Brian Lim

3:10
Irreversible
1723 words
Over the course of a harrowing, frenetic night, the lives of three friends Pierre, Marcus,
and Alex are tumultuously hurled from ones of contentment, trust, and jubilance to ones of
paranoia, fear, and violence. The positive social norms that define Marcus and Alex, a loving
couple who are on the cusp of forging a family, and Pierre, a philosophy instructor by profession,
are abandoned in favor of carnal and savage instincts subsequent to the rape of Alex and the
ensuing pursuit for revenge by Marcus and Pierre. The filmmaker of Irreversible, Gaspar No,
utilizes several unique techniques in order to portray the fall from grace of these three characters.
The technique most immediately noticeable by the viewer is the reverse chronology of
the film. The film beings with the brutal murder of the suspected culprit behind Alexs rape at the
hands of Pierre, then progresses through the use of flashbacks to reveal the circumstances
surrounding the senseless violence. On a surface level, this method of chronology reinforces the
idea behind the title of the movie: the crime committed by Pierre, the inevitable physical and
emotional trauma suffered by Alex, and the assumed loss of the unborn child are all irreversible.
The viewer is burdened with the knowledge of what will eventually come to pass, which veils
Alexs optimism in the final scenes with a shroud of fatalism. Her fate, along with those who will
be affected by her rape, has already been predetermined, and the characters in this film are
powerless to control any aspect of their future, which is one filled with destruction and disaster.
The words uttered at the beginning of the film and shown at the end, Time destroys everything,
is another indication of the futility of the characters plights. Over the course of the film,
institutions and rituals that are positive in valence such as romantic love, family, and friendship

are revealed to be facades which disguise the anomie, lawlessness, and chaos which is
underlying in human nature.
Time not only destroys acceptable societal norms, but it erodes the individual psyche,
which is evident in the actions of Marcus and Pierre after the revelation that Alex had been
sexually assaulted. One can consider Marcus and Pierre to be two parts of the same mind. Pierre,
initially, is the Superego; he is the intellectual who pleas with Marcus to refrain from crude
behavior at the party, apologizes to the taxi driver for Marcus hostility, and urges Marcus to
abandon their search in the Rectum, the gay club. Marcus is the Id; he is a man who seeks to
assuage whatever desires he may have the moment, whether it be drugs, women, or retribution.
Pierre mocks Marcus for his barbaric behavior, and Marcus is often referred to in the movie as an
ape or an animal. Proponents of free will would claim that animals do not have the ability to
make unconstrained choices; thus, both Marcus and Pierre are bound to their fates as partners in
crime. Pierre, in his act of murder, succumbs to his Id as Marcus screams for him to kill his
assailant, and in doing so regresses from human to animal.
This theme of determinism is further made evident through the revelation of Alexs
dream in which she describes the tunnel in which she would eventually be raped. Marcus and
Pierre shrug off Alexs premonition as borderline delusional. The true delusion, however, is the
life that the three characters expect to lead up to the events in the underpass, one that includes
friends, family, and happiness. They are instead consigned to a life of enemies, lost loved ones,
and bitterness. There are numerous instances of foreshadowing (if that is the correct word to use;
these signs and omens point to an event that has already happened) throughout the film. Many of
the films initial, violent scenes are later rehashed in a more romantic, affectionate context,
suggesting that a thin line separates intimate, romantic love and the brutality of rape and

violence. Tenias inhuman treatment of Alex, including the way he spits disgustingly in her face
after assaulting her, is mirrored by the lighthearted wrestling between Marcus and Alex, during
which Marcus lightly sprays spittle in Alexs face during their antics. Marcus teasingly tells Alex,
I want to fuck you in the ass, a line that clearly anticipates the anal violation that happens to
Alex later on. Marcus is unable to feel his arm after waking up in bed with Alex, which parallels
his arm being viciously broken in the Rectum. Pierres insistence that Alex informs him of what
brings her to orgasm during their conversation aboard the subway can be linked to the verbal
aggression that Tenia spews during the rape. The sense of futility and imminent catastrophe
pervades most of the casual scenes involving Marcus, Pierre, and Alex before the party.
Reverse chronology has another interesting use that can be seen in the very beginning of
the film. The first scene, which would make it the last scene chronologically, involves two seedy
men talking to one another in a small unkempt apartment. The fat man, who had committed
incest, can be seen as a future Pierre: a man who has been punished for succumbing to his primal
instincts. In the fat mans case, it is lecherous desire; in Pierres case, it is unbridled revenge.
Another technique No utilizes to emphasize the transition from stability to chaos is the
camerawork. Throughout most of the initial scenes, the camera moves in a feverish and
unpredictable manner, and cuts between shots involve blurry images swirling and diving about.
The frenzied, relentless, and nausea-inducing nature of the takes reflects the chaos and violence
of the situation, as well as the characters wildly out of control state of mind. The camera takes
the viewer along for a ride into a world devoid of inhibition, as well Pierre and Marcus descent
into madness.

