[launche]

I referenced this movie in my Transformers Movie thread post regarding bass or LFE content.  IMO this movie had the most intense bass/LFE I have ever heard.  Not so much in the fact that it goes low and/or extemely loud but it has steady thumping and throbbing bass throughout that almost can go unnoticed because it's so prevelant in the film.  But the thing is from the beginning of the film it has about a 15 minute stretch of non-stop intense bass/LFE that just throbs and swells.  Read what I said, 15 MINUTES of straight intense bass/LFE effects. I have never experienced that before or after this movie, usually you get 3-20 seconds or so spurts from your most extreme action movies.  If you like the whole surround sound bass/LFE thing and have a decent setup this movie is worth checking out for sure.

Now the Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any equipment damage or your personal reaction to this film. I will say that it is not for the faint of heart or for children or most women.  It is intense, it is violent, is it blatant and it is graphic.  There has been alot said about this film, some really like it and others think it is vile.  it would be best if you plan to watch it not to search the internet for information on the film as that will likely spoil it for you or cloud your perception going into the film, So I recommend to watch it blindly, then you can read about it later.  if you read up on it first, the experience will be much diluted IMO.  Just know going in that is likely going to AFFECT you.  Some people it may not bother but it will stir emotions in the average person, many of which I've known not to last through the first 10 minutes without feeling really uneasy, nauseous and ready to check out.

I have recommened this movie in the past for its bass content and as a movie to watch for its own merit.  I have been cursed out and responded to unkindly or what have you, even though I warned the people just like this before hand.  One gentleman cursed me because the movie fried his subwoofer.  Personally, it is the ONLY movie I ever watched that my subwoofer literally begged for mercy, said " I can't take it anymore, please stop, I can't continue and just stopped trying, I kid you not.
Any sub maker wishing to test the salt of his design, play this movie at good volume and if your sub does the movie justice sonically and makes it through without damage, you've got a nice unit.  Another gentleman asked why I told him about such a wicked movie and that he was sickened and couldn't even finish the film.

I have only seen the movie a few times and once was enough for me.  But will admit I wish I could watch it more, I love the bass effects but honestly I couldn't in good conscience put my subwoofers through such a workout without being worried to death.  Sonically and visually it left a lasting impression on me.  I'm sure some have seen it, for better or for worse.  I would like to get your take on the film itself and its sonics but maybe don't spoil it for those willing to watch it.
At any rate, you have been warned. I do recommend the film to those willing, it is an interesting cinematic experience.  You've likely seen some films with similiar elements, if so again don't give the films key factors away but I would like to discuss it generally if that's possible.

The movie is called "Irreversible" French film made in 2002, Directed by Gaspar Noe.

Blockbuster & Netflix carry the film and again I recommend to NOT research the film first unless you want to spoil or lessen the effect or just can't help yourself.

[launche]

Definitely not for 98% of the public, I can't recall how I came across it but it was just torture for me to watch but also I was sucked in and needed to see where it all ends. I remember saying WTF and pausing it to collect my senses and just being very beside myself and feeling just plain yuckie inside.  Thinking the scene would pass but it just kept going and I had to FFwd through it. I remember cursing the director and asking what in the hell is wrong with him.

As I said the movie is controversial and it wll AFFECT you.  Most people if the know about it before hand will skip the movie once they hear about the rape content.  And when the movie gets to the reveal at the end you just are taken for another loop and your emotions just explode.  The first 15 minutes are challenging as the music, atmosphere, subject matter (not rape) and camera work just ATTACK your senses in a way very few movies do, many have complained of nausea, motion type sickeness, people were throwing up in the theater...just plain intense stuff going on.  About 10 minutes in I remember catching myself or rather my sub catching my attention as it was suffering badly.  I was so swept up in the mod of the movie it was crazy and then thing that happens and I just scringed, had to cover my eyes diue to the sheer brutality involved.  The French pull no punches, in America they would have had to create a special rating for this movie.

Oh now I remember, just as the rape seen started (there is hard, pulsating music and not so much of a women screaming  early on. he music is just hypnotic and you're in this trance and your brain is steadily following the visuals)  but my wife came down stairs (I didn't hear her coming until she got close and spoke) and said what is that music and it was one of those terrifying moments in life and I remember yelling at my wife insanely "Get back, get back, get outta here, go" and she was terrified and ran back up stairs and I found the remote paused the movie and told her more or less what was happening.  but that interaction between me and my wife was terrifying in its self.

you know I haven't seen the movie in a few years and have no plans to see it again, but I wonder if it's as bad as I recall it because in my mind it is No.1 on my list of movies I will never watch again because I am just not strong or crazy enough.

