2. Irréversible (2002)
No matter what you've seen or what you know, there is nothing that can truly prepare you for Gaspar Noe's remarkably disarming masterpiece. Told entirely in reverse (to the point in which the end credits open the film and roll up the screen), this meditative depiction of evil's cruelly-quick progression is a landmark of artistic excellence and exploitative nastiness. You'll have no doubt heard things about
that scene... Following a day from hell in the heart of Paris, Noe's nihilistic saga details two men as they aim to avenge a brutally raped girlfriend. Through unfathomable camera manipulation, a disorientating, nauseating audio pallet and ferocious strobe lighting, audiences do not watch Irréversible, nor do they experience it: they survive it. Illegible cinematography, desperately avant-garde composure, deeply confrontational subject matter and relentlessly vivid tones force this to be cinema at it's most shell-shocking, urgent and wholly essential. Through all the mayhem and murkiness lies something undeniably beautiful; you'll just have to nut up and dive in to locate it.
