tenia was right there watching it. It’s not just readily evident, it’s glaringly evident and intended to be so. I have no idea what Thompson is talking about.
Missed opportunity to title it “Reversible”
(stands, applauds)
I don’t think it’s a cash grab, I think it sounds interesting.
I think this is not an opinion the creator of the film nor the reviewer agree with.
“This is just a cash grab by Noe, yes?”
Yeah, he was like “how am I going to fleece the world out of millions upon millions of dollars” and decided that it was by re-cutting an old movie.
Please tell me you aren’t in the business of making financial decisions.
Classic. Watch this one with the family every year around Christmastime.
The first Noé the angels intoned/Was to certain poor critics called I Stand Alone./In theaters where they sat watching their flicks/On a cold winter’s night, sound by THX./Noé, Noé, Noé, Noé./Born is a prince of extrémité.
We need to petition TBS to do 24hr christmas day marathons.
Manson, amirite?
The violent outburst that follows the long rape scene, which isn’t exactly graphic (some bits are CGI, BTW), is worse than the rape that preceded it.
I found out about Noe by taking mushrooms and watching Enter the Void. I’m still suffering from that choice. Vortex I decided to watch after eating a healthy dab of RSO and found that experience tolerable – but upsetting. That was a great film. I don’t think, knowing about this film, that I’ll ever watch it – and if I did it would be at 10 AM on a Tuesday with a cup of tea.
But knowing about the ending – I would think this is probably the best way to watch it. You get the worst part out of the way and then it’s just The Last House on the Left or I Spit on Your Grave.
No, man, this way would be waaaaaay worse. The rape is basically in the middle of the movie this way, but at least the original edit ends with twenty minutes of the leads just hanging out and being – kinda – sweet. This way around the sweetness will have been long forgotten by the time you get to the fire extinguisher…
Huh. This is why movie criticism is still relevant and vital. I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing this as I’ve seen the original cut and I’m definitely in the “That was really good but never again” camp. But this review has me rethinking that stance.
Men bad. Surely a lesson I need reinforced
What the editing plays with, and the image included with this article and most reviews is how she was… just… so… CLOSE to the end of that underpass and missing everything else afterward. Ten to fifteen more seconds and boom, up out on the street. I always thought that was the real killer element here; not the awfulness but how close that she came to missing the awfulness. The staging and editing really made that hook bite. That Monica Bellucci is at the height of her transcendently lovely powers just pours more into the impact of the tragedy (whether it should or not).
“the bigotry and slurs have aged poorly.”What does that even mean? Those fictional people who don’t really exist should no longer be using those words?
This movie (whatever cut it would be) is in a list of films I will only see once- others being Come and See, Deliverance, Requiem For A Dream. Movies I respect and admire, but are simply too “upsetting” to subject myself to again.
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I honestly thought this had already been done. Surely at least there’s been a bootleg or a fancut or a film school project before now?I guess I always kinda felt like the reverse chronology was less of a narrative choice with this one than it was a formal experiment performed in accordance with Noe’s overall desire to destabilize his audience. The film’s emotional does only work in chronological order. The film presents the story through an unsatisfactory order of events because the film is about the squalor and lack of catharsis in violence. That’s rather the point.I think the Memento comparison people are is pretty facile for that reason. Irreversible is a far more interesting film than the Nolan thing but the Nolan thing was constructed so that it’s emotional arc bears out through the reverse order, eg it was written to be understood specifically in that order.Conversely, Irreversible is a story which was constructed to never give a satisfactory resolution. I kinda think that ordering it chronologically is interesting as further formal experiment, now that the film has got this status and weight to it.I don’t have any particular desire to watch the rape scene again, but that’s honestly the only thing stopping me from seeing the new version. I think it sounds interesting and worthwhile.
Agreed – it’s a worthy experiment. In original order, Noe wants you to consider what could POSSIBLY EVER justify that extremely violent attack at the club, and then once you’ve seen the horrifying rape and, eventually, the couple in bliss, whether the end justified the means. Viewed the other way, the consideration is whether we root on these guys to satisfy their thirst for revenge at all costs.
I’m curious to see this. Told “straight,” the movie becomes a more conventional rape/revenge thriller, but it’s still one without the usual twisted catharsis.
I have to hand it to Noe… right now is the perfect time to release this. With all the talk of toxic masculinity, the sentencing of Weinstein… this is a perfect time to re-release a movie with no likable male characters. Not necessarily saying it’s worthwhile, but his timing is impeccable.