Irreversible: The Straight Cut Review – Gaspar Noé’s re-cut is just as brutal, but in more important ways

Gaspar Noé’s pioneering legacy of the New French Extreme film precedes it. Irreversible (2002), the original version, delivered in reverse, is a grueling, dizzying experience few want to see more than once. As a woman, it’s a waking nightmare filled with the worst of humanity and a huge tragedy. The cruel revenge story is a gut that reduces women to things. Things to be mistreated and abused and things to be avenged. The director’s re-cut gives more context to the straight cut, allowing the story to speak for itself. In many ways it is much better than the original.

Many of these types of films shift the focus away from the victim. They diminish the woman rather than the deed and how others feel about it. It’s disgusting and unfair. Noé’s original cut arguably does this. The disturbing catchphrase of the original confuses things even more. A night. An unforgivable act. A story told in reverse. Where everything happens in one night, there are two unforgivable deeds. Should we consider the rape or murder as forgivable? Much of the reversed cut is spent trying to summarize what is happening and why.

The men living above the club act as a prologue of sorts in the original, and have a much more powerful conversation in Irreversible: The Straight Cut. “Time destroys everything.” It is heartbreaking to hear these disgusting men proclaim a life truth that played out so horribly before our very eyes. Alex, Pierre and Marcus will never be the same again. Time, evil and choices destroyed them.

The prologue of the chronological version is stronger, matching Alex’s words. Alex tells Marcus, “The future is already written.” She tells Marcus about a dream and a tunnel of red torn in half. Knowing what we know, after seeing the original version, it’s heartbreaking and my heart rebels against it. I don’t want to believe it. I can’t accept it, and yet Alex is still being raped and left for dead, and the men who love her still don’t know what’s most important.

There is so much tragedy here. In small details like Marcus is a pig who loves Alex but not as much as he loves the idea of ​​her. Pierre loves her too, but is haunted by the ghost of their past relationship. None of these men actually avenges her attack. Instead, they fight their own guilt for making her vulnerable. Told in chronological order, we see that better. It’s clearer how sad this is. Men are stimulated even more in Irreversible: The Straight Cut than the original. Everyone is capable of both depravity and tenderness, but we don’t understand the depth of the swing until we see it run in a linear fashion.

Irreversible: the straight cut loses none of the chaotic energy of the original. Despite being much more aware of what’s going on, it’s still an assault on the senses – having to catch up with the original made the experience just as confusing and horrifying as it was for Alex in that tunnel. Looking straight at it made it horrifying. It’s no less painful to watch, and Monica Bellucci still delivers the most raw and gutsy performance I’ve ever seen. Her pain is felt more sharply when she sees who she was before the attack.

In the straight cut, we open her lying in a technicolor park surrounded by children. It is stunning and she is the picture of feminine beauty and innocence. We next see her in Marcus’s arms, and their affection for each other is evident. You feel it. Told in chronological order, we live with the characters before the rug is taken off. It enables Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassell and Albert Dupontel to mean something to us. We care about them. We are angry with them and we feel sorry for them. Most of that is lost in the original version which feels exploitative rather than informative.

The main difference between the two is the focus of the viewer. The original cut is so disorienting that it’s hard to gain perspective or draw moral conclusions. You spend most of your time catching up and focusing on the many men and their evil deeds. The original first introduces us to Pierre and Marcus. In the aftermath of their attack on the man they believed raped Alex, they are shocked, hurt and remorseful. Because they are our entrance into this terrible world, they become the focus.

Irreversible: the straight cut puts the focus back where it belongs. Alex is the one who was wronged. First she was abandoned by the man who should love and protect her more than anyone else, then by a sick twist who picks up on her pain, and later by the men who choose to let themselves be more powerful feel by taking revenge than going with her. her in the hospital. Most of all, Noe wants us to pick at that wound at his recut.

The original suffered from the gimmicky feel. It’s more powerful to see Pierre and Marcus’ descent straight. More importantly, Alex’s story is more powerful. I admit I was nervous about subjecting myself to this pain again. Horror critics love to talk about fear and suspense, but Irreversible has it ingrained in its DNA. This is what real horror looks like. It’s a fear that women live with. It’s uncomfortable, and the image of Alex desperately trying to escape, broken and bleeding, only to be destroyed by her attacker will stay with me forever.

Alex says, “I’m not an object,” but her assault becomes a catalyst for male anger and impotence. Her pain is distilled through the lens of Pierre and Marcus’ impotence. Gaspar Noé’s uncompromising vision better captures what matters most. Alex was raped and left to heal on her own if she can. I’d say there’s always good and bad deeds, and there’s plenty to look at in Irreversible: The Straight Cut. In the re-cut, Alex’s story finally comes into its own. The film will be shown in selected cinemas from February 10, 2023.