[Cacophonix]

i saw that movie, but didn't complete it. The rape scene was brutal enough that i just switched off the TV and returned the movie back to netflix.

"Ichi the Killer" was another movie that i just had to stop watching mid way. The gore and violence was way over the top ... it wasn't like the pop violence/horror of "hostel" or "saw" etc ... it was waaay more intense.

Of the ones that i sat thru till the end, "Audition" scared the crap out of me. Those japanese horror movies, for most parts, just seem to get under my skin and totally unsettle me. To me, audition remains -the- horror movie to beat.

If any of you haven't seen "wolfcreek", check it out!  An aussie movie, and superbly done! One hell of a roadtrip movie! Again, not for the faint of heart! When i read the story line, i rolled my eyes at the thought of watching another horror roadtrip movie ... but man, i was hooked right from scene 1!

Wish Hollywood would make such kind of movies instead of plain pop horror/gore fests like "hostel" or "saw".

[JoshK]

Did this movie start out with a scene in a sex club with a bunch of gay guy doing it and S&M stuff, etc?  If so, my wife and I rented it due to some buzz we read somewhere, got to the very first scene and turned it off and returned it.  I just don't really see the point in subjecting your mind to this kind of stuff.

This kind of brings up the question of whether some of the violence, particularly sexual violence/rape in film is really necessary.  If you absolutely must write it into the story, do you really need to explicitly portray the visual aspect to get it across to the viewers?  Take for example Pulp Fiction.  I really think the rape scene in that movie added very little and you could have gotten the point with see it.  Gratuitous violence if you ask me.

[nathanm]

So this movie shows rape whilst raping your subwoofer?  Perhaps the MPAA needs a new rating for electronics; This film is rated R, subwoofers under 100 watts not admitted without parent or guardian.

[mjosef]

The movie got a write up in the NY TImes a few years ago, so maybe that's where the buzz started. I rented it based on that article which was addressing sex and violence in films.
I think this particular film was illustrating the act of violence(of a sexual nature) and the resulting repercussions of emotional stress, the desire for revenge...and all the other human states that follow such tragedies...it was the intent of the director for you the viewer to actually experience what the victim experienced, and how those close to the victim reacted. You do have to have some detachment to really "see" through the film.
There is no happy Hollywood ending in most of the European indie films.

[launche]

Did this movie start out with a scene in a sex club with a bunch of gay guy doing it and S&M stuff, etc?  If so, my wife and I rented it due to some buzz we read somewhere, got to the very first scene and turned it off and returned it.  I just don't really see the point in subjecting your mind to this kind of stuff.

This kind of brings up the question of whether some of the violence, particularly sexual violence/rape in film is really necessary.  If you absolutely must write it into the story, do you really need to explicitly portray the visual aspect to get it across to the viewers?  Take for example Pulp Fiction.  I really think the rape scene in that movie added very little and you could have gotten the point with see it.  Gratuitous violence if you ask me.

Yes, that is the movie.
The more I think about it the better I seem to understand the movie's approach.  Man, it is just brutal to watch for sure and I just couldn't stomach it.  But then again we are primarily talking about just two really intense scenes otherwise I think the movie watchable.
Surely not somethin I would watch with my wife and don't plain anyone for shutting it off in the company of women and children.  But I do think it is a good film. 

The film just locked me in, played with my emotions and took me on a serious ride.  I rather liked some of the techniques used an that gets lost in the shuffle.  But those intense scenes being one continous take is just amazing, further addingt o the realistic nature, you do have them bizarre feeling that you are actually witness the tragedy in the flesh.  The guy who suffers his death, how did they do that, it looks so real I didn't detect any CGI or anything, I mean it just seems like good film making overall.

I always torn when I talk about the film, because I did enjoy it as a whole buut it comes at a price.  I have to ask myself what is so offensive...is it the act, is it the sheer honesty of then recreation, what is it.  If i think about it ini term of our audio mindset...wanting to recreate the musical event etc...  then that movie does that it transfers, the gruesome, horrific and terrifying nature of rape truly as if you were actually witnessing it, my emotions and sense just seemed to respond to it like a real life experienced event...is that not an act of remarkable film making??? I don't know...

mjosef...seems to get it along the lines that I get it more or less.
his words make sense to me and are things that I've said before.

