Last night, I went to see this movie. It is one of the most homophobic, sickening, outrageous, manipulative, vile films I have ever laid eyes on, but I was determined, having paid my $9 and seeing it as a kind of test, to sit through it. During both the violent headbashing in the gay sex bar and the interminable, excruciating rape scene (9 minutes), I covered my eyes (and at one point, because the woman's screams were getting to me, my ears). The swirling camera and the soundscape also were pushing me towards nausea. It is really something else--I can't think of another film I've seen that pushes so many wrong buttons, though "Dancer in the Dark" and "Baise-Moi" come close.

I am surprised that GLAAD hasn't come out against it, since it appears to blame a gay pimp named the Tapeworm (La Ténia) for one of the two central atrocities, and also presents a grotesque portrait of a French gay sex club and trans prostitutes. But perhaps they just haven't gotten wind of it yet or are just not going to be bothered to raise a ruckus. Doing so might actually help Noé bring in more viewers, so maybe their silence is best, though I'm not sure. I saw "I Stand Alone," his horrific film about an extreme right-wing French butcher who beats his pregnant wife and sleeps with his daughter, so I guess I should have known...and that character appears in the prologue to this film....

[ March 15, 2003, 10:39 PM: Message edited by: fantomas ]

I've read some reviews of this which have mentioned the scene in the gay club but haven't heard the film described as homophobic. These reviews weren't in gay publications, though, so there's no way to know if the reviewers were anything other than straight.

I went out to dinner on Friday night and the guy to my left was talking about. It's not showing in CT as yet but when I do, I'll definately go check it out...

Similar to Memento but more violent...

Interestingly, Ebert gave it 3 stars, although he prefaces his review with this:

""Irreversible" is a movie so violent and cruel that most people will find it unwatchable.

The camera looks on unflinchingly as a woman is raped and beaten for several long, unrelenting minutes, and as a man has his face pounded in with a fire extinguisher, in an attack that continues until after he is apparently dead. That the movie has a serious purpose is to its credit but makes it no more bearable. Some of the critics at the screening walked out, but I stayed, sometimes closing my eyes, and now I will try to tell you why I think the writer and director, Gaspar Noe, made the film in this way."

I think I'll pass.

Ebert and Roeper both gave it "thumbs up" today. Neither mentioned the homophobia, though both pointed out the racial stereotypes in the new Queen Latifah-Steve Martin movie. I wonder if the steady tide of homophobic epithets and the movie's fixation on anal sex just flew by them?

\"Irreversible\" might be the most homophobic movie ever made (Slate)

"With all the heterosexual rapists of women in the world, Noé has chosen to make this one a homosexual who can't help himself from wanting to sully and finally obliterate such beauty, even if it's female. His portrait of gays and their lifestyle makes Cruising (1980) look like Philadelphia (1993). Irreversible might be the most homophobic movie ever made."

Conor, Slate is right on target.

You know what also disturbed me was that because of the chronological movement of the story, there's a very loving scene of Bellini (the very beautiful female star) and Cassel (the male hot-head) in bed. Both are completely nude (and as in many French movies, we see Cassel's genitalia in their full glory), and it's quite an erotic scene--but it felt perverse to be aroused and taken with this scene given the brutality that preceded it. I think that's what Noé was after, though. Disturbing.

Still haven't seen this, but it was picked as the BEST film of 2003 in Artforum magazine by... John Waters!

We have this film @ the gay store I work @ to rent. Hmm ... I guess I better check it out!