If you’ve grown up on a staple diet of Hindi movies, you know that rape scenes are sometimes an integral part of the narrative. You need them, so the larger-than-life hero can claim revenge and make the world a better place. The plot of Irresversable seemed no less different. Therefore, assuming courage I picked it up assuring friends that I’d be able to stomach the film. But I was wrong, as Irreversible proved to the most disturbing film I’d ever seen.
Treated like Memento, this film starts at the end, and goes backwards. It begins with Marcus and his search for Alex’s rapist in a gay club. Wandering through several semi-lit tunnels with men engaged in sexual acts, he finally gets to the rapist. He kills the man, and smashes his dead with a rage that shocks you beyond belief.
However, you soon empathize with Marcus, when you are taken back to Alex’s terrifying rape scene. After a tiff with Marcus during a party, Alex decides to get home on her own. She takes the lonely subway, where she runs into her rapist. Alex soon gets his attention. He stops her, and rapes her right there on the ground. Unlike most movies, the camera doesn’t look away in embarassment or shame. The director focusses on the entire rape, for what feels like a painfully long duration. You see Alex struggle, give up, and make futile attempts to crawl away. And just when you think you can’t take anything more, the man ends his act by smashing her face.
This entire shot was shocking mostly because of its realistic treatment. You see Alex’s pain, and the man’s ruthlessness. And like someone who walks in on them and runs away, you also feel this urge to look away. But again, as the spectator, there is little you can do.
The impact of the rape then gets stronger, when you are taken back in to Alex’s life. Once you get to know her a little better, you empathize a lot more. You see her for the normal girl that she is, with a man who so obviously loved her. They get ready for the dreaded party, and in the few seconds that you see her alone, you get a glimpse at her happiness over a possible pregnancy. That is when, you wish you could reverse the events of the night, to avoid what was a chance rape.
Directed and written by Gaspar Noé, I thought the film was extremely clever because it served its purpose. Through his technique, the director made sure, you didnt just shun the film aside, as just another revenge film. True, you’d probably never see the film again, but you’d definitely leave shocked and more empathetic toward rape victims.
The title is most interesting, given the fact that film is going on reverse. But this reverse technique, just adds to this growing need in you, to reverse what were irreversible events that night.
Monica Belluci as Alex is natural and very convincing. In the film, she is definitely more than just a beautiful face and body. In the film, she teams up with real life husband Vincent Cassel, who plays Marcus.
See it, only if think you can stomach it!