benthelazar Say you were reading a novel. The reputation of this novel preceded it, it had been called one of the most intense ever written. The novel is 11 chapters long, and those chapters are only one or two long protracted sentences each. The second to last chapter is beautiful and brilliant. It recontextualizes the chapters that preceded it, and is so perfectly written that it feels like a privilege that you get to read it. But the remaining ten chapters ranged from pointless to artistically and morally inexcusable. Would you still read the novel?Gaspar Noe's Irreversible consists of 11 scenes, many of them seemingly filmed in one take. It is one of the most self indulgent films I've seen. It fails to make any point or to have any meaningful aesthetic; instead it simply exists to show that Noe could make a film like this. This is the greatest sin a film can commit. It's fine to make bold visionary films, it's fine to make films as unpleasant as this. But to make them for ego, and not for characters, ideas, stories or images is reprehensible.Irreversible is a vigilante movie at it's core. The success of this genre hinges on the audience knowing what is being avenged. We don't learn what is being avenged until scene 10, and it is beautiful, and we are forced to think "was the previous hour worth it?" I don't think it was. By structuring the film the way he has, Noe has robbed us of any characterization or motivation-we are left with ugly senseless violence that has the emotional impact of watching pigeons squabble on the street. And the movie still has the gall to think this will hurt us. Obviously a ten minute rape scene will be shocking. It does not take skill to make this.Maybe the pointlessness is Noe's point. Maybe this is an anti reactionary, anti violence movie. The racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and violence shown here ultimately are so useless one could draw the conclusion that the movie is telling us to stay away from these modes in times where we crave revenge. But honestly, I just have no reason to care. I have no reason to think about this movie any more.

Jennifer The camera-work intensifies the feeling of dread. If you are prone to motion sickness, you would be well-served to take a Dramamine before watching it. It was difficult to watch the scene in the club when the man is beaten with a fire hydrant. I felt like I was watching a snuff film. It was too intense and I had to avert my eyes. The sounds were horrible enough. The story line drew me in, though, and I had to continue watching. Some people have commented that the rape scene was too long, but I believe that was necessary for the realism. As the movie continues the scenes backwards, I felt that style of filming worked perfectly. It was easy enough to follow as all the scenes were connected completely. The ending was filled with surreal images. This movie is not for the faint of heart and definitely for mature audiences only.

Musicgenie I bought Irreversible out of curiosity as media colleagues of mine always bang on about it. I've seen some violent films in my time, and always try to keep an open mind. For example the film 'Funny Games', the original version is as brutal as it gets. Throughout this film you can identify with the 2 culprits and you learn about why they behave so brutally. You are brought into their world, whether you like it or not. Within Irreversible, In some ways you can identify with Alex and Marcus, you may like them,you may not,or you just don't feel anything. Out of all the characters in the film, I didn't like Marcus for some reason, are we supposed to think he is to blame for the brutal the attack on Alex ? The rest of the film just left me numb and bored. By the end all I could think was, what's the point ? Most of the male Characters are assholes, all the women are treated like objects, even Marcus treats Alex like a piece of meat. I just felt it was trying to be shocking without any real point or subject matter. The pitch bend LFO during the club attack scene was grating and distracting. It just seemed to be there for the sake of it. I'm a composer and sound designer. I personally felt it didn't fit in with the rest of the film. There was little if any music elsewhere, and the film was more like a screenplay. Over one night 3 people's lives changed forever, all we really know about the characters are one was a beautiful woman, one of them drank and took drugs as well as treated his girlfriend badly, the 3rd person asked weird questions about people's sex lives whilst appointing himself protector of women. Violence for the sake of it without really exploring any purpose. Maybe that was the whole point ? In order to somehow be shocking, when actually it lacked substance. I was bored and nearly turned the film off.

Gazes_Shall_Collide First of all, don't be fooled; this movie is nothing near shocking. This movie is a really poor work of ''art'' compared to movies like A Serbian Film. It's absolutely homophobic, which is well depicted through the obnoxious main character, Marcus, and the deviant nature of trans and homosexual folks shown in the movie. The character development is so poor that I felt no sympathy for any of the laughable main characters.The only thing shocking about this movie is the awful shaky camera that got me a headache. Overall, don't waste your time on this false ''art''.