Special effects explained for "Irreversible"

Tonto Yoder · « **on:** 7 Oct 2003, 11:53 am »

The movie "Irreversible" came up in a thread below. There's a link on the movie's website that details a couple of the special effects that were employed (click "Making of SFX movie")

http://www.irreversiblethemovie.com/

Lots of digital manipulation that's interesting , if rather disturbing (one effect deals with rape, another deals with smashing one actor's face with a fire extinguisher).

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #1 on:** 14 Oct 2003, 10:22 pm »

Tried to rent the DVD of this movie, but Blockbuster finds it too scandalous for their shelves!!

Andrikos · « **Reply #2 on:** 21 Oct 2003, 07:13 pm »

try netflix. They have everything.

JoshK · « **Reply #3 on:** 21 Oct 2003, 07:29 pm »

I rented this movie and my wife and I were so disgusted by the first 5 minutes we had to turn it off. I am not easily offended.

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #4 on:** 21 Oct 2003, 08:23 pm »

Quote from: JoshK

I rented this movie and my wife and I were so disgusted by the first 5 minutes we had to turn it off. I am not easily offended.

From what I've read, your reaction was common--many people left the theaters very quickly. My interest was piqued by all the favorable reviews it got, by awards at Cannes & Sundance etc. but I don't think I could recommend it.

JoshK · « **Reply #5 on:** 10 Jan 2017, 03:07 pm »

Maybe I've become jaded, but Sunday night my girlfriend said she wanted to watch Irreversible...for the second time! It was her birthday so I complied. It was pretty horrific, but I wasn't as disgusted as I was previously. There were some very hard to watch scenes for sure, but they made you very empathetic. I didn't get the feeling it was there only for shock sake, which I would have otherwise been disinterested in. Good movie overall, and I really did like how the backwards revelation of the movie works to provide the point of the movie like peeling an onion. If it was done in a linear fashion, I definitely wouldn't have been as impressed or provoked in thought.

Tyson · « **Reply #6 on:** 10 Jan 2017, 05:03 pm »

Spoilers below (although if it's from 2003):

I loved this movie because it showed the violent act up front, without context and it was horrible to watch. Only later did you get the justification and driver for the violence attack (ie, the rape). In a 'normal' movie, the rape would have happened first, and everyone in the audience would have felt the violence was justified. By putting things in reverse order, the viewer is made very uneasy about it. Rather brilliant, IMO.

But here's another wrinkle! The dude killed at the beginning with the fire hydrant turns out to not be the same person that did the rape!! They made a mistake and killed the wrong guy. Which just adds another layer to this rather awesome movie. You can't notice that till the 2nd time through. So at this point, you've gone from "WTF why are they attacking this guy???" to "Oh, that dude totally deserved it" by the end of the first viewing. But then if you watch it again, you are like "Wait, I think that's the wrong guy. They killed a f'ing innocent person!!!" Hahaha that is some messed up sh!t.

JoshK · « **Reply #7 on:** 10 Jan 2017, 06:23 pm »

More spoilers:

It's funny because my girlfriend didn't notice it was the wrong guy in either the first or the second time watching. But as I see him enter the tunnel, I was like "that's the wrong guy". For me the tip-off was the bandaid on his nose, or whatever that was. Also right after the smashing of the face, it pans to his associate who smirks, which I found really sociopathic, so I remembered his face.

Tyson · « **Reply #8 on:** 10 Jan 2017, 07:05 pm »

And the acting is all first rate - every one of those people communicate sooooo much with body language and facial expressions.

Folsom · « **Reply #9 on:** 10 Jan 2017, 08:40 pm »

Gaspar Noé doesn't really make movies, he makes exercises in film tools. Luckily for him there's plenty of people that aren't any smarter than he is, that like artsy stuff, so he gets enough credit to be known. They're worth a view, but really they're not good movies.

Tyson · « **Reply #10 on:** 10 Jan 2017, 09:33 pm »

I'm smarter than Gaspar Noe and I like his movies.

Or maybe I'm not? Maybe I just think I'm a smart person but I'm really not very smart because I like arty Gaspar Noe movies? Hmmm, I'm confused???

Folsom · « **Reply #11 on:** 10 Jan 2017, 11:18 pm »

You would never rank them with Gone With The Wind, or anything like that would you? You don't rewatch them a lot, or (if they could) expect them to be on repeat on TV do you? Nope... they're a 1 or 2 time view and your done. But some fanboys think they're more than just whatever tool he's exploring; as if it has some sorta higher meaning/quality.

If you haven't seen Enter the Void... well, you should watch it, at least once.

Tyson · « **Reply #12 on:** 11 Jan 2017, 04:55 am »

Well I think a comparison to Goddard or Lars van Trier is more apt. Being arty is not a drawback, in my book. Like anything else, there's good artsy films and bad ones. I think Noe makes good ones. Into the Void was also very good. Haven't seen Love 3D yet.

JoshK · « **Reply #13 on:** 11 Jan 2017, 03:01 pm »

I'm not one to rewatch movies. There are a few exceptions, but I'd rather seen a great movie that makes you think once or twice then a beautiful movie to watch over and over again.

Tyson · « **Reply #14 on:** 11 Jan 2017, 03:08 pm »

Quote from: JoshK on 11 Jan 2017, 03:01 pm

I'm not one to rewatch movies. There are a few exceptions, but I'd rather seen a great movie that makes you think once or twice then a beautiful movie to watch over and over again.

I'm with you on that. There's just too much out there to see. A few years ago the BFI came out with their "Top Movies of All Time" list, which they refresh every 10 years. I took a look at it and realized I'd only see 14 of the top 100 movies. 14!!! Since then I've been on a tear to watch all of them. Usually I'll watch one of those movies twice in a row (2nd time with commentary track, generally). I managed to get all 100 watched so now I'm working on the movies in the top 200, hahahaha! I'm so insane that I even created a big ass spreadsheet with every movie and a status of "seen" or "need to watch" that I can mark off every time I watch one.

So yeah, not a lot of time (or interest) in watching the same movies over and over again.

EDIT - I think I'll start a separate post about the BFI top movies, should be fun

Folsom · « **Reply #15 on:** 11 Jan 2017, 07:53 pm »

I've seen a lot on that list. Some I stopped watching, some I haven't seen entirely. I'm not overly impressed with their selection when it comes to some movies... I can simply think of all sorts of way better films.

Tyson · « **Reply #16 on:** 11 Jan 2017, 08:00 pm »

Would you mind porting that comment to my new BFI Top 50 thread? I think it would be a nice discussion over there: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=147879.msg1581980;topicseen#new