35-499: Irréversible ( French: [iʁevɛʁsibl] ) is a 2002 French art thriller film written and directed by Gaspar Noé . Starring Monica Bellucci , Vincent Cassel , Albert Dupontel , the plot depicts the events of a tragic night in Paris as two men attempt to avenge the brutal rape and beating of the woman they love. The film is made up of a title sequence followed by 13 segments made to look like long takes. Each of these segments
70-464: A cinéma du corps (cinema of the body), and a cinema of 'brutal intimacy' because of its attenuated use of narrative, generally assaulting and often illegible cinematography, confrontational subject material, a treatment of sexual behavior as violent rather than mutually intimate, and a pervasive sense of social nihilism or despair. Noé often directly addresses the audience in confrontational ways, most notably in I Stand Alone , when an intertitle warns
105-592: A policeman), Climax (as a dog-handler) and Lux Æterna (using a torch). Noé also cites the 1983 Austrian serial killer film, Angst , by Gerald Kargl , as a major influence. He is the business partner of filmmaker Lucile Hadžihalilović . Noé is a dual national of Argentina and Italy, having obtained an Italian passport through lineage, though he does not consider himself Italian. "I have never lived in Italy, I don't speak Italian," he said in an interview. "If I hadn't had an Italian passport to travel all over
140-413: A single take and lasting nearly ten minutes in total, with some critics comparing it to pornography because of its length and the use of a static camera, as well as considering the film as a whole to be deeply homophobic for its hellish portrayal of a gay S&M club. On the other hand, it was also frequently praised for its brutal portrayal of the horrors of rape, and its implicit challenge to viewers of
175-419: A state of nausea and anxiety in the audience, as it is not immediately perceptible to the spectator, but enough to evoke a physical response. Quoting Noé, "You can't hear them, but they make you shiver. In a good cinema with a good audio system, the sound can scare you much more than what's happening on the screen." This technique, called Sensurround , involves the intentional use of a sub-audible sound to enhance
210-479: A young couple, wake up together and discuss their relationship, as well as an upcoming party, while in the nude. Alex reveals she had a dream of herself standing in a red tunnel that breaks in two, before taking a pregnancy test that reveals a positive result. On a public train, Pierre, Alex's ex who is also invited to the party, constantly bickers with Alex over his inability to satisfy her during their relationship, while Marcus expresses disinterest in their squabble. At
245-512: Is an Argentine filmmaker, who lives and worked primarily in France. He is one of the primary exponents of New French Extremity , with his most notable works including the feature films I Stand Alone (1998), Irréversible (2002), Enter the Void (2009), Love (2015), Climax (2018), Lux Æterna (2019), and Vortex (2021). Noé's father is artist and writer Luis Felipe Noé . Noé
280-642: Is either a continuous shot or a series of shots digitally composited to resemble a continuous shot. The story is told in reverse order , with each scene taking place chronologically before the one that precedes it. Theatrically released in France, the United Kingdom and the United States, Irréversible competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and won the Bronze Horse at
315-571: The New French Extremity movement. In 2019, Irreversible: Straight Cut premiered at the Venice Film Festival , an alternate and remastered edit of the film presented in chronological order. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 90% approval rating with an average rating of 6.80/10 out of 10 critics. Irréversible won the top award, the Bronze Horse for best film, at the 2002 Stockholm International Film Festival . It
350-555: The Stockholm International Film Festival . Critical reception was mixed, with praise towards the performances and Noé's direction, but criticism towards its graphic portrayal of violence and rape. American film critic Roger Ebert called Irréversible "a movie so violent and cruel that most people will find it unwatchable". A version of the film told in chronological order, Irreversible: Straight Cut ( French : Irréversible – Inversion intégrale ),
385-645: The military dictatorship occurring in Argentina at the time . Noé graduated from École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière in France in 1982. His first feature filmmaking credits were as an assistant director to Argentine filmmaker Fernando Solanas on Tangos, the Exile of Gardel (1986) and Sur (1988). His work has been strongly associated with a collection of films often described as new extreme films . Highlighting their challenging sexual and violent bodily imagery, Tim Palmer has described them as part of
SECTION 10
#1732780070712420-535: The United States on 7 March 2003 through Lions Gate Films . It grossed $ 792,200 from theatrical screenings. Irreversible: Straight Cut ( French : Irréversible – Inversion intégrale ) first screened at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival after Noe decided to give this version of the film a wider release instead of relegating it to a home release special feature. It was released in Los Angeles and New York City on 10 February 2023. Critical response to
