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Last year, Gaspar Noe's unbelievable film Irreversible was released. Being that I live in America and I don't often have the chance to hit up big time film festivals around the country, it took me a bit of time before I managed to catch it. Was it worth the wait? I think so. In fact, I think that in terms of the technical side of film, Irreversible is one of the best films I’ve seen in the past two years or more. The camera is unbelievable here-- it matches very well the emotions experienced by the characters on screen, and it matches the situations and sets as well. But we’ll get into all that later...because you’re wondering what it’s about, I’m sure. If you haven’t heard of it, Irreversible is a rather simple revenge story that is told through a method similar to that of Memento-- reverse chronological order. The difference is that where in Memento, each reversed scene led directly into the scene previously shown. Irreversible only goes back in time enough to show us the meat of earlier events-- it doesn’t need to show absolutely everything, just what we need to know. Of course it’s far less complex than Memento and thus this is more than acceptable. Marcus is Alex’s lover. Alex and Pierre used to be lovers. Pierre and Marcus and Alex are all great friends. Le Tenia, a man who we can only assume is some kind of underground drug dealer or thug, rapes Alex and beats her. Marcus seeks revenge, with Pierre helplessly trailing behind him as his pleading with Marcus to stop do nothing but fuel his friend’s lust for retribution further. Lost you yet? Yeah I didn’t think so. What makes this movie memorable and remarkable is that it’s willing to show off the harsh realities of cold-blooded revenge, and it isn’t afraid of showing us more than ten minutes of Monica Bellucci being violated by a sick, twisted human being. Irreversible has two of the harshest scenes committed to celluloid in recent years, and those two scenes in concert with great performances, great acting, and great cinematography make this film great.
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