[nathanm]

I haven't seen this one but it does make me wonder why do people even watch such films?  Surely it seems vulgar to call it "entertainment", but I suppose it is.  It would seem silly that anyone would willingly wish to experience genuine trauma (mental trauma at least) from a movie.  The way Launche describes it sounds like there is less detachment than usual and the viewer actually suffers in a way.  Usually horror movies don't do this.  You might cringe or hide your eyes, but usually the violence is fantastical enough that you can feel separate from it.

I haven't seen a whole lot of horror flicks lately, but the modern day remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn Of The Dead struck me as being far more genuinely horrifying than their '70s counterparts which is of course an utter blasphemous statement to the diehards, but what the hey, I'm not a diehard.  If a horror movie is about watching people get killed in bizarre ways then either version might be preferable, but as to which is more traumatizing I'd say the modern day versions win.  Modern movies have really done wonders with selling filth to the audience.  I mean actual filth here; dirt, soil.  Modern movies are all about grunge.  Everything is just loaded with muck.  I think the filth aspect is what makes the TCM remake so vile.  Even though you're transfixed on whatshername's sweaty white tanktop and lowrider jeans it doesn't make the movie any less icky when she's helping some cretinous hillbilly with a colostomy bag.  Eeeewww....

I finally saw Peter Jackson's "Dead Alive" recently...that man is sick in the head!  Yikes.  THIS is the same furry little man who made the LOTR flicks?  Easily the most gory film I ever saw, but it's not traumatizing, it's campy. 

Perhaps the difference is how a movie conveys human suffering.  It seems, rightfully so, that we are intensely bothered if we perceive actual human suffering in a movie as opposed to just violence.  A person can get shot or hacked to bits, but as long as real pain is not conveyed in the film we can stomach it.  But ultimately I applaud violence and horror in art no matter how offensive and distasteful; because it's all within a box, it's not in the real world.  Better to watch a guy get sawed in half than saw your neighbor in half.

[Tyson]

Damn those frenchies for making me think in an ambivalent manner about violence and rape!  If this had been a good american film they would have shown me the rape first, so I could have felt good about the brutal revenge murder that happens later.  But by showing it in reverse, I see this senseless murder first and only later the rape that precipitates it, and am still left ambivalent.  dammit.

[bassboy]

Oh, the things I do for Monica.  If it was ANYBODY else I never would have watched this movie at all.  But it's Monica and I can't look away, even when I'm literally seconds away from throwing up on myself.

She's done it to me before in Passion of the Christ (not sure which came out first, and it doesn't matter).  I never would have had the heart to sit through that either if she wasn't there.

And then Shoot Em Up came and she creeped me out in a whole new way, and I still can't look away.

Oh, the things I do for Monica.  She isn't making it easy though.

[launche]

Oh, the things I do for Monica.  If it was ANYBODY else I never would have watched this movie at all.  But it's Monica and I can't look away, even when I'm literally seconds away from throwing up on myself.

She's done it to me before in Passion of the Christ (not sure which came out first, and it doesn't matter).  I never would have had the heart to sit through that either if she wasn't there.

And then Shoot Em Up came and she creeped me out in a whole new way, and I still can't look away.

Oh, the things I do for Monica.  She isn't making it easy though.

Let me tell you, Monica is absolutely a physically stunning woman but she has got some serious mental and emotional demons.  I have no idea why she consistently chooses these roles.  I just can't imagine being in a relationship with her.  You would think you are getting one of God's gifts to man and likely find yourself in some emotional black hole that would scare the hell out of any sane man.  I don't jive with Monica anymore, it's just too painful for me to watch.

I saw another movie of hers, Malena, where she plays the town hot thing or flirt and catches the eye and attention of every man. One pubescent boy in particular, think of the first beautiful older women crush you ever had, this is it. Truth and rumours swirl, the village ladies young and old get tired of her BS and all beat her half to death in the town square, cut of her hair and left her for dead.  Again, she begins the movie as the absolute definition of beauty and sex appeal, stunning human creation and by the end she's is but a sad shell of herself, battered, broken and humbled.




I'm glad you're hanging in there bassboy, I'm done with Monica, she has toyed with my male fantasy long enough