The reverse chronology makes "Irreversible" a film that structurally argues against rape and violence, while ordinary chronology would lead us down a seductive narrative path toward a shocking, exploitative payoff. By placing the ugliness at the beginning, Gaspar Noe forces us to think seriously about the sexual violence involved. The movie does not end with rape as its climax and send us out of the theater as if something had been communicated. It starts with it, and asks us to sit there for another hour and process our thoughts. It is therefore moral – at a structural level.
Irréversible: Inversion Intégrale, a chronological re-cut of Gaspar Noé's 2002 film, will screen at this year's Venice Film Festival.
In "The Hanged Man," you see Jesus do the following: receive the most violent and dispassionate handjob ever, swallow his own cum, get sodomized with a whip, and hack Miles Teller to pieces with a machete. Also! It's at this point that the show decides, "You know what?!?!?!? Aliens."
I swore off Winding Refn projects after Only God Forgives, but maybe just one episode…