There are two moments during the scenes in the Rectum and the underpass which do not
incorporate this style. When Marcus has his arm broken and Pierre kills the man who turns out to
not be Alexs rapist, the camera sits hauntingly still aside from the shaking induced by the
impacts of the fire extinguisher. The stagnant nature of the camera suggests that this was a
moment of clarity for Pierre, a moment in which he abandons the logical and rational and fully
embraces the Id without hesitation. The second instance of the camera remaining stationary is
during Alexs rape beneath the underpass. The viewer can see the desperation and pain in Alexs
face and body throughout the entirety of the assault, and the sense of futility and hopelessness is
exacerbated as Alex reaches towards the camera with a grasping hand. The viewer can do
nothing for Alex, as this is what fate has determined for her. This scene, however, also evokes
voyeurism. It invites the viewer, like Pierre and Marcus, to release all societal constraints and to
enjoy this ritual of animals.
As the movie progresses from scenes of extremely high tension to scenes of relaxed and
carefree banter, the camera becomes much steadier and focused. Towards the end of the film, we
observe Alex in her happiest state, both after the discovery of her pregnancy and her time at the
park. In both scenes, tilting of the camera over her body (and past a poster of the fetus from
2001: A Space Odyssey) as she is lying in bed is utilized to express a dreamlike state, the
complete opposite of the nightmare that Alex would have to eventually endure. This dreamlike
state is again augmented in the final scene of Alex in the park: the sequence is shot upside down
initially, and a slow crane up followed by the accelerated spinning of the camera makes tangible
the blissful ignorance of Alex at that moment, unaware of what fate has in store for her.
The cinematography throughout the film is complemented by the color scheme that is
employed by No. The first half of the film is dominated by the color red, which is ever present

in the gay club Rectum, and is the color of the underpass in which Alex is raped. Red, in these
cases, can mean almost anything that is taboo in society: lust and passion, crime and violence,
sin and blood. Red also represents the anus, a motif that is ever present throughout the film. It is
used by those in the Rectum for pleasure, and by Tenia in the underpass, another visual image of
the anus, to inflict pain. Red can also be seen in both the visible blood that is spilled from Alexs
face and the hidden blood of the child in her womb. Tenia, a homosexual, is unknowingly
infringing upon the realm of childbirth, something that is a forbidden unknown.
Towards the end of the film, colors begin to normalize, most notably seen in Marcus and
Alexs apartment. Much like the camerawork, this symbolizes a time of airiness and calm, where
life seems to be proceeding as expected. In the final scene with Alex, she is reading in a field
wearing a bright sun dress amidst a field of radiant green grass. This saturation of color
emphasizes again the dreamlike state and blissful ignorance of Alex, and the clear blue skies
reflect nothing but optimism. The final scene of film involves an intense flickering between a
binary of white and black frames, as if an entity were flickering in an out of consciousness. If
one were to incorporate the reverse chronology of the film, this can potentially be seen as the
conception of the baby within Alex. This child, much like Alex, Marcus, and Pierre, is powerless
to change its own fate. It must yield to fate, and it will learn that time destroys all.
The tragedy that befalls Alex and consequently Marcus and Pierre is unavoidable, and the
happy ending does nothing to prevent what is irreversible. The chronology of the film
emphasizes that all of the characters are to blame for the events portrayed, and that human nature
cannot be defined solely by what is expected by society. The Rectum can be seen as a sort of
Dantes Inferno, in which Marcus and Pierre, after being exposed to theft, lust, and murder are
changed, but not for the better.