the audience applauded

So much average

Memorable, crazy movie

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Sounds like a bunch of USC film grads are writing these "10" rated reviews. Absolute garbage "film marking". They keep saying it's "Honest"....there's something very NOT-HONEST about making a film purely to intentionally disturb the viewers (their words.) An anal rape scene in a hallway....yeah ok...disturbing...but only because the "filmmaker" felt he needed to put it in a film. Besides all the BS propaganda "disturbing" crap....there's soooooo much useless dialogue...in every scene. It just goes on and on and on like each scene will never end...and for no reason besides stretching each scene to make this garbage "film" longer. The camera work...OMG. Let me just take a camera and jump from one actor to the next so you can't focus on the really crap set design and call it "ground breaking". Give me a break. If you're into artsy-crap movies then I'm sure you'll love this and be forever changed and always look back on this as THE GREATEST FILM since...well....since EVER. But if you're not one of these film school grads that will never make anything beyond there silly little short films (that they think will change the world) then you'll absolutely hate this GARBAGE.

Film Review: "Irreversible" (2002) - Taking on a bizarre approach of mixing conceptions of "Eyes Wide Shut" (1999) and "Memento" (2000) to make this picture work for itself in casting real-life married couple Monica Bellucci & Vincent Cassel to portray two Parisian middle class people, Alex & Marcus, going out for party at their friend's. Director Gaspar Noé, frequent guest in Cannes Film Festival's competition since his first feature "I Stand Alone" (1998), polarizes the 55th edition of Cannes with his also originally written film "Irreversible".The editorial intervenes scene by scene in reverse story-telling, exposing one night in Paris for the couple Alex & Marcus, who got separated over a minor dispute to fatal consequences for both characters, which all-time controversial representation of urban underpath rape of the character of Alex, who has not been prepared for a predator of the Parisian underworld with a free path of finishing his business of leaving behind the empty shell of Alex.Director Gaspar Noé gives his main characters no chance of conciliation, seeking no balance nor preaches any mercy that film becomes downhill and out experience, which nevertheless shares some over-stylish camera motions by Cinematographer Benoît Debie and honest acting by the at times over-enthusiastic couple Bellucci & Cassel, who hardly stand a chance to come full circle with their characters of an otherwise weak-on-suspense script that lives from the sensation-mongering violent explosions at the beginning plus the previously mentioned storyline's climatic scene, which at today's standards needed metal objects pushed into human flesh, blood on snow white skin and a limping rapist to come close to even with the audience.What is left of a so-called scandal film of the year 2002 is another acting couple after Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor in "Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolf" (1966), Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman in "Eyes Wide Shut" (1999) and then the not-as-close to a classic considered "Irreversibel", where only a "Memento" (2000) copycat gimmick of telling the story backwards saves the picture from a total fall-out due to cliché-striving screenplay of expected relationship quarrels following into one false move of carelessness, which should have been just taking the cab for woman in an evening dress to get home at night.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

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.

You know? The thing I most value when I am watching a movie is the chance that catharsis could happen. Something that happens in very few occasions but something that I chase frequently. Then there are the movies that leave me lukewarm, which are the majority. Then there is Irreversible, which provoked in me something resembling an anti-catharsis. I would never have imagined such a rejection for a movie, such a feeling of dirt. Did the movie want to explore the limits of cinema? He succeeded but at the expense of cinematography. I would encourage anyone to ignore such a bad taste movie. The end is not justified. The means are not such. There is controversy and morbid about this film but it has nothing to do with art, I think.