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Revolting, graphic
Gaspar Noe's Irreversible works as an aversion therapy
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Arthur J Pais
Never mind how revolting you find the violence in Irreversible and how sickening the nearly ten-minute rape scene is, don't leave the theatre halfway through the movie.
If you do, you would know only the dark, animal part of the film and not the whole experience, warns Gaspar Noe, the soft-spoken director of the French film.
At Cannes, many walked out of the screening of his film which, depending on who you are listening to, is either a pervert work pretending to be art or a scary artistic work, which 39-year-old Noe says can also work as an 'aversion therapy'.
At the recent Toronto international film festival, there were hardly any walkouts, as most of the critics and moviegoers had heard about the film. They had come to see whether it really deserved to be called a visionary work of art.
Many closed their eyes or shielded them with their fingers during a prolonged sequence which probably lasted over ten minutes, in which a transvestite is beaten up without pause. They were many eyes half shut during the rape scene, too. Several people also hissed, one woman screaming obscenities at the screen. "Kick him there, kick him in the &#%$," she screamed. "Don't let him get away with it, girl."
Several critics including the leftist freebie weekly Now and Toronto Star thought the film was pretentious. How is that the camera which works feverishly during the opening scenes remains almost static during the rape scene, one critic wanted to know.
The film, coproduced the mainstream French movie company Canal Plus, opens with series of violent scenes, including the rape in the Paris subway. It goes backward, in a way like the other arthouse hit Memento did, and ends with glorious scenes of happiness.
Noe says his cinematic approach helps people gradually understand the reason for the relentless violence in the opening sequences. And it leaves them with thoughts of happiness.
Actress Monica Bellucci who is seen in Irreversible with her real life partner Vincent Cassel, too has justified in many interviews the length and graphic nature of the rape scene.
In Toronto, Noe said he hopes to have the film released in North America without submitting it for a rating, which means no scene will be cut. It also means many newspapers will not run the ads for it. "My film shows the rape scene as the worst power trip one can think of," he said at the press events in Toronto. He also said the violence in the film is not exploitative like the action scenes in American films.
"The American war movies in particular are much more dangerous than something like Irreversible," he said. "They use the weapons and exercise of power."
Noe, who is mild-mannered and shies away from the cameras, said his film was a "visceral piece of work."
Just because some people walked out of his film does not make it pervert or its violence gratuitous: "It doesn't mean those people hate the film," he said. "It means they just could not handle its emotions."
Ultimately, he said, his film had therapeutic values. "My film is more likely to cool down anybody who might contemplate rape or violence."