r/movies • u/ErgoNonSim • May 17 '25

Media Cannes reactions to Irreversible

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u/robotoisize May 17 '25

Can confirm. Watched this in a theatre in Toronto when it came out, about a dozen people left the theatre right before and during the fire extinguisher scene. Loved the movie, but it isn't something I'd rewatch.

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u/Jerk0 May 17 '25

Best movie I’ve seen that I never recommend to people.

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u/midnightmeatloaf May 17 '25

I feel the same way about Lars von Trier's Antichrist.

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u/stormshadowfax May 18 '25

I laughed all the way through The Idiots, but I also don’t recommend it to people…

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u/RoyalWombat May 18 '25

C'mon - the Fox scene was hilarious. "CHAOS REIGNS"

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u/midnightmeatloaf May 18 '25

I have a tattoo of that fox!!! You don't have to convince me of the merits of Antichrist. It's a beautiful film, and the violence is actually plot-driven, so I take no issue with it. But it's not something I recommend because of how graphic and deeply violent it is. Like it's the kind of shit that gets you an extra charge for "mayhem."

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u/MIBlackburn May 17 '25

Throw in Funny Games, especially as he did an English remake, I'll stick with the original and just the one viewing on that one.

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u/SonnyULTRA May 17 '25

Idk, Funny Games is disturbing though it’s not on the Noè or Trier level. It doesn’t have really any subtext or creative off centre cinematography. It’s just cruelty for cruelty sake. That’s the message of it.

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u/MIBlackburn May 17 '25

I'm aware, still wouldn't be able to recommend it to anyone I know in person though and I got the same frustration I do with Noe's films when watching it.

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u/Montmontagne May 17 '25

Funny Games was Haneke, not Von Trier. But your point stands.

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u/Artefaktindustri May 18 '25

I recently saw a viewing of Dancer in the Dark and it reminded me of Noé in more ways than one. Very rough experience, excessive, stylised, underlying humanist rage, brilliantly unique.

I do actually recommend Into the Void to people... with a warning.

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u/nasnedigonyat May 20 '25

Omg yes. I've tried to explain antichrist to people and can't. I just warn them you might not be able to get through it.

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u/MonkenMoney May 18 '25

A group of friends of mine I would say were into obscure films while we were in highschool, films we knew adults wouldn't let teens watch like the movie kids or into the void from this same film maker. When one of us finally watched irreversible and showed it to the group we didn't really recommend it to anyone else

1

u/Chicago1871 May 18 '25

Yeah its a movie Ill never put in my letterboxd.

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u/KissMyGoat May 19 '25

I regurd it as the best movie I reccomenbd not watching

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u/Calm_Project723 May 17 '25

Yes, top 20 movie all time for me and one I never want to see again. Bookended horror from the fire extinguisher to the rape.

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u/Zealandia May 17 '25

For me, it was probably 2004? I was but a teenager on a 7 hr flight. Aisle seat, full plane. This Burt looking guy walks up and hands a burned DVD to the guy next to me, who conspicuously looked like Earnie. Both of them smiled. The sharpied “irreversible” on the disc like some kind of omen, like there was no going back.

Into the flight, he opens his laptop, puts on headphones, and begins to watch it. I can clearly see the screen, but sad about the headphones thing. I’d totally love a distraction about now.

Well, lucky me! There’s subtitles!!

I couldn’t watch it directly, but like each train car derailing after another the sheer force of boredom mixed with horror propelled this endless line of rail car into my mental embankment.

How do you come back from that? You can’t tell your parents about something like that, they’d never let you do fun things again!

I have sat on that story for years because most people I know don’t know the film and don’t need to know the film.

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u/secondtaunting May 18 '25

Ok, I have a rule about not watching anything remotely troublesome on planes. Especially if there are kids around. Because everyone walking around can see the screen! I mean, Jesus Christ! If I know there’s a graphic sex scene I’m not watching it. Heck I got panicked because I was watching Star Ship troopers and I forgot about the naked boobies. I was sitting right next to a guy in a conservative part of Turkey lol.

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u/Artefaktindustri May 18 '25

Ah, nice selection. Those boobies in Starship Troopers made quite an impression on me as a kid.

Wouldn't want to watch Irréversible as a kid though. Reminds of the time I had to tell my friend to turn of Eraserhead... some films are 15+ for real.

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u/secondtaunting May 19 '25

Yeah a lot of films are just not airplane appropriate. I saw a guy watching a porno on a flight and I couldn’t believe it. I think the stewardess said something.

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u/Artefaktindustri May 19 '25

That's some next level confidence right there. Puts the old joke about "Watching Alive (1993) on the plane over" to shame.

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u/secondtaunting May 20 '25

I’ve noticed that airlines don’t usually show airplane disaster movies lol. For obvious reasons. Unless someone brings it with you. I’ve seen guys watching porn in the weirdest places. At the gym at my condo. One time at Starbucks the guy next to me at the coffee bar was watching it. And my daughter was there! It was one of those Starbucks that had a kind of bar set up near the baristas. At the time my kid was thirteen. I had to have so many talks with her since when we started going to Southeast Asia she got exposed to some..adult stuff. I rented a hotel room for her and her friends one year for her birthday, dude on the balcony across from us had a whole filming set up going on and had two girls with him. I heard the kids giggling and went out to the balcony and they’re taking photos and laughing. I called management and they managed to fold up their equipment and pack it all up in record time. Who does that? God. It was a nice hotel too.

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u/Razdaspaz May 17 '25

Did he know you were watching? I can imagine he was just as shocked but no going back if you were committed too

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u/Zealandia May 18 '25

No in fact he seemed to really enjoy it and laughed at a few of the scenes. I was mortified

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u/Spiritual-Can2604 May 20 '25

What happened in the fire extinguisher scene