9:00 p.m., August 22, 2020
Gaspar Noé, the terrible child of French cinema, persists and signs. He unsheaths Irreversible, his shocking film of 2002, in “complete inversion”: originally in reverse, the narration now presents the events in chronological order in a new cut of ten minutes. Who has lost none of his power. One night, Alex is raped and disfigured in a tunnel, coming out of a party. Her companion and her ex-husband team up to find her attacker …
In this sense, we are more attentive to the evolution of the play of the actors and the movement of the camera, which is gradually freed from all constraints to sink into chaos. This contemporary tragedy offered its most outstanding role to Monica Bellucci, which looks back on this extraordinary experience.
What memories do you keep ofIrreversible?
I made this film eighteen years ago, it occupies a special place: it is undoubtedly the most difficult role that I have played. Both poetic and terrible, the story reveals the beauty and the monstrosity of the human being, a duality that is part of each of us. With a more detached look today, I realize that Gaspar Noé was very courageous! I had accepted his proposal because I felt protected by this very sensitive filmmaker, whom I respected for having seen his previous feature films, Meat [1991] and Alone against all [1998]. With Irreversible, it sheds light on men in their worst light and shows what they are capable of. The heroine claims her independence, but the tunnel will brutally remind her of reality.
Faced with criticism against Irreversible, she replies that “nothing is more violent than reality”
The reception at the Cannes Film Festival was stormy …
Oh yeah! Cries, discomfort… I saw young girls leave the room, their faces all white, and come towards me to find out why I had done that. I explained to them that it was cinema, that nothing is more violent than reality. Gaspar shocks, disturbs, awakens consciences, opens the debate. Irreversible generated a surge of love and hate because it touches the body, but the film has become cult to the point that it is now taught in film schools. Regarding the scene of aggression, trying, I rehearsed so many times that I ended up understanding it as a choreography. Everything was down to the millimeter, I knew each movement by heart. I interpreted it in a completely detached way.
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Irreversible has engendered a surge of love and hate as it touches the body
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Do you think it is necessary to denounce rape in the cinema?
It is an ancestral fear that is part of us: we have it in our skin, we cannot escape it. It is written in our reptilian brain, in our collective memory, in our unconscious. And suddenly, it comes to the surface because we all know someone who has experienced it. Codes have changed, women speak more freely and we listen to them. We are aware that this type of abuse can strike anyone, no one is immune. It happens to men too. You can live your femininity well without wanting to provoke. Rape has nothing to do with sex, it’s about power. You have to know how to protect yourself. And we are told that the woman must be careful because the man is not able to control his impulses!
The MeToo movement is the “start of a slow revolution”
Has the MeToo movement changed the game?
It’s the start of a slow revolution! We stayed in a cage for so long that when we come out, we scream! We will learn to measure the voice little by little. We have behind us the fear of our mothers, our grandmothers, of all the women who had no other choice but to keep silent. We have become the spokespersons of these generations which preceded us. The lack of consideration vis-à-vis feminists scandalizes me: they are often stigmatized, mocked, insulted, but if today we speak without hindrance, it is because some have stepped up to the plate at their own risk and perils, like Simone Veil or Gisèle Halimi. Thanks to them, we vote and our daughters go to school. I think we can be active without giving up femininity or waging war on men. We need each other, we are complementary. It’s all about education and communication.
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I am outraged by the lack of consideration for feminists
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Is the road still long?
Yes, since we still have this kind of conversation in 2020! Before, we lived within the four walls of a house, as a wife and mother; today, we leave the home and we exist as an individual. Getting this notion accepted takes time. Just like gaining respect within society. When I step into a plane and see a female pilot flying, I feel reassured. Things change. Men are learning at the same time as we are. Twenty years ago, we would never have seen a dad with a baby carrier and a mom going to work. Sometimes the line is not clear between a compliment and an assault. In Italy, men look more insistently in the street. You have to know the difference between a courteous gesture of appreciation and an inappropriate gesture.
Have you ever felt threatened?
I have been very lucky in life. I found myself in awkward situations that I was still able to handle. The men protected me more than attacked me. Sometimes it can be very difficult to defend yourself. The rate of femicides this year, made worse by confinement, is tragic.
The health crisis “allowed us to evolve”
Do you support activists like Adèle Haenel?
We need them because they have the courage to act! And they know they can do it. There are so many women who can’t do that, so they represent them. Harassment destroys a career, and above all endangers economic survival.
How did you experience the confinement?
I went to the south-west of France with my children. I realize how privileged I am! I felt close to nature there. My daughters are 16 and 10 years old. The older one was independent, but the younger had lessons and homework from a distance. I understood the importance of teachers, who have a wonderful job. The health crisis is beyond us: we are in total uncertainty as to the future, unable to project ourselves, but this particular period has allowed us to evolve. We got over the plague and the Spanish flu, so we will survive Covid-19. It is a mutating virus, but I believe the same is true of the human body, which develops unimaginable defense capabilities in the face of an invisible threat.
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We are in total uncertainty about the future, in the impossibility of projecting ourselves
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Have some of your projects been suspended?
I was showing Maria Callas – letters and memoirs, at the Théâtre Marigny and at the Bouffes Parisiens. We had to stop it all. On August 27, I will perform the play in my region, Umbria, and in my native language, at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto. Then I hope to play it in English in London and New York. Two films have been postponed. I resumed filming the first one in Italy, The Girls in the Fountain, by Antongiulio Panizzi. This is the story of an actress who is offered to play Anita Ekberg, the star of The sweet life [1960], by Federico Fellini. In September, I hope to start the new sketch comedy by the Foenkinos brothers, Fantasies, in which I form a couple with… Carole Bouquet!
Irreversible, full reversal ***
By Gaspar Noé, with Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel. 1h26. Release Wednesday.
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