Written by Max Thornton as part of our theme week on Rape Revenge Fantasies.
This piece contains spoilers.
Confession: I didn’t actually rewatch Irreversible before writing this piece. Back in 2007, it was included in an A.V. Club article on “24 Great Films Too Painful To Watch Twice,” and if I was ever going to try to prove that piece wrong, it certainly wouldn’t be during the most important week in my religion’s calendar. (Rape revenge movies are kind of the antithesis of Jesus in basically every respect.)
But I feel no real need to rewatch this movie, because one viewing is all it took to sear it into my memory. Gaspar Noé’s second feature is a technically superb film, with a hook that would snag any cinephile: it happens backwards, with the scenes occurring in reverse chronological order. Like any rape revenge movie, this is a nasty, brutal film, telling a nasty, brutal story – and it does so deliberately, brilliantly, and harrowingly.
It’s probably fair to say that most rape revenge films have a female character doing the revenge part, whether it’s the rape survivor herself (as in I Spit on Your Grave) or her friend/relative (as in Last House on the Left), which makes the questions of morality, agency, message, and point of identification extremely complex (and no doubt my esteemed colleagues will have some incisive comments about this as the week goes on). There are elements of wish-fulfillment in the rape survivor’s violent vengeance – Carol J. Clover’s Men, Women, and Chainsaws is, of course, the classic text on the gendered complexities of viewer identification in films of this kind – and this entails all the moral quandaries of any grim fantasy: is it catharsis or titillation? Empowerment or exploitation?
In Irreversible, though, there’s no question of empowerment or catharsis, because here it’s a man who does the revenge as well as a man who does the rape. Monica Bellucci, as the film’s ostensible protagonist, doesn’t actually get to do a whole lot apart from get horrendously assaulted and viciously beaten. Her partner’s bloody revenge isn’t cathartic or gratifying for the viewer at all, not only because it’s not carried out by the survivor of the rape (nor, it turns out, against the actual rapist), but also because we see it before we see the rape.
In this way, Irreversible deconstructs the ethically dubious pleasures of the rape revenge genre through its structure as well as its plot. Its reverse chronology inverts the formula of rape-then-revenge, thereby robbing the viewer of any sense, however questionable, of justice done, and subverting the whole economy of violence.
To drive this point home, the vengeance takes place in a male gay bar, underscoring the total absence of female agency in this story. Men have all the agency here, and everything they do is awful. Women qua humans are irrelevant to the characters and the actions they take, whether those actions are nominally on behalf of them or against them.
Unfortunately, the final scene unintentionally reinforces the very dehumanization of women that the rest of the film so trenchantly unveils. The revelation that Bellucci’s character is pregnant serves only as a cheap additional twist of the knife, making her even more of a cipher by essentializing her to an incubator. It’s unnecessary, and only there to make an already devastatingly nasty film even more devastating. It’s a bit of emotional manipulation that weakens my ability to perform a feminist reading of the film, because it doesn’t let the awful violations of the protagonist be awful just because she’s, you know, a human being. Suddenly they’re extra awful because she had a BABBY inside her, and now her value as baby-maker/incubator is diminished. For the most part, Irreversible is deliberately grueling and horrible as an attempt to convey some of the true awfulness of a rape victim’s experience, but the choice to end the film on this moment seems to send the message that it was especially bad for both Bellucci and her partner because they were about to be a happy heteronormative family, which would have enabled her to find true fulfillment as a woman!!1
Despite this regrettable choice of ending, Irreversible is a valuable deconstruction of rape-revenge tropes. It’s an excruciating experience, but a crucial one for anybody interested in cinematic portrayals of sexual violence.
________________________________________
Max Thornton blogs at Gay Christian Geek, tumbles as trans substantial, and is slowly learning to twitter at @RainicornMax.
Exceptional review. Painful film. Brilliant pictures. 😉
i’m
going to have to disagree with your take on the ending. (especially in
light of Noe’s subsequent film Enter the Void). I see how you read the
pregnancy as a reinforcement of heteronormativity. BUT – I don’t think
the main target of the film is to disrupt such categories – it is
concerned with rape/violence perpetuated by men, and with
narrative/aesthetic structure, as you point out. One of the narrative
elements, normally, WOULD be a contiguous collateral implication like a
child. This is a common premise for generic narrative to affect
concern/investment in the audience. That this film is upending these
narratives, it is no surprise then, that such a “twist” (but not a
twist, for its at the ‘beginning’) occurs.
Also,
considered apart from these implications, the conceived child is
utilized by Noe to feed into the image of the 2001: A Space Odyssey
movie poster. This image is of the “Starchild” of the Kubrick film, the
glowing fetus in space that may (the finale is ambiguous)( represent the
dawning of a new humanity/evolution/whatever, a creation that will
shift from one epoch to a new epoch. So, in Irreversible, this paradigm
shift of narrative/form/, shift of rape/fantasy construction, is
disturbingly PREVENTED by the central rape. Irreversibly, the attempt of
transition fails.
I really don’t understand why is this why does people need to do this? Women are deserved to be respected and since we cannot predict what will happen next we must be alert and secure bring safety with you at http://bit.ly/1nctEuL.this is a protection that can be install to your cell phone ten it can re easily routed to the nearest 911 if needed hope this will be a big help.
As for me, Sex Offenders and Child molesters are everywhere. You’ll never know when are they going to attack you or your loved one’s. But as for me? I feel great because I already found a cool application that manages my safety and my family as well. This application is named Safekidzone..Whenever you’re in trouble you can actually press that Panic Button and your exact GPS coordinates will be sent over to their system and they will know where you are. They also got what we call a Safety Profile wherein you can upload your recent picture and any information about you. Whenever there is a real emergency, they can route it over to the nearest 9-1-1 center based on your GPS location. So essentially, responders will take less time in getting there because they know where you are. And of course, they will know what you look like.. For further knowledge about this application?, just simply click this link:
http://safekidzone.com/a_aid=5328991a0b72c
Netflix picked this film for me. I ask myself am I type of woman who enjoys watching a movie that features a brutal rape scene? What kind of woman am I? I did not enjoy the scene . I covered my eyes and when he banged her head on the cement floor, I cried . Somewhere deep inside me I found humor , not in the rape , but in the absurd ness of the rapist’s giant penis . If this had been an American film , he would not have been endowed like a porn star. I thought that brilliant producer must have a very very tiny penis and this is his way of making himself feel like a real man. What I find funny, not haha , is that the boyfriend is actually a complete asshole . He’s selfish , always broke and he’s a pig , he clearly is out of his league with Alex . The old boyfriend was no better , acting like a typical man who is only more interested in a woman the more she shuns him . I think the fact that she was pregnant made the idea of the two of them living this perfect life a fairy tale for her, but really , he’s too immature , do you really think that he is daddy material? I will be thinking about this film for a long time and reprocessing my thoughts . I don’t think that the emphasis should have been just on the rape scene , I think that the underlying story is that men cannot be trusted and no matter how beautiful or honest or genuine of a woman you are to them , they will find a way to spoil anything good you think that you might somehow deserve . I’m not a man hater , just a realist .