455-586: The Void (2009). The creative collaboration is made clear in the comparable stylistic choices across these early films, most clearly the credit sequences and the marketing designs. In 2025, Noé will appear in Hadžihalilović's fourth feature film, The Ice Tower . Three of his films feature the character of a nameless butcher played by Philippe Nahon : Carne , I Stand Alone and, in a cameo, Irréversible . All of Noé's feature films are shot by cinematographer Benoît Debie . The music for Irréversible
490-413: The Void , We Fuck Alone, Love and Climax were all considered controversial for their challenging sexual and violent imagery. Irreversible was hugely divisive amongst critics with journals such as Sight and Sound (UK) and Positif (France) allowing critics to openly voice their disagreements about the film. It caused substantial outrage in many countries for its central scene of rape, filmed in
525-601: The age of seven changed his life, without which experience he would never have become a director. A poster for the film features notably in a scene towards the end of Irreversible . Many of his movies feature all kind of film posters, which reflects his collection and passion for them. He's believed to be the owner of one of the three known copies of the rarest poster for M (1931 film) . Since Irréversible , he's kept working with French film poster designer Laurent Lufroy for all his feature films: Lufroy even appears in Love (as
560-481: The audience that they have 30 seconds to leave the cinema before the final violent climax. In a different way, this can be seen in Irreversible , in which the 10-minute long single-take rape sequence has frequently been read as an assault on viewers, as well as a depiction of an assault on the female character. Gaspar Noé and Lucile Hadžihalilović have repeatedly collaborated with each other on film projects. In
595-420: The cab driver doesn't know where Rectum is, Marcus attacks the driver, stealing his vehicle. The two end up finding Rectum, with Pierre reluctantly following behind Marcus. Leading the charge, Marcus proceeds to get into a fight with a man he suspects of being Le Ténia, who ends up breaking his arm before attempting to rape him. Pierre comes to his rescue and beats the man to death with a nearby fire extinguisher as
630-411: The culprit. They use an ID left at the scene by the prostitute to locate her. Marcus verbally assaults Concha, the prostitute, and threatens to cut her face open in order to gather that the rapist's name is Le Ténia ("the tapeworm ") and that he frequents a gay BDSM club called Rectum. The men are chased off by other prostitutes; Marcus and Pierre jump into a taxi cab and speed off into the night. When
665-405: The early 1990s, Noé co-founded the production company Les Cinémas de la Zone with Hadžihalilović. Noé operated the camera and was the cinematographer for two short films directed by Hadžihalilović: La Bouche de Jean-Pierre (1996) and Good Boys Use Condoms (1998). Similarly, Hadžihalilović produced and edited Carne (1991), edited Seul contre tous (1998) and was credited as a writer on Enter
700-426: The film was divided, with some critics panning the film and others considering it one of the year's best. The film holds an approval rating of 59% based on 126 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes , with an average rating of 6.10/10. The website's critics' consensus states: "Though well-filmed, Irréversible feels gratuitous in its extreme violence." The film received three votes in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll of
735-442: The gay club", as a means of showing "I didn't feel superior to gay people". Irréversible has been associated with a series of films defined as the cinéma du corps ("cinema of the body"), which according to Palmer includes: an attenuated use of narrative, assaulting and often illegible cinematography, confrontational subject material, and a pervasive sense of social nihilism or despair. Irréversible has also been associated with
SECTION 20
#1732780070712770-474: The greatest films and in 2016 was listed by critic Andreas Borcholte as one of the ten best films since 2000. Audience reactions to both the rape scene and the murder scene have ranged from appreciation of their artistic merits to leaving the theater in disgust. Newsweek 's David Ansen stated that "If outraged viewers (mostly women) at the Cannes Film Festival are any indication, this will be
805-414: The infamous nine-minute-long rape scene, portrayed in a single, unbroken shot. Noé said he had no idea how long the rape scene was going to last, as this was determined by Monica Bellucci , who essentially directed the scene, and Jo Prestia, who played her assailant. Noé stated in interviews that during the production of the film he used cocaine in order to help him carry the large cameras needed to capture
840-463: The man's companion, the actual rapist, watches in amusement. Marcus is carried out of Rectum on a stretcher while Pierre is arrested by police. Meanwhile, in a nearby small apartment, a man named the Butcher, the lead character of I Stand Alone , tells a friend that he was arrested for raping his daughter before dismissing the commotion going on outside. Director Gaspar Noé has a cameo as one of
