Movie Poster for Irréversible

Irréversible (2002, France) is a film written, directed, edited, and photographed by Gaspar Noé. It is considered to be one of the most disturbing and controversial films of 2002, due to its explicit on-camera depiction of rape and murder. Download high resolution version (476x705, 53 KB)Irréversible Movie Poster This is promotional material for the movie Irréversible. ... Download high resolution version (476x705, 53 KB)Irréversible Movie Poster This is promotional material for the movie Irréversible. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of the entertainment industry. ... Screenwriters, or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies are made. ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... A film editor is a person who practices film editing. ... A cinematographer (from cinema photographer) is one photographing with a motion picture camera. ... Gaspar Noé - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... A controversy is a contentious dispute, a disagreement over which parties are actively arguing. ...

The film has also been compared to Memento and Peppermint Candy, since both films use a reverse chronology; they are told backwards. Memento is a film written and directed by Christopher Nolan based on his brother Jonathans short story Memento Mori. It stars Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss. ...

Story overview

The story is of two men (Marcus and Pierre) who seek revenge following the rape of Marcus' girlfriend, who is also the ex-girlfriend of Pierre. The film is set in Paris over the course of one day. The story is told in reverse chronology in thirteen sections each around five minutes in length. The beginning of the film (i.e. the end of the timeline in the film) contains many distorted images and rapidly, freely moving and rotating cameras creating a sense of chaos. Over the course of the film (i.e. moving backwards in the timeline of the film) the imagery becomes steadily calmer, intending to reinforce the tagline of the film, that over time things become more chaotic. Revenge is retaliation against a person or group in response to wrongdoing. ... The Eiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

Plot

Two men, Marcus (played by Vincent Cassel) and Pierre (played by Albert Dupontel), are led out of a gay sex club, "Rectum", by police. Earlier that evening, they arrived at the club in a frantic search for a pimp nicknamed Le Tenia (literally: the tapeworm). Marcus picked a fight with a man, believing him to be Le Tenia. When Marcus had his arm broken in the fight, his friend Pierre rescued him by bludgeoning his attacker to death using a fire extinguisher. This killing is depicted graphically on camera, and is one of two controversial sequences in the film. Vincent Cassel (born November 23, 1966) is a French actor. ... Homosexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by esthetic attraction, romantic love, or sexual desire exclusively for another of the same sex. ... A nightclub (often dance club or club, particularly in the UK) is an entertainment venue which does its primary business after dark. ... A pimp is an informal term for a man who runs a brothel or otherwise oversees prostitution. ... ARM may stand for: Most likely: ARM Ltd (originally Advanced RISC Machines) ARM architecture CPU design or one of its derivatives developed by ARM Ltd (originally called The Acorn RISC Machine) Adjustable rate mortgage Annotated Reference Manual ( C++) Artificial rupture of membranes (see amniotic sac) Others: Accelerated reply mail ( USPS...

In a succession of scenes, we learn that Marcus and Pierre went in search of Le Tenia after questioning several prostitutes. They were aided in their search by two men who promised to exchange information about Le Tenia for money, so that the two could exact revenge. It is further disclosed that Le Tenia raped and beat up Marcus's girlfriend Alex (played by Monica Bellucci), who is also the ex-girlfriend of Pierre. The rape takes place when Alex encounters Le Tenia beating a prostitute in a pedestrian underpass. The rape itself, the film's other controversial scene, is shown in a single unbroken take lasting nine minutes. After the rape scene, it also becomes clear that Pierre and Marcus attacked the wrong man: Le Tenia was standing right next to the man who was killed. Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for cash or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. ... Money is a marketable good or token that acts as a store of value, a medium of exchange and a unit of account. ... A violent crime or crime of violence is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens violent force upon the victim. ... Monica Bellucci Monica Bellucci (born September 30, 1964 <or 1969 according to her site>) is an Italian supermodel and actress, born in Citta di Castello, Italy. ... A pedestrian at the intersection of Alinga Street and Northbourne Avenue, Canberra, Australia A pedestrian is a person travelling on foot, whether walking or running. ... An underground pedestrian tunnel between buildings at MIT. Note the utility pipes running along the ceiling. ...

The film then delves into the actions that preceded the event. We see Alex, Marcus and Pierre at a party. Alex and Marcus are apparently divided over Marcus's uninhibited use of cocaine and alcohol. Earlier scenes reveal the real divisions between Marcus and Pierre: Alex left Pierre, a staid and sexually reserved philosophy professor, for the more footloose and sexually uninhibited Marcus. The last scene of the film shows Marcus and Alex rising from bed to prepare for the party, with Alex discovering she is pregnant whilst Marcus is out buying wine. A party is a social gathering intended primarily for celebration and recreation. ... Cocaine is a crystalline alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. ... In general usage, alcohol (from Arabic al-khwl الكحول, or al-ghawl الغول) refers almost always to ethanol, also known as grain alcohol, and often to any beverage that contains ethanol (see alcoholic beverage). ... Philosophy (from a combination of the Greek words philos meaning love and sophia meaning wisdom), as a practice, aims at some kind of understanding, knowledge or wisdom about fundamental matters such as reality, knowledge, meaning, value, being and truth. ... A professor is a senior teacher and researcher, usually in a college or university. ... A pregnant woman Pregnancy is the process by which a mammalian female carries a live offspring from conception until it develops to the point where the offspring is capable of living outside the womb. ...

