The next banned in america movie?

[Guest El Satanico]

Cannes VIPs Walk Out on 'Irreversible' Violence

 

Special guests walked out of the official screening of director Gaspar Noe's "Irreversible" at Cannes early on Saturday as the violent and sexually explicit film sent shockwaves through the festival.

 

Following a walkout by audience members at a critics screening on Thursday, guests invited to Friday's gala presentation, screened after midnight as opposed to the usual 8:00 p.m. or 10:00 p.m., started leaving within 10 minutes.

 

"It's disturbing and incredibly violent," Todd Rubenstein, an entertainment lawyer from Los Angeles, told Reuters as he left the auditorium.

 

"Not just the graphic violence and the language but the disorienting camera work made my stomach churn."

 

Medics treated a woman after she stumbled out feeling "nauseous," a doorman at the main Lumiere theater said.

 

"It was too aggressive, too violent," said Pascal Gentil, a Tae Kwon Do medallist for France at the Sydney Olympics, as he left with a companion after 15 minutes.

 

"When I see a film like that I find it hard to imagine what people must have inside them that they are able to make such a thing. I found it sickening."

 

Examining a drug-crazed man's violent pursuit of revenge against a twisted pimp he believes is responsible for raping and disfiguring his girlfriend, the film is undeniably shocking and disturbing.

 

The script consists almost entirely of expletives directed against homosexuals and women, and a scene in which Italian actress Monica Bellucci is raped lasts a horrifying 10 minutes.

 

Shown anti-chronologically -- the violent conclusion first followed by sequences taking the viewer back through events -- the film delivers a stomach-churning opening punch set in "Rectum," a sado-masochist gay club.

[Guest J*ingus]

Sounds interesting, although I'd knock it more for being a Memento ripoff with the reverse chronology than anything else.  What about it exactly was so horrifying or violent?  They didn't specify anything except the rape.  Hell, Jodie Foster won her first Oscar for a movie in which she was the victim in a ten-minute rape scene.

[Guest Redhawk]

Damn, all this does is make me want to see it, where I wouldn't have gave two shits about it yesterday. Freakin' weak-stomached film buffs.

[Guest]

Wow, it sounds intense. I can't wait to see it now.

 

Btw, a movie was banned here in Canada last year called "Fat Girl", has anyone seen that?

[Guest godthedog]

this looks pretty retarded to me, it sounds like 'memento' meets the video for 'smack my bitch up'.  violence and crime in general bore the hell out of me now, although i'm obviously in the minority.

[Guest One Bad Apple]

Sounds like shock-trash.

 

 

Btw, a movie was banned here in Canada last year called "Fat Girl", has anyone seen that?

I've never seen it, but I've heard of it.  Pretty sure it might've been banned up there because there's a lot of sexual content involving adolescent girls.

 

this looks pretty retarded to me, it sounds like 'memento' meets the video for 'smack my bitch up'.

That's why he's a genius.

 

violence and crime in general bore the hell out of me now, although i'm obviously in the minority.

Really?  Your post sounded like something a white guy would write.

 

And it's hard for me to get bored of crime, as my lethal attacks have almost completely purged the suburbs of violent lowlifes in the vein of the Kill City Bad Boys and the Aryan Express.  

 

I've cleaned up the streets by splashing blood on the sidewalks.

[Guest El Satanico]

Well there's nothing wrong with "shock trash". But this movie falling into the "shock trash" genre isn't likely. There's more to this movie then "shock value" seeing as how it was one of 22 finalist for the Cannes best picture award. Cannes isn't really a festival that awards "shock trash" if they did then we'd see Troma being up for awards and Cannibal Ferox probably would've won.

[Guest El Satanico]

Speaking of banned in the USA(and probably canada) movies anyone seen that recent Japanese movie called Battle Royale(i think)? It's about kids that crash land on a island and they have to battle to survive the island and each other...seems like i'm missing some of the plot but that's a good overview. I've heard it's some crazy shit. It was banned because of the intense violence done upon children.

[Guest J*ingus]

Close but not quite.  Battle Royal is about a class of junior high kids who, through a government-sanctioned depopulation project, are put on an island and forced to kill each other until only one is left.  It's from writer-director-actor Takeshi Kitano, who's best known for his gangster films like Sonatine, Fireworks, Brother, and so on.  I imagine that his approach to violence (shown very plainly and realistically, with no "cinematic" touches, hard to watch at times) is as much the reason behind the controversy as the actual concept is.

[Guest El Satanico]

Ah yes that's it...i knew i had something wrong about the plot.

[Guest One Bad Apple]

Well there's nothing wrong with "shock trash".

To me, there is when it's trying to pass it itself off as something with oodles of artistic merit.  Otherwise, for the most part, I agree.

 

But this movie falling into the "shock trash" genre isn't likely.

Good for the movie.

 

There's more to this movie then "shock value" ...

Or maybe that's what Gaspar the Nasty Ghost wants you to think ...

 

... seeing as how it was one of 22 finalist for the Cannes best picture award.

Sorry ... the Cannes jerks declaring, "Zees feelm ... et eez eh mazda-peeze!  I zurrendah!" doesn't mean anything to me.

 

There's been shock-trash before that's been held up as great.  And heck ... I only said it sounded like shock-trash.  I mean, the movie's about a junkie trying to get revenge on a pimp, and the script was described as being made up of mostly "expletives directed against homosexuals and women."  Of course, I can't imagine a statement like that being totally accurate, but it does make me think this thing ain't all too brilliant.  Not to mention it's liable to offend other prominent French ninja-medalists.

 

Cannes isn't really a festival that awards "shock trash" if they did then we'd see Troma being up for awards and Cannibal Ferox probably would've won.

