Irreversible

Openings are the cinematic dictionary, defining thematic text. Aggravated Hitchcockian text greet the audience at a dutch angle; credits following behind. At Twenty-eight hertz: Dizzing cinematography sends us spiraling back in time. Everything is distorted: grained, continuously tumbling, vertigo-inducing rotation hurl the audience into a filthy, hyper-sexual world with no regards for what’s socially acceptable or even humane. Two men blast their way through a club in order to clench a revenge-fueled thirst following the deterioration of mortality caused by an undesirable exploitation of someone they loved; all ignited by aggressive ultra-violet lights. Pupils widening, the audience tries to collect the sweaty, blood soaked events through swelling nausea. They are sent spiraling back in time again: collecting all the information of the night, with none of the aggression settling down until.. Silence. A woman walks out of a building, calling for a taxi. She waits patiently, noticed by woman standing nearby: *"Take the underpass. It's safer." * Following the helpful directions; she enters the underpass revealed by neon signs before being greeted by aggressive ultra-violet lights; between which lie charcoal shadows. The audience, pulse echoing in the silence, grip their seats as they experience the unrecognizable ‘fear of the known’… Everything is clear: unshaken, unmoved cinematography leaves no room for interpretation. No room to turn back. You decided to walk down the red halls. Now you much bare witness. Ten minutes registers like a thousand years in the underbelly; a woman is tortured, her body rendered a tool to channel the aggression of powerlessness. Growls of class wave between trauma-clogged ears as a shadowy figure approaches from behind, but just as quickly as they were there — they vanished. There are no saviors in the underbelly. The audience sits shaken, covered in an emotional filth: the proceeding brutality almost blurring, their hand never resting unclenched, praying for the culprit to endure equal brutality that we already knew they received. Even after the devil exit’s, the demon never leaves; the audience is left in a cold sweat. That’s just the opening. The rest is a learning experience. A woman was destroyed tonight all because she was forced to walk the streets alone because the men in her life weren’t treating her right. A woman who had a life; was about to produce life. A woman who loved. A woman who lived like anyone else. Through that, we get a glimpse of the life she can no longer live. Bright sundresses, a child playing in a field, casually reading on a blanket in a cool breeze; a woman at peace. “Time destroys everything.” *Time is irreversible. *