Irreversible is a 2002 French psychological thriller drama film written and directed by Gaspar Noé. Starring Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, and Albert Dupontel, it depicts the events of a tragic night in Paris as two men attempt to avenge the brutal rape and beating of the woman they love. The film is told in reverse order, with each scene taking place chronologically before the one that precedes it.
The film opens with an old man and another man sitting on a bed in an apartment building. The old man talks about why he was in prison (he slept with his daughter).
The camera then pans out the window to a gay club called “The Rectum”. The police have arrived and they are wheeling out a person that has obviously been assaulted. People seem to be yelling and swearing at the person on the stretcher.
Then, there is a flashback to two men frantically searching in “The Rectum” for a man whose name is “La Tenia”. It is unclear at this point who La Tenia is. One of the men is the person who was being carried out of the club before. He asks around to the guys in the gay club, but nobody will answer. Instead, the people ask him to perform sexual acts on them. Eventually, the man searching for La Tenia finds a man whom he thinks is La Tenia and the other man smashes his face in with a fire extinguisher, killing him.
The film flashes back again to a street. Prostitutes are standing on corners. The two men who were in the club, whose names are revealed to be Pierre and Marcus, are asking to find a man named Guillermo Nunez. They are referred to a prostitute named Concha, who is actually a male transvestite, who knows where La Tenia is. He refuses to tell and they beat him. Concha reveals that he is in The Rectum.
The film flashes back to Pierre and Marcus leaving a party. They walk outside and the police are wheeling a body out of a tunnel. Marcus identifies the woman as his girlfriend, Alex. She has been brutally beaten and is unconscious. A man approaches Marcus and asks him if he wants revenge. Marcus replies yes.
The film flashes back again to the party. Alex, Marcus, and Pierre socialize with friends. Marcus is drunk and under the influence of drugs. After Marcus acts inappropriately, Alex leaves. She tries to get a taxi but is unable to. A prostitute recommends taking the underground walkways because they are safer. After she enters it, she sees La Tenia threatening prostitute Concha with a knife. As he sees Alex, he lets her go and grabs Alex, afterward raping and beating her brutally (in a long nine-minute, difficult-to-watch scene). During the act, a person appears in the background and disappears. It’s the same man who will tell Marcus where to find La Tenia.
Further back in time, Alex, Pierre, and Marcus walk in the subway to get to the party. It is revealed that Pierre was originally Alex’s boyfriend, but Marcus is her new boyfriend. Pierre does not seem to have any problem with that.
Flashing back to a couple hours before, Marcus and Alex are lying in their bed just after they woke up. Pierre calls and lets them know that his car has broke down and they have to take the subway instead. After Marcus leaves to buy some liquor, Alex finds out that she is pregnant with Marcus’ child.
In the final scene, (in another flashback to a day earlier) Alex sits in a park reading a book while children play. She is completely unaware of her uneventful fate. The scene fades into flashing strobe lights and shows a final slide saying LE TEMPS DETRUIT TOUT (time destroys all things) and the movie ends, revealing that this entire film took place in reverse time.
But why is the movie played to us in reverse?
Well, each of the actions we see in each of the scenes is irreversible. And every step leads to something that can’t be changed. We’re first shown a murder which we evaluate at face-value as something that is terrible. We don’t know at that point that this was an act of revenge. As the film proceeds, we soon understand that it is an act to avenge someone. Then we learn that it was because of Alex who was brutally assaulted. The film starts with an ending where the perpetrator escapes, Marcus and Pierre are taken in. The mid of the movie shows an assault that changes everyone lives. As the film carries forward, we are told the more peaceful, cheerful times. As we see these scenes, we already know the dreadful fate of the trio. Just like in the book that Alex is reading, we already know that their future is set in stone. That it is irreversible. All will be lost. And the final piece that hits us is that Alex was pregnant.
I’m not sure why all the strobe flickering at the end but that scene, too, ends with “Time Ruins Everything”. It does for the trio. The film is a tragedy which ends on a happy note because of its non-linear storytelling.
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