8. Seul Contre Tous
More awesome ultra violence from Gaspar Noé. Similarly bleak like Irréversible, the film features the fluctuating fortunes of a horse meat butcher. He had a troubled childhood at the hands of clerical abuse and the fact he was an orphan. He opened up a horse meat butchers and fathers an autistic daughter with a woman who runs away because the child is not a boy. When his daughter has her first period, the butcher thinks she has been raped and he stabs an innocent man who he thinks is the culprit. Sentenced to jail, he loses his business. When he is released, he starts an affair with the fat lady who runs a tavern he used to drink in. He impregnates her and she sells the tavern - telling him that they will buy a butcher's shop with the proceeds. She backs out of her promise and she is a demanding and over bearing character. And here is where ultra violence comes in. She nags at him one too many times and the butcher sets upon her - viciously punching her in the stomach, presumably killing the foetus - such is the ferocity of the attack. It is horrible to witness the killing of an unborn baby but it is in keeping with the actions and cynical, bitter thought processes of the butcher. That doesn't detract from the horror and brutality of the scene in question.