Irreversible

time destroys everything a brutal film. irreversible includes an incredibly awful and uncomfortable rape scene. before that scene, i actually found myself surprised. usually i dislike films that centre male rage in response to female abuse; it often feels deeply misogynistic for a film to prioritise portraying a man’s anger and desire to ‘protect’ over a woman’s trauma itself. this film though seemed to do it differently: the violence isn’t made to be heroic. marcus is volatile, immature and impulsive. his actions do not restore anything or bring justice, but create more pain and destruction. in contrast, pierre is positioned as the ‘good’ man: gentle, rational and genuinely wanting to care for alex. yet even his goodness is rendered futile, suggesting that moralilty offers no protection in a world shaped by irreversible violence. the rape scene though was when the film became unbearable. rape is notoriously difficult for cinema to handle: either its implied and risks minimising the extremity of the act, or its shown explicitly and risks crossing into exploitation. irreversible chooses the latter, and it’s hard to know where the line sits. the scene is relentless, prolonged and draining to watch. its arguably effective in conveying the horror (i felt physically sick afterwards), but also overwhelming to a point where it may be ethically wrong. noé’s handling of sex feels inseparable from his position as a male filmmaker, whose distance from the embodied reality of sexual violence becomes evident. the reverse chronology of the film is incredible though. after enduring the rape scene, the narrative moves backwards to alex before the attack. the sympathy emerges through the unbearable knowledge of what is going to be inflicted on her. seeing her happiness retrospectively intensifies the trauma, and noé’s decision to linger on her warmth, playfulness and relationships humanises her beyond a victim. this shift helps to pull the focus away from male anger and revenge, forcing the viewer to confront the cruelty of rape as something that destroys a life, and goes deeper than being a provocation of masculine violence. the structure redeems the film from slipping into explotation: the harshness of the rape scene make the subsequent moments hit with a devastating emotional impact. the effects of rape are truly irreversible, not for the men, whose pain we see briefly, but for the woman, whose life has been forever changed, as the memories linger like a shadow of what could’ve been and will never truly be again