IRREVERSIBLE

Certain to divide audiences as surely as the Wall once divided Berlin, IRREVERSIBLE unspools in reverse – from gut-wrenching violence to sweetly observed moments of sublime tenderness between a couple, played by real-life partners Monica Bellucci (Malena) and Vincent Cassel (Hate, The Brotherhood of the Wolf). Approached by Argentinean-born, French director Gaspar No? to make “the film Cruise and Kidman should have made with Kubrick,” the actors granted Noe his wish: a take-no-prisoners work of art that is technically dazzling and emotionally devastating. Cassel plays Marcus, a dazed man with a broken arm in the film's beginning, which opens with a fury in an S&M club in which Marcus and friend, Pierre (Albert Dupontel) verbally assault the club's denizens and matters degenerate with shocking force. The film moves to a scene involving Bellucci and an attacker in an underground pedestrian tunnel, and No? does for underpasses what Psycho did for showers in a searing, single-shot performance. IRREVERSIBLE is composed of a dozen or so long, intense and brilliantly choreographed continuous takes, marked by No?'s own handheld, dipping and soaring widescreen camera shots. No? is one of several French filmmakers whose violence-laced films and cinematography techniques continue to upset filmmaking tradition with both great glee and determination. Spine-tingling cinematic thrills and bravura filmmaking are givens, but this is not for the weak of stomach or faint of heart. (In French with English subtitles)