gaspar noe's 'irreversible'

now to begin with i would like to mention a friend told me about this film and he said that there's a great scene in an alleyway where you see a couple shag from start to finish. he was almost right, if you count an anal rape scene as a 'great shag'. but i'll get to that later.

first off i want to mention how impressive i thought the movie was from an editing perspective. most of the scenes are shot in a single sweep, although at some points you can tell that digital post production was used when an actor may of cocked up half way through a 12 minute scene. the free flowing feel to the construction is certainly impressive and it almost puts the 11 minute battle field scene in cuaron's 'children of men' to shame in respects to choreography. as to the structure of the film, if you've seen momento then you'd understand how this movie plays.

i have a feeling many people seeing irreversible would say something along the lines 'they've used the same idea as momento', when interestingly it's actually the other way round. momento was a hollywood film using french cinematic techniques and genres; by this i mean the noir genre and a non linear plot line. this plot structure was first used in american cinema properly by tarantino in pulp fiction, where the story doesn't simply progress from start to end, but jumps about from one part to another. well momento and irreversible took it one step further and flipped the whole film round. the major difference between momento and irreversible though is that noe didn't want to make the film too accessible to the public. in momento when one scene ends it finishes on the start of the previous scene. in irrevesible it stops at exactly when the previous scene started, which at times means you have to sit there and think 'now is this the same scene or the next one?'

now from structure to camera work. simply put, it's insane. the first three of four minutes has the audience watching the camera spin round and round, rolling and looping through an alleyway. in fact for the first half of the film this is pretty much how the camera operates. it was a technique specifically chosen by noe to create nausea in the audience, think of that running scene in blair witch and you'll know what i mean. later on in the film the camera starts to stabilise in conjunction with the plot. unlike most films where the climax is obviously at the end noe has it right at the start, a scene so violent and perverse it verges on exploitation. although thats not to say its the worst scene, thats about 40 minutes in.

the camera works in reaction to the events on scene, the more sane and less disturbing it becomes, the more the cameraman starts to level out shots. after watching the whole film it's easy to see why noe reversed the plot line. by the end of the film the sweet and realistic conversation between marcus and his girlfriend alex helps the audience forget about the barbaric events. well, up until the point where marcus jokes to alex 'i want to fuck you in the arse', then all the imagery comes flooding back.

if this film was flimed linear then i think there would of been even more walk outs from cannes then there was (200 our of 2400 people). nausea in the film as i've already discussed was used through insane camera work, the events on screens and even one more aspect, one which i thought would of actually been banned. for the first 30 minutes of the film noe uses a sound frequency which is often heard during earthquakes, it also is a sound that makes people fill nauseous. the only other example of such a sound being used in a film that i know of was resident evil. marilyn manson was the sound man for the film, and he used brown noise throughout the film, along with low frequency soundwaves to make the audience feel a big 'queasy'.

in essence i wouldn't say this film was for the kids, or any normal movie goer. you need to be in the right mind frame for this film, sadistic would be the best explanation. if you want to see exactly how far you can blur the line between pornography, exploitation and necessary on screen events then is the right sort of film. as i said in my last blog, i've watched it once before but i never ever ever will again. that's not to say i don't respect the film.

it's a masterpiece, of the marquis de sade variety, but a masterpiece still.