IRREVERSIBLE

The more and more and more I think about it the more I realize how masterful the film "Irreversible" really is. It's easily the most affecting film I've ever seen, easily one of the best crafted films I've ever seen, easily one of the most heartbreaking films I've ever seen, and even after seeing "The Men Behind the Sun" is still one of the hardest films I've ever had to sit down and watch And it's . . .

. . . even harder to sit and watch it in 1 sitting on a large screen. It's horrifying and genuinely frightening and probably one of the best films I've ever seen because all the peices seem to fit. Even when I know what's coming next ever time I shutter. I'm watching scenes from it now, I know the directors newest film comes out in September and am trying to remember why I liked it, if I can use the word like. It's the most dehumanising and humanising film I've ever seen, it reminds you of true evil but reminds me of true happiness and that at any moment you're world can spin out of control and become "Irreversible", so cherishing ever moment is important, and valuing a true friend (that will smash a person's head in with a...). This film is not for children and probably not for adults either.It truely deserves it. It is a masterpiece.

So people have told me I need to be descriptive about why I love these films well here I go to the best of my ability. Irreversible sets you or more accurately spins you (the camera spins over and over ad nauseum, (No seriously if you watch it on a large screen you can get sea sick and possible if prone too it trigger epileptic seizures.) in the middle of the action. Two men go into a gay bar to find a man for 'revenge' what he did, we're not quite sure. But within the club the tension mounts as we sea in shades of red and out of the darkness homosexual men engaged in the most disturbing S&M acts imaginable. (Fisting, candle wax ext.) Until the tension mounts as out lead male (the boyfriend) starts getting impatient and attacks one of the bizarre homosexual men, causing others to gang up on him, and gang up on him until he violently lashing out against a man who breaks his arm and attempts to rape him while many other men from the club sit and cheer (cheer on the rapist that is, the rapist that would be raping our man MALE character) Still with me, this is the BEGINNING of the film!!! Then an amazing thing happens.

…

But I won't spoil it.

Thusly the camera spins , as the film plays each scene leading up til that one.

Scene 1: Hunting down the rapist

Scene 2 Searching for the rapist

So on and so forth until we the audience get to see the boyfriends reaction to his bloodied girlfriend being drug out from a subway alley covering in massive amounts of blood.

And then the rape. A 9 minute long, 0 cutaways unflinching look at a horribly violent rape in real time, to the point where at the end we aren't sure she's alive, and by the end of the movie we're still not.

But this is only the halfway point.

The scenes continue to play in a backwards order showing our main man, our man women, and a mutual platonic friend (the one who came to the rescue at the beginning) They show them at a party dancing like fools and doing drugs, then rewinds to them traveling by subway to the party, then eventually the film rewinds to the two lovers naked in bed smiling and living rather blissfully. And the most heartbreaking reveal about Monica's character is revealed. And the final shot is of Monica's character sitting out in a beautiful green grassed park, reading a book and spinning out of control.

Starting at the end of a horrible day, rewinding to the beginning of a beautiful morning.

The visual effects in the film are subtle and used while the camera spins, some of the nudity is fake and of course the rape is fake, but because you're so enraptured in the story you never ever seem to notice, even if you're a film buff like me starting right at it.

The music suites each scene it occupies, if it's supposed to disturb its mostly nodes and tonal sounds, and if it's a party scene it's bizarre techno dance music. By the same man from Daft Punk.

This film is 99.9 % shock value, and it works.