I always say this movie, as visceral and sickening as it is at times is actually a really pleasant viewing experience. The aerial crane shots, combined with the spinning camera and 360 degree angle shots are cinematically stunning. What isn't pleasant is the despair this movie makes you feel by the end. Yes everyone knows the rape sequence is notorious for how disgusting and prolonged it is. Really though, it's the impact this film has being shot backwards and how you question the consequences of time for each character involved that makes this as great as it is. By the end of the events in the movie everyone is in a worse place than when they started, except for the one person they wanted vengeance on, denying the audience even further of any happiness. It's not just the rape sequence and the consequences it's the fact that everyone involved was happier before that moment and time eventually destroys anything good, because no one can be happy all the time.
Synopsis: Depicts the events of a tragic night in Paris as two men attempt to avenge the brutal rape and beating of the woman they love.
The film starts with some amazing reverse letter credits, or more accurately, mirrored credits. The camera moves around and reverses angles just like it does throughout the rest of the movie. It is a preview for coming attractions. Rather than go through things scene by scene I'm going to lay out the sequences in numbers and then talk about them after.
Spoilers for later scenes if you don't want to hear about them
1. The Butcher from Gaspar Noe's previous film I Stand Alone is seen talking to his friend about the events of that film before saying the theme of this movie "Time destroys everything." They hear commotion going on at the Rectum, a gay club.
2. Two friends Pierre (Albert Dupontel) and Marcus (Vincent Cassel) are arrested outside of the Rectum. Marcus has a broken arm.
3. Marcus and Pierre are shown going into the Rectum and ask everyone for the location of Le Tenia (Jo Prestia). They get into a fight with a man who breaks Marcus' arm. Pierre proceeds to beat him to death with a fire extinguisher. The man's companion is later to be shown to really be Le Tenia watches on with excitement.
4. Marcus and Pierre are seen harassing a man in a taxi and taking it.
5. Marcus and Pierre with the help of two other men interrogate a trans prostitute about who could have attacked Alex, Marcus' girlfriend, and Pierre's ex-girlfriend. They eventually get Le Tenia's name out of her.
6. Marcus and Pierre are seen outside of the place they went to party and see Alex's beat up body on a stretcher.
7. Alex (Monica Bellucci) is shown walking and is told by someone to get where she wants to go faster to go through the underpass. Alex sees Le Tenia beating up another woman. Le Tenia proceeds to anally rape Alex and repeatedly crush her face on the ground.
8. Alex leaves the party after Marcus gets high and starts kissing other women. She doesn't like his recklessness.
9. On the train ride to the party Pierre is reveled to be Alex's ex. They have a whole talk about how Pierre is insecure about his sexual worth and how orgasm in a sexual relationship works. It seems as though Alex left Pierre because Marcus could satisfy her.
10. We see Alex and Marcus post-coital. They talk a lot. Marcus foreshadows coming events when he says "I really want to fuck your ass." Alex reveals she is a few days late on her pregnancy.
11. Alex is shown reading in a park because a strobe effect says "time destroys everything."
First of all I love how this movie starts, and how throughout it has moments or beauty intertwined with the visceral violence. The crane shot leading into Le Tenia's house is similar to some great aerial shots like the one along the house in Dario Argento's Tenebrae. This one though adds in a spinning camera angle to great effect. I would compare some of the camera movements in this movie to playing Halo or Call of Duty in spectator mode and just going crazy on the controller. I love the red strobe lights during the sequence at the Rectum. If anyone has seen the movie Angst some of the camera angles in that must have inspired this. Even the rape sequence takes place in this beautiful crimson red underpass which gives the scene some underlying beauty despite how heinous it is.
The violence in this quite visceral. The fire extinguisher sequence is awesome but gory as hell and the sound effects of it and the breaking of Marcus' arm are equally queasy. The rape sequence almost becomes desensitizing the longer it goes on. That is until Le Tenia beats Alex senseless which to me is even more brutal than the rape sequence itself.
Most movies about rape don't necessarily make you think about the consequences of people's actions leading up to it and after. In the beginning of the film you might think that Marcus isn't a sympathetic character, yet he only feels even more guilty for being responsible for why Alex leaves the party. Marcus' homophobia, represented in his frequent use of the word "fag" and the longer version of that word is not defendable. I have always thought though that is in human nature to turn someone we want to hurt into the other, a person different from us or beneath us. When Liam Neeson said what he said after his friend got attacked I didn't immediately leap to racism as some people did. I thought, that is human nature. If you can label someone after they have done some horrific to someone you know, it justifies what you want to do to them or be done to them in your mind. It doesn't excuse Marcus' prejudice but makes you understand where he's coming from, especially with his guilt.
The movie has you questioning over and over how things could have gone differently. If Alex had not told Marcus she was pregnant would he have acted differently at the party and after? What if she had stayed with Pierre? None of this would have happened. What if she didn't take the underpass? What makes you feel despair at the end of the movie is that everyone is in a terrible position. Pierre, a better man than Marcus is going to jail for murder. Marcus won't get that type of sentence but still has a broken arm. Alex is in a coma, we don't know if her baby can live a life. The fact that Monica Belucci is so otherworldly beautiful in this movie only helps the narrative that time destroys everything, even one of the most beautiful women ever. The worst part is Le Tenia is free and there was no satisfaction, no feeling of revenge. That in itself is a complete antithesis to a lot of rape and revenge movies where the only silver lining is the feeling of revenge.
The film shows that people are almost always happier in their past because they don't have to think or live the bad moments again. Time destroys anything because you can never feel the same way you did in that present moment once you know what happens later. We all grow old, we all die, but we all have great moments as well just like everyone in this movie does. The difference is the people in this movie could have had better moments if not for some of the decisions they make all leading up to that rape scene and what happens after.
Rating: 10/10
Trivia: The man who walks in the background during the rape scene was a actually a crew member walking in by accident. They left it in the movie to great effect.
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