There is no question that Gaspar Noé’s Irréversible belongs on the shortest of short lists for the most provocative film of the current century, a rape-revenge scenario told in reverse chronology and geared toward maximum visceral impact. As much talk has revolved around its two signature sequences – one a nauseating plunge into a gay BDSM club called The Rectum, the other a nine-minute sexual assault with the camera almost literally bolted to the floor – words alone can’t account for theatrical experience of seeing it 20 years ago. It felt like a nerve-jangling shot to the solar plexus, especially in the first half, when Noé buttresses the action with tilt-a-whirl imagery, speaker-rattling bass notes in the score and even strobe lighting in the credits. He wants you in a highly suggestive state.
Now, it’s possible for moviegoers in select cities to have that experience again, but with one a giant, sun-sized asterisk. Irréversible: Straight Cut reorders the events clockwise, which is a ruinous idea on par with The Godfather Saga, the 1977 TV miniseries that fused The Godfather and The Godfather Part II in chronological order over four nights, laying waste to the powerful flashback structure of the latter film. For one, the disorienting effect of reversing time and front-loading the most traumatic sequences is lost, dramatically minimizing the motion-sickness of its initial descent. Beyond that, the bleakness of Noé’s thesis statement, “Time destroys all things,” is still better demonstrated by turning back the clock and learning later what its characters have lost.
