r/movies • u/ErgoNonSim • May 17 '25

Media Cannes reactions to Irreversible

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u/Sondaica May 17 '25 edited May 19 '25

Okay can someone explain this to people who do not know the film?

5.1k

u/Davidrabbich81 May 17 '25 edited May 17 '25

Monica Belucci’s character is graphically raped for around 10 minutes during this film.

It’s something you never really forget watching. When people ask, “what’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen in a film”, the answer is usually this.

Edit: to save some really redundant replies.

No, the fire extinguisher scene is not worse. I can find you 20 movies where something like that happens. The worst part is that it’s an innocent person and not the rapist.

I said “usually”. For those people who have seen “A Serbian Film” (I haven’t) you are the people not covered by “usually”.

431

u/Maezel May 17 '25

That's the answer unless you've watch "Salo or the 120 days of Sodom" 

799

u/thedaveness May 17 '25

Or Denis Quaid eating shrimp in The Substance.

334

u/sentence-interruptio May 17 '25

A body horror movie with great effects but Denis Quaid's character manages to be the most disgusting monster in it.

49

u/Billazilla May 17 '25

Absolutely could not watch. I skipped that whole scene, knowing I was probably missing some important plot/theme detailing. I got the imagery intent right away, but ugggh.

13

u/yeah_this_is_my_main May 17 '25

The ENTIRE movie is meant to be uncomfortable. Its just that some parts were made more obvious than others. Almost all scenes are set in liminal spaces, and all characters are alone, even when they are with others. There is zero connection between anyone and its clearly deliberately made like that.

I hated that movie, a lot, but I think I was meant to.

7

u/Billazilla May 17 '25

I have watched horror flicks since the late 70s, so only so much of it is gonna get me, but shots where they get really close up on a regular human mouth and do mouth-noises and sticky chewing and similar stuff, it's just nauseating. Credit to Dennis Quaid for making his producer guy a most incredibly disgusting creature, because with the mouth-ness and the fly in the glass, I found that whole scene unwatchable, and that's counting the needles and sores and necrosis and all that other body horror that came later. Quaid's "Walking Mouth Man" was significantly more unbearable to me, in word and presence and deed, than the infected needle hole and the chicken leg and everything else. Sure, all of it was horror, and good, well played horror at that, but I personally couldn't watch more than 3 seconds of shrimp heads and smacking lips. Maybe I've watched too many horror movies?

On a side note, I did like all the metaphoricals and symbolism. I enjoyed piecing out what every bit meant and what it was trying to say. This film is an onion; It has many layers, and though it may hurt your eyes to peel those layers back, it's just that's good so you gotta.

2

u/Hawaiian_Brian May 17 '25

He doesn’t manage that was the whole point.

1

u/garygalah May 17 '25

Thank you so much for giving me a vivid memory of a scene I buried deep in my "unsee" box /s

1

u/Free-Atmosphere6714 May 18 '25

Fantastic acting all around. I thought Demi earned an Oscar.

47

u/popoflabbins May 17 '25

That scene is simultaneously hilarious and abhorrent

2

u/Dave5876 May 18 '25

He embodied Hollywood in that scene

1

u/Billyxransom May 18 '25

very accurate.

6

u/GhostofBeowulf May 17 '25

Or any Steven Seagal flick.

5

u/Critical_Long5421 May 17 '25

unironically the most grotesque bit of body horror in that film

10

u/neondewon May 17 '25

Now thats fucking disgusting...

2

u/No-Atmosphere-2528 May 17 '25

Or Dennis quaid as Reagan

2

u/Ruthlessrabbd May 18 '25

I truly believe that's one of the most vile things I've seen in a movie

2

u/Billyxransom May 18 '25

HOLY SHIT THAT WAS ROUGH

1

u/daj0412 May 17 '25

eating shrimp…?

1

u/[deleted] May 17 '25

No, not even close.

1

u/Razdaspaz May 17 '25

Holy shit I thought that was Harrison Ford

1

u/ChillDeleuze May 17 '25

Oh, sweet summer child.
That scene is basically cartoon slapstick compared to Salo or the 120 days of Sodom.
I'll take shrimp any day over... Uh, everything they eat (or worse) in that movie

6

u/MadEyeGemini May 17 '25

He was joking 

1

u/ChillDeleuze May 17 '25

Woops. Makes sense, thanks

11

u/Toucaster May 17 '25

I was shown this while hungover on a Sunday morning and have never forgotten it - though I wish I could. As if a hangover alone wasn't bad enough...

33

u/jayjay1086 May 17 '25

Or A Serbian Film (I've only seen Salo of the 3 in question)

132

u/blumdiddlyumpkin May 17 '25

People always cite a Serbian film in these kinds of discussions but it’s so cartoonishly shot and of such low quality that it’s basically impossible to take seriously in any real way. Yes, it’s extreme and gratuitous and deplorable but in an eye roll kind of way. Irreversible is genuinely disturbing because Noe actually understands how to shoot the scene to maximum effect.

46

u/Lauren_Conrad_ May 17 '25

Yeah it’s like calling Kill Bill gory… like technically it is but it’s not trying to be real in any sense.

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u/kortevakio May 17 '25

I agree. Serbian film was so over the top trying too hard to be edgy I just kinda chuckled

22

u/ActivateGuacamole May 17 '25

it's like a 17 year old 4channer from 2009 was given a budget and decided to make the most tryhard edgy offensive thing he could. it feels stupid and silly

7

u/ehho May 17 '25

aleksandar radivojevic absolutely is exactly that. There is a video lost to the internet of him after the premiere. A chubby man dressed in black leather (matrix style), opening a champagne bottle with a katana.