875-463: The most walked-out-of movie of 2003." In the same review, Ansen suggested that the film displayed "an adolescent pride in its own ugliness". American film critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three stars out of a possible four. Ebert declared many viewers would find the film unwatchable due to the graphic violence, but he also proposed the film's structure makes it inherently moral rather than an exploitation film : "By placing
910-543: The party, Marcus gets drunk and takes cocaine, much to Alex's displeasure. She leaves the party, asking Pierre to look after Marcus. Alex descends into a red pedestrian underpass on her way back to the train when she notices a transgender prostitute getting attacked by a man. He immediately turns his attention to Alex, anally raping her before savagely beating her into unconsciousness. After Marcus and Pierre discover Alex being taken away by paramedics, they encounter street criminals Mourad and Layde, who offer to help them find
945-527: The patrons in the Rectum. Irréversible was originally titled as Danger . Gaspar Noé first found financing for the new title after he pitched the story to be told in reverse, in order to capitalize on the popularity of Christopher Nolan 's film Memento (2000). Irréversible was shot using a widescreen lightweight Minima Super16 mm camera. The film consists of about a dozen apparently unbroken shots melded together from hundreds of shots. This included
980-470: The rotating shots in the film. Computer-generated imagery was used in post-production for the penis in the rape scene. Another example is the scene where Pierre beats a man's face and crushes his skull with a fire extinguisher. CGI was used to augment the results, as initial footage using a conventional latex dummy proved unconvincing. During the first thirty minutes of its running time, the film uses an extremely low-frequency sound of 27 Hz to create
1015-431: The spectator's experience of a movie, in this case, deliberately making them uncomfortable (although this would only be experienced in a cinema setting as most home speakers would not emit such low frequencies). The film premiered in France on 22 May 2002 through Mars Distribution. It competed at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival . It was released in the United Kingdom on 31 January 2003 through Metro Tartan Distribution, and
1050-492: The ugliness at the beginning, Gaspar Noe forces us to think seriously about the sexual violence involved." Film critic David Edelstein argued " Irréversible might be the most homophobic movie ever made." Noé's depiction of gay criminal Le Tenia raping the female lead, Alex, remains the film's most controversial image. In his defense, Noé stated, "I'm not homophobic", noting "I also appear in Irréversible , masturbating at
1085-673: The world, I would have applied for a French one." Noé suffered a near fatal brain hemorrhage in early 2020, which partly inspired the plot of his film Vortex . Besides being a filmmaker, he is an occasional photographer. In 2013, Noé shot the cover art for American singer-songwriter Sky Ferreira 's debut album Night Time, My Time . Other celebrities, such as Agnès b. , Todd Solondz or Stacy Martin were shot by Gaspar Noé, as well as several models for erotic magazines. Many of Noé's films were polarizing or controversial with viewers due to their inclusion of graphic scenes of violence and sexual violence. I Stand Alone, Irreversible, Enter
Irréversible - Misplaced Pages Continue
1120-525: Was born on 27 December 1963 in Buenos Aires , Argentina. His father Luis Felipe Noé , is a notable Italian artist, writer, and intellectual. His father is of Italian descent , while his mother Nora Murphy is of Irish descent. He has a sister named Paula. He lived in New York City until age five, after which point his family returned to Argentina. In 1976, they emigrated to France to escape
1155-464: Was composed by Thomas Bangalter . The latter also sent Gaspar Noé a unreleased song he made circa 1995 for Climax. The song was named Sangria in reference to the movie. In collaboration with Saint Laurent , he directed films Lux Æterna and Saint Laurent - Summer of ‘21. Noé stated in the September 2012 edition of Sight & Sound magazine that seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey at
1190-1008: Was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Award by the Film Critics Circle of Australia. It was voted Best Foreign Language Film by the San Diego Film Critics Society, tied with The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions barbares) . Art film Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.133 via cp1102 cp1102, Varnish XID 568380417 Upstream caches: cp1102 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:47:50 GMT Gaspar No%C3%A9 Gaspar Noé ( Spanish: [gasˈpaɾ noˈe] , French: [ɡaspaʁ nɔ.e] ; born 27 December 1963)
1225-474: Was released in 2020. "Time destroys everything" ( French : "Le temps détruit tout" ). The film's main message which appears at the end of the original cut when the movie transitions to a strobe effect . "Time reveals everything" ( French : "Le temps révèle tout" ). In the Straight Cut , this message—which still appears at the end of the film—differs from the original. Alex and Marcus,
#711288