Top 10 Most Disturbing Things

I used to think i was fairly tolerant of graphic movies. Action/horror - whatever - Usually i’d be able to calmly sit down and watch even the most violent of flix and feel nothing, it’s like i have a switch on the back of my head that relays a message to my brain “don’t think about the next 1 and a half hours christian, it’s just a movie, just relax and enjoy it - i’m turning off your thinking process.. now” only to awaken from this stupor 1.5 hours later and believe that i enjoyed a relatively crummy movie.

Irréversible took my notion of “tolerant towards graphic-movies” and threw it out the window. Actually, it first repeatedly smashed this notion against some concrete floor, repeatedly, before throwing it out through a plate glass window.. let me tell you - the notion didn’t look too pretty. Irréversible is a movie written and directed by a french fellow called Gaspar Noé and if you haven’t heard anything about it well let me fill you in.

As you walk down the “New-Release” isle at your dvd/vid-store - you might notice a movie available to rent which has some warnings attached - something about the movie being banned for a while, graphic scenes, make up your own mind, etc - this in itself didn’t really set off too many alarm bells - because as i recall at some stage in history A Clockwork Orange was once banned.. but then i started remembering conversations i’d had with people who’d seen Irréversible, mainly discussing the movies two most graphic scenes - the “Head-Bashing” scene and the “Rape” scene. So, Jen & I being fairly naive about what this movie could entail rented it out.

It was the first time in my conscious memory that i had ever stopped a movie, not because it was just so mind-numbingly boring, or it was just plain old pathetic - it was just that .. disturbing. Those two scenes i mentioned earlier, are easily the most graphic and disturbing things i have ever seen in my life - real life or.. uhh .. unreal life. If i had a list of top 10 most disturbing things i had ever seen, this movie would be in 1st place - and the remaining 9 spots would be left blank.

I won’t go into details about the “scenes” more-so than what i titled them above, but it really effected me - which i suppose is what the director was after - but so much so, that i could never recommend this movie to anyone .. i mean seriously.. as much as it did have an influence on me, i would not recommend anyone ever watch this film. But being as contradictory as i am, after stopping the movie mid-rape scene, i found myself wondering what was going to happen next - i mean the two most graphic scenes had passed, so what was left? … after taking a chaser (read: a nice soft comedy movie) - i found myself watching the end of Irréversible - and even though in parts it made the movie feel “ok”, i just can’t seem to shake the images that this movie placed in my head.

I was talking to someone else about it, and i mentioned that if the two “scenes” had been toned down - or shortened - then the movie could have been brilliant, but then of course i wouldn’t have written this entry.. I guess Noé was trying to “shock” his audiences, in which case, i give him two thumbs up - but why in the name of God would anyone want to “shock” their audience as much as this movie did?

I guess as much as i’m warning anyone away from this movie, in the end you’ll have to make up your own mind.

Posted by Christian 1 October 2004

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