From what I know, Troma doesn't pretend that their movies carry any sort of deeper meaning.

[Guest J*ingus]

On Cannes: all I have to say is that they gave fucking Wild At Heart, quite possibly the worst movie David Lynch has ever made, the palme d'or (their top prize).

[Guest El Satanico]

Oh get off your soap box apple no one cares.

 

The point is that Cannes even though they can be flawed in their movie selection they still don't have "shock trash" type of movies. Sure they may try reading too much into some movies but the movie has to have something else going on besides "shock" to make people read too much into them.

 

You think people read anything into "Faces of Death" or "Cannibal Ferox"...no those movies are pure "shock trash". Which i still have no problem with.  

 

"There's more to this movie then "shock value" seeing as how it was one of 22 finalist for the Cannes best picture award."

 

Maybe you should try remarking on the whole qoute i said instead of dividing it. Seeing as how dividing them completely misses the point i was making. I wasn't saying that as my own personal opinion. I was just saying that "Cannes" isn't a common place for movies that are nothing but "shock trash".

[Guest Anorak]

I'm fed up with this kind of 'shockingly explicit' European cinema that seems to be in vogue in recent years. Many of these films are basically sensationalist films which are labelled as arthouse movies because they are foreign, in reality most of them are closer to exploitative rubbish. Whether its French films which incorporate real sex or others which deliberately seek to be offensive or cause controversy too many critcs overlook the fact that they are often poor films. This film sounds very similar in tone to his last (can't remember the title) and seems to position him as a one trick pony rather than the 'uncomprimising genius' some people will label him. Foreign cinema can be as shallow and superficial as anything else but they are always more likely to be given the benefit of the doubt than a British or American filmmaker would making similar censor baiting films

[Guest Human Fly]

There's no way that this movie will evr get into America. That bothers me. America is too quick to censor and judge. A 10 minute rape scene is not something that is appealing. The people that were feeling nauseous and left is probably about the desired effect the filmmaker wanted. There are scenes like that every night in America's streets. This isn't "shock cinema" this is a portrayal of real life and all of it's ugliness being put on display. We're being put face to face with a scene that although is disgusting I feel is designed to pull out those emotions of disgust. Too many times in movies rape is made out to look as something that really isn't too bad. I applaud this movie for not sugar coating.

[Guest ArkhamGlobe]

Close but not quite.  Battle Royal is about a class of junior high kids who, through a government-sanctioned depopulation project, are put on an island and forced to kill each other until only one is left.  It's from writer-director-actor Takeshi Kitano, who's best known for his gangster films like Sonatine, Fireworks, Brother, and so on.  I imagine that his approach to violence (shown very plainly and realistically, with no "cinematic" touches, hard to watch at times) is as much the reason behind the controversy as the actual concept is.

Actually it's directed by Kinji Fukasaku, who's a famous genre film director, who's been active since the sixties. The violence in it is nothing like that in Kitano's films, as with Kitano the violence is quick, sudden and often very brutal, in Battle Royale it is a lot more stylized and cinematic. It's a great film in any event, a wicked social satire disguised as a typical exploitation film. The reason for the controversy is probably just the fact that it features high school kids brutally killing eachother.

[Guest]

Hey, I liked Wild at Heart. I guess I'm the minority on that one. Personally, I hated Lost Highway.

[Guest ArkhamGlobe]

Hey, I liked Wild at Heart. I guess I'm the minority on that one. Personally, I hated Lost Highway.

I liked it too. I also liked Lost Highway though.

[Guest J*ingus]

I'm not ambivalent on any of Lynch's works, I either really loved them or utterly hated them.  

 

Liked: Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks the series, "Blackout" episode of Hotel Room, Lost Highway, Mullholland Drive.  

 

Hated: Dune, Wild at Heart, Industrial Symphony #1, that other episode of Hotel Room, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.  

 

 

Also, I was thinking about what Human Fly said about the rape scene.  I don't understand why someone would condemn a film for the mere existence of a rape scene in it.  Like I said earlier, Jodie Foster won her first Best Actress award for a movie in which her character was brutally raped, at length.  Other movies like The Virgin Spring or Rob Roy, which are highly respected and acclaimed, contained rape scenes which were not as graphically depicted, and thus escaped without and controversy.  It seems like the critics are only offended by violence when it's depicted as actually hurting people and causing real damage.

[Guest MikeSharp12]

Really?  Your post sounded like something a white guy would write.

 

Are you fucking kidding me?  He meant that he is one of he few people that doesn't care for violence in film.  Being one of a small group of people (in this case, those who don't get too excited for excessive violence in movies) is the definiton of minority.  It has nothing to do with race, idiot.

 

Moreover, how does one sound like a white guy by giving his opinions?  He didn't write anything at all that would indicate his race, so before you feel like attacking a race again, why don't you try thinking.

[Guest Vyce]

The script consists almost entirely of expletives directed against homosexuals and women, and a scene in which Italian actress Monica Bellucci is raped lasts a horrifying 10 minutes.

 

Sounds like great batch material.  I'll get my towel.

 

Here's the thing about Lost Highway - I don't understand a damn thing about it, but I liked the film all the same.

 

Killer soundtrack too.

[Guest Anorak]

Bad films show up at Cannes every year, there's often films which show up at these festivals looking to stir some controversy and grab some headline recognition the easy way. Its an increasing trend for many foreign directors to use this trick, it seems increasingly like a fashionable option which often has the effect of better films being ignored in favour of these contrived works. Being relentlessly grim for the sake of it grows tiresome after a while.

 

My favourite Lynch film is The Straight Story.