10 Movies You Can Never Finish

9. Irreversible

Gaspar Noé has made a career out of confronting audiences with deeply uncomfortable works of art, and none has proven quite so infamous or controversial as his 2002 psychological thriller Irreversible.

The film follows two friends (Vincent Cassel and Albert Dupontel) who seek revenge on the man who raped one of their girlfriends (Monica Bellucci). Per the movie's title, Noé has the story unfold in reverse order, beginning with the "final" scene chronologically and working backwards to the temporal opening.

But what makes Irreversible truly tough to watch is Noé's unflinching approach to violence, especially that of the sexual kind.

The focal rape scene is depicted in an uncut 10-minute single take, and the subsequent brutal revenge meted out upon the supposed rapist is jarringly convincing.

These scenes alone are surely enough to have many viewers reaching for the remote, while the film's Cannes premiere saw an estimated 250 audience members walk out.

But Noé also went one step further to wilfully repulse audiences, by frequently employing dizzying, disorientating camerawork, which combined with sneaky use of low-frequency sound for most of the movie, helped create feelings of dread, anxiety, and even nausea in viewers.

It takes a strong stomach to make it through Irreversible in one piece, and unless you're especially tolerant of out-there, left-field cinema, it's simply too much to bear.