2002 French film
Irréversible (French: [iʁevɛʁsibl]) is a 2002 French art thriller film written, directed, and edited by Gaspar Noé, who also served as co-cinematographer with Benoît Debie. It depicts the events of one night in Paris as two men (Vincent Cassel and Albert Dupontel) attempt to avenge the brutal rape and beating of the woman they love (Monica Bellucci).
The film is made up of a title sequence followed by 14 segments made to look like long takes, each of which is either a continuous shot or a series of shots digitally composited to resemble a continuous shot. The story is told in reverse order.
Theatrically released in France, the United Kingdom and the United States, Irréversible competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival where around 200 people walked out of the screening. It won the Bronze Horse at the Stockholm International Film Festival. Critical reception was polarised, with praise towards the performances and Noé's direction, but criticism towards its graphic portrayal of violence and rape. American film critic Roger Ebert called Irréversible "a movie so violent and cruel that most people will find it unwatchable".
A recut version of the film putting the narration in chronological order, Irreversible: Straight Cut (French: Irréversible – Inversion intégrale), was screened in 2019 at the 76th annual Venice International Film Festival. This was later released in US theatres on a limited run in 2023.
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.