The film ends with a shot of Alex reading in a park surrounded by children (accompanied by Beethoven's 7th Symphony), giving way to a strobe effect and a roaring sound that is reminiscent of the film running out of the projector gate. A final title card reads: LE TEMPS DETRUIT TOUT (Time Destroys Everything). Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770 – March 26, 1827) was a German composer of Classical music, the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. ... U-shaped Xenon Flash Lamp A xenon flash lamp is a gas discharge lamp designed to produce extremely intense, incoherent, full-spectrum white light for very short durations. ...

Critical reaction

Much controversy has circulated over the film's intentions and methods. While few critics believe the film is a sanction of either rape or revenge, they did openly question whether or not it was exploiting the subject(s) by being so graphic and frank. Film critic Roger Ebert has argued that the film's structure makes it inherently moral — that by presenting vengeance before the acts that inspire it, we are forced to process the vengeance first, and therefore think more deeply about its implications. Sanction is an interesting word, in that, depending on context, it can have diametrically opposing meanings. ... In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation usually does not include simple theft, since the latter is not a persistent economic or social relationship, as when a pimp exploits his prostitute. ... Roger Ebert Roger Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Chicago Sun-Times film critic and the first author to win a Pulitzer Prize for film criticism (1975 award for his film criticism during 1974). Through his newspaper reviews, books, television shows, lectures, and public persona, he has contributed perhaps... Morality is a complex of principles based on cultural, religious, and philosophical concepts and beliefs, by which an individual determines whether his or her actions are right or wrong. ... Revenge is retaliation against a person or group in response to wrongdoing. ...

Others have pointed out how the film's reverse chronology is used to several other ends aside from examining the moral implications of revenge. For instance, by dispelling any tension generated from the more commonly exploited plot device of whether or not the heroes will be successful in their quest for revenge. A plot device is a person or an object introduced to a story to affect or advance the plot. ... This article is about the type of character. ...

The rape scene has been widely criticised for its extreme and prolonged mixture of sex and violence. It is worthy of comment, though, that Noé deliberately chose to keep the camera static throughout the scene, to avoid the charge of having "eroticised" the attack. More cynical observers have argued that such criticism was just what the filmmakers wanted; providing valuable free publicity for the film. The members of many species of living things are divided into two or more categories called sexes (or loosely speaking, genders). ... Violence is a general term to describe actions, usually deliberate, that cause or intend to cause injury to people, animals, or non-living objects. ... Erotica, from the Greek eros, love, are works of art, including literature, photography, sculpture and painting, that deal substantively with erotically stimulating or arousing descriptions. ...

Public reception

Audience reaction, to both the very lengthy violent sexual attack and a disquietingly brutal murder, has ranged from shocked outrage, abhorrence, to leaving the theater in disgust. Many viewers turn away at times during the film. Yet, fans of the movie state the violence as pictured is essential to the story and give the film credibility. Newsweek magazine stated that this was the "most walked-out-of movie of the year." For an alternate meaning, see Fan (implement). ... Newsweek Logo Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City and distributed throughout the United States and Canada. ...

Technical details

As with many of Noé's other films, Irreversible was shot using a widescreen 16mm process. Many of the scenes were shot with multiple takes that were then invisibly edited together using digital processing. Also of note is that the scene where Pierre bludgeons a man to death was accomplished entirely using CGI. Initial footage using a conventional latex dummy proved unconvincing, so computer graphics were brought in to augment the results. A widescreen image is a film image with a greater aspect ratio than the ordinary 35 millimeter frame. ... CGI may refer to any of the following: CGI.pm: a popular Perl module used for dealing with the Common Gateway Interface. ... The LaTeX logo, typeset with LaTeX LATEX is a document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. ...

The film also uses extremely low-frequency sound during the opening twenty to thirty minutes to create a state of disorientation and unease in the audience. AS thunderous tones deepen, their power seemingly intensifies over frail barriers such as glass windows. ...

Awards

Irréversible won the "Bronze Horse" award at the Stockholm Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The Palme dOr (Golden Palm) is the name of the highest prize given to a film at the Cannes Film Festival. ... The palace in which the festival takes place. ...

Cast

The film stars:

• Monica Bellucci - Alex
• Vincent Cassel - Marcus
• Albert Dupontel - Pierre

Monica Bellucci Monica Bellucci (born September 30, 1964 <or 1969 according to her site>) is an Italian supermodel and actress, born in Citta di Castello, Italy. ... Vincent Cassel (born November 23, 1966) is a French actor. ...

External links

• Official site (http://www.irreversiblethemovie.com/)
• Irréversible (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290673/) at the Internet Movie Database