Irreversible: The Straight Cut Review- Gaspar Noé’s Re-Cut Is Just As Brutal But In More Important Ways

Gaspar Noé’s seminal New French Extreme film’s legacy precedes it. Irreversible(2002), the original cut, delivered in chronological reverse, is a grueling, dizzying experience that few will want to see more than once. As a woman, it is a waking nightmare filled with the worst of humanity and enormous tragedy. The vicious revenge story is a gut punch that reduces women to things. Things to be mistreated and abused and things to be avenged. The director’s re-cut gives more context in the straight cut, allowing the story to speak for itself. In many ways, it is far superior to the original.

A lot of these types of films shift focus from the victim. They diminish the woman in place of the act and how others feel about it. It’s disgusting and unfair. Noé’s original cut arguably does this. The worrying tagline of the original further confuses things. One night. One unforgivable act. A tale told in reverse. Whereas everything does happen in one night, there are two unforgivable acts. Are we supposed to consider the rape or murder forgivable? A good portion of the reversed cut is spent trying to piece together what is happening and why.

Acting as a prologue of sorts in the original, the men who live above the club have a far more powerful conversation in Irreversible: The Straight Cut. “Time destroys everything.” It’s heartbreaking to hear these disgusting men spout a life truth that so hideously played out in front of our eyes. Alex, Pierre, and Marcus will never be the same. Time, evil, and choices destroyed them.

The prologue of the chronological cut is stronger, sitting with Alex’s words. Alex tells Marcus, “The future is already written.” She tells Marcus about a dream and a tunnel of red torn in two. Knowing what we know, having seen the original cut, it is heartbreaking, and my heart rebels against it. I don’t want to believe it. I can’t accept it, and yet Alex still gets raped and left for dead, and the men who love her still fail to remember what is most important.

There is so much tragedy here. In little details, like Marcus is a pig who loves Alex but not as much as he loves the idea of her. Pierre loves her as well but is haunted by the ghost of their former relationship. Neither of these men is really avenging her attack. Instead, they are fighting their own guilt over leaving her vulnerable. Told in chronological order, we see that better. It’s clearer just how sad this is. Men are skewered in Irreversible: The Straight Cut even more so than the original. Everyone is capable of as much depravity as tenderness, yet we don’t understand the depths of the swing until we see it play out linearly.

Irreversible: The Straight Cut does not lose any of the original’s chaotic energy. Despite being much better informed about what is going on, it’s still an assault on the senses—having to play catch-up in the original made the experience just as confusing and horrific as it was for Alex in that tunnel. Watching it straight made it horrifying. It is no less painful to watch, and Monica Bellucci still delivers the most raw and brave performance I have ever seen. Her pain is felt more keenly, seeing who she was before the attack.

In the straight cut, we open on her lying in a technicolor park surrounded by children. It’s stunning, and she is the image of feminine beauty and innocence. We next see her in the arms of Marcus, and their affection for each other is evident. You feel it. Told in chronological order, we live with the characters before the rug is pulled out. It allows Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassell, and Albert Dupontel to mean something to us. We care about them. We are angry with them, and we pity them. Most of that is lost in the original cut that feels more exploitive than informative.

The main difference between the two is the viewer’s focus. The original cut is so disorienting it is hard to get perspective or make moral conclusions. You spend the majority of your time playing catch up and focusing on the many men and their bad deeds. The original introduces us to Pierre and Marcus first. In the aftermath of their attack on the man they thought raped Alex, they are shell-shocked, injured, and regretful. Because they are our entry into this terrible world, they become the focus.

Irreversible: The Straight Cut puts the focus back where it belongs. Alex is the one wronged. She was let down first by the man that should love and protect her more than any other, next by a sick twist who gets off on her pain, and later by the men who choose to make themselves feel more powerful by getting revenge than going with her in the hospital. But, above all else, Noe wants us to pick at that wound in his re-cut.

The original suffered from the gimmicky feel to it. It’s more powerful to watch Pierre and Marcus’ descent straight. More importantly, Alex’s story is more powerful. I admit to being nervous about subjecting myself to this pain again. Horror critics love to talk about dread and tension, but Irreversible has it baked into its DNA. This is what real horror looks like. It is a fear that women live with. It’s uncomfortable, and the image of Alex desperately trying to escape, broken and bleeding, only to be destroyed by her attacker will stay with me forever.

Alex says, “I’m not an object, ” yet her attack becomes a catalyst for male rage and impotence. Her pain is distilled through the lens of Pierre and Marcus’ impotence. Gaspar Noé’s uncompromising vision better captures what matters most. Alex was raped and left to heal, if she can, alone. I would argue there are always good and bad deeds, and there is plenty to look at in Irreversible: The Straight Cut. In the re-cut, Alex’s story finally gets some justice. It will be available in select theaters on February 10th, 2023.