10 Great Movies You'll Only Want To Watch Once

Unlike every other film on this list, Irréversible is not only hard to watch for its content, but the way the film is made. Controversial French director Gaspar Noé has tailored every aspect of the movie to be an assault on the audience. It uses several techniques to discomfort the viewer, from flashing lights and wild, looping camera movements to a sonorous bass noise that causes nausea in some.

The film is most notorious for its horrifyingly realistic, unbroken nine minute rape scene, but that is only one of the film's most hard-to-watch moments. The scene where unhinged protagonist Marcus has his arm broken and is almost sodomised by thugs, only for his attacker to be brutally bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher by Marcus' friend Pierre, is one of the grisliest death scenes in film history.

Irréversible is wholly bleak, vile and unpleasant, and that is exactly the point. It depicts an unforgivable act, and does not shy away from it. It also shows the consequences and futility of vengeance. While many films have tackled this issue, Irréversible does it more smartly than most by having the narrative play out in reverse. We see Marcus exact his retribution before we see the impetus for his rampage, making the audience digest the act of revenge before the cause of it.

Irréversible will not be to everyone's taste, but if you can stomach the repulsive content and the offensive fabric of the film itself, this chaotic but clever rape-and-revenge thriller is definitely worth at least one viewing.