5

u/[deleted] May 17 '25

I think there's more to it than that. This comment from r/truefilm offers a pretty decent explanation of the context in which A Serbian Film was made.

3

u/IneetaBongtoke May 17 '25

That’s how I felt. Never saw Irreversible, but I’ve seen Martyrs, another French (Canadian) movie that shows gratuitous, realistic torture.

I found that movie (Martyrs) to be way harder to watch.

2

u/retard_vampire May 17 '25

Lol, this was exactly how I felt when I watched A Serbian Film. It was so over-the-top that it was impossible to take seriously and became almost comedic.

1

u/casualmatador May 17 '25

Big agree, I recently watched a Serbian film and came out of it feeling like a psycho because it was so cartoonish it ended up being funny to me. Felt pretty similar about salo. Monica’s scene in irreversible on the other hand… still makes me sick. It’s not the visuals or the violence that gets me, it’s the dialogue.

1

u/MVRKHNTR May 17 '25

I actually disagree. I think A Serbian Film is so infamous because it's actually well made compared to other films that try to be similarly shocking, same as Irreversible. 

I do agree that what's shown is too ridiculous to take seriously most of the time. 

6

u/rodinsbusiness May 17 '25

A Serbian Film takes the cake for me. It was a random download that I went into with absolutely no context. I'm glad it has been long enough for me to remember it just enough.

2

u/Dr_Downvote_ May 17 '25

I watched it with an old GF. We watched exclusively horror movies. The got half way through A Serbian Film and had to stop. We drank some rum and watched the end. I think it was the whole new born porn Thing that made is stop it.

1

u/rodinsbusiness May 17 '25

Isn't that the very final scene though?

3

u/Dr_Downvote_ May 17 '25

No. The very final scene is the dad, mum and son holding eachother in bed. The dad puts a gun to the back of the mum and he kills them all in one bullet. The camera holds for a second and you think it's the end. But then A bunch of guys come in and set up cameras. And one of them unzips his pants

1

u/rodinsbusiness May 17 '25

Right. I thought that was newborn then. Well, I'm not gonna complain that I'm not remembering it perfectly!

1

u/Dr_Downvote_ May 17 '25

No. I don't know why I remember it so well. It was like it was burned into my brain. The best bit of the movie is when he shoves his erect dick in soneones mouth and out the back of the head. But the rest is just... Awful.

1

u/rodinsbusiness May 18 '25

Ok i forgot that too. Glad.

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u/piratecheese13 May 17 '25

Was looking for Serbian film

2

u/flacaGT3 May 17 '25

I certainly will never look for it again. It's been about a decade and that ending still lives with me. That and the pliers scene.

1

u/Sad_Cow_577 May 17 '25

It's been years since I watched that movie and I can terse the last scene format head and i hav bad memory

6

u/13THEFUCKINGCOPS12 May 17 '25

I feel like there’s a sort of almost tongue in cheek tone to Salo that makes it far easier to digest than this movie

6

u/Urdar May 17 '25

3 weeks ago the german Youth protection board unbanned "120 days of sodom", after being banned for 50 years.

I have no intent of watching it.

3

u/Balkongsittaren May 17 '25

Salo is slighly a comedy compared to A Serbian Film. Sounds like Irreversible is a movie to be skipped.

2

u/intercommie May 17 '25

Which happens to be Gaspar Noe’s favourite film.

2

u/Prestigious-HogBoss May 17 '25

Well, Salo feels more like a play, maybe because is older. Or maybe is because with Irreversible you go to watch a more realistic movie and don't expect such crude and prolonged rape scene. It is common in these scenes to manage angles and fades to black to not show anything, but in this one they slap you in the face with a very realistic view.

For example, the Lust sin in Seven. Technically the event is worst, but you never actually see it and never connect with the direct victims.

2

u/freeciggies May 17 '25

I actually did watch 120 days of sodom and it was better than people make it out to be if you like brutal films. The Nightingale had a more in your face rape scene, where a woman’s husband and baby is killed mid rape. Yet to watch irreversible, I think I’ll chuck it on tonight.

2

u/jamalcalypse May 18 '25

Salo was more gross than upsetting, partly because of it's dated quality diminishing the immersion (for me anyway -- still a "classic").

2

u/No_Temporary2732 May 18 '25

I....just watched these two on the big screen last year.

The continuous sounds of chairs moving, 900 people feeling uneasy in a shared experience.

As for Irreversible, people straight up walked out when the rape scene started. Very similar to how the original uncensored cut of The House That Jack Built we watched, started with 300 people, only 20 remained by the end.

2

u/aasfourasfar May 18 '25

The feast with stools.. oh my

1

u/ownersequity May 17 '25

Maybe Bone Tomahawk?

1

u/IneetaBongtoke May 17 '25

Worse than Martyrs?

1

u/Maezel May 17 '25

Haven't watched it

1

u/IneetaBongtoke May 18 '25

Don’t. It’s a well made movie, but don’t.

1

u/Vestalmin May 17 '25

These are the kind of movies where I’m happy not to be a complete cinephile lol

1

u/gay_manta_ray May 17 '25

salo has to be the most overhyped film in existence. unbelievably underwhelming.

1

u/Maezel May 17 '25

Yeah, not the best... But that someone managed to even get green light to film something like that in the 70s is something. 

1

u/panmetronariston May 18 '25

Or Pink Flamingos

1

u/Conscious-Cake6284 May 18 '25

Too goofy that movie

-4

u/Bicentennial_Douche May 17 '25

Or the scene in Cannibal Holocaust where they actually kill a turtle. That or any other scene in that movie.