2002
Directed by Gaspar Noe
Honestly, I didn't even know if I could write a review for this film. We all know by now I hate rape scenes in movies, and this film contains one of the most drawn out, disgusting rapes in cinematic history. It is also extremely homophobic, and given the recent events in Orlando, I don't even want to think about this movie. I guess I will give this shot, but I might end rather abruptly if I get too emotional.
Our story is told in reverse chronological order. I believe this was done to give the movie some semblance of artistic integrity, but Roger Ebert said it was done so that we would be forced to confront the act of revenge first, and thus see its consequences more clearly. In any case, Alex is brutally raped in a ten minute scene and her boyfriend and friend attempt to get revenge on the rapist.
I have no respect for filmmakers whose purpose is to make their audience members ill (see Interesting Facts section). Shocking and disturbing audiences is easy. Creating something beautiful and moving is obviously the more difficult task. Why are we praising this guy? I read that he was scared that people would think he was homophobic (gee, I wonder why?) so he filmed a cameo of himself masturbating in the gay club. I am not even sure what to say about that one.
This isn't even a fun movie to rant about and I am so disgusted I have to stop there.
RATING: -----
Interesting Facts:
The first 30 minutes of the film has a background noise with a frequency of 28 Hz, which causes nausea and vertigo in humans.
Sounds awful, thankfully this wasn't in my edition of the book. I had a similar experience a couple of days ago with a film called The Club, about a group of priests sent to a remote house in Chile after being involved with child abuse. It describes their actions in very graphic detail, absolutely horrifying and beyond what I'd consider acceptable for a fictional film, I had to turn it off. It sounds like Irreversible and this are similar in terms of a director and writer wanting to shock viewers to the point of feeling ill, I bet The Club will also be in the next edition of the book for that reason.
ReplyDeleteOh god, I hope not, as I plan on completing all the editions. That inclusion alone might stop me from pulling that off.
DeleteSo, a gayman savegely rapes a lady just to proof his manliness or just because he's oviously a pervert. Geez, that's so original! I think it was never used in a movie!
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget that the female star is just there to be raped and get pregnant. That's all we need to know from her. Homophobia and misogyny... I think the director was not bold enough. He could have cast a black man as the rapist and achive the Triple Crown of Bigotry adding racism to the mix.
As you say, Amanda, making a film that's insulting to easy targets like female, homosexual or non-white people is easy - the vast majority of films do it. Making something beautiful is hard.
Oh, silly me! I forgot the Chinese taxi driver. Yes, undoubtly the movie has it all.
ReplyDeleteUgh, I know. And I can totally picture the justifications that the filmmakers have but it's like 120 Days of Sodom. Admit it, you just wanted to make something perverse for perversion's sake.
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