2002
Director: Gaspar Noé
Writer: Gaspar Noé
Stars: Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel
IMDb rating: **********
My rating: *****
In the course of one traumatic night in Paris, events unfold in reverse-chronological order as Alex (Bellucci) is raped and beaten by a perfect stanger in an underpass. Exacting revenge is her boyfriend and ex-lover, Marcus (Cassel) and Pierre (Dupontel). The entire story is told backwards which means that each sequence starts at that moment where the next sequence ends, so there is a lot of thinking and remembering involved but that’s no problem as there is not a dull moment in the entire movie, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time asking myself questions only to have them answered by the next scene. All of the dialogue in the film was improvised, the actors where told what they had to talk about, but not how to say it which makes me worship the film and the director even more.
This film is everything I wanted it to be and more, the first 30 minutes of the film has a background noise with a frequency of 28Hz, similar to the noise produced by earthquakes. It is barely audible to humans but it causes nausea, sickness and vertigo. It was the main cause of people walking out of theatres during he first part of the film and when I read this fact I thought about how I felt during the first part of the film and I remember feeling confused, slightly dazed and a little bit sick but I just put it down to the wild camera movements and shocking scenes. Talking of camera movements I couldn’t have been more impressed, the movie seems to glide from one scene to another, there are no cuts, just one big sequence in every scene.
It starts off with a brutal murder in a gay s&m club which you soon learn to be called ‘The Rectum’, which turns out to have been a genuine club in Paris. As the movie unfolds and previous events become apparent you learn why the murder took place and the cause of such hatred and anger. During the last scenes you can’t help but feel overwhelming sadness for Alex, in what should be a happy scene you feel nothing but heartache. If the film had been in chronological order it would be nowhere near as hard-hitting as it is, and not nearly as exciting, the director is a genius and has revolutionised french cinema. Yes of course there is nudity and really really horrible parts that almost made me look away, such as the 20 minute rape scene which again was all done in one take. I worship these actors for their perfect portrayal and just flawless acting in this movie, Vincent Cassel is a true legend for the overwhelming anger and sorrow and his ending (or beginning) blasé attitude.
The tagline “Le temps détruit tout”, meaning “Time destroys everything” is the first phrase spoken and the last phrase written.
Another fun fact, in “An Experiment in Time”, which Alex is reading during the last (chronologically first) sequence in the film, J.W. Dunne ponders the existence of a ‘time-travelling observer’, which in dreams can move backwards or forwards in time to observe events which may not have yet happened. These are the ‘premonitory dreams’ which Alex mentions to Marcus and Pierre in an earlier (chronologically later) scene. Alex describes such a dream to Marcus, where she is in a red ‘tunnel’ which breaks in two.
This film is a beautiful and horrible example of how cause and effect can destroy people and lives and how time destroys everything.
FILMSTUDIES 