Irréversible
Vincent Cassel
2001
Irréversible
Enter The Void
here
There have been a lot of interminably predictable end of decade film lists recently, and I just wanted to talk about Irréversible because it affected me the most.
4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days
The Times
Capturing The Friedmans
That is great.
Avatar
Did you like the film?
Do you generally like James Cameron films?
Avatar
Do you watch a lot of Hollywood films?
The Hurt Locker
Kathryn Bigelow. She did Point Break.
The Hurt Locker
Antichrist
I did an article here for Vice recently on all the posters for Antichrist.
It was a little romantic.
Dancer In The Dark
Right, because Björk gets increasingly blind throughout the film.
Are you in control of the posters for your own films?
What was the poster for Irréversible, was it that shot of Monica from the back, in the tunnel?
Irréversible
Seul Contre Tous
What was it?
I didn’t know the Chapmans did film posters.
Last time I saw you, you were also stealing prostitute cards from phone boxes.
Do you still do that?
How many have you got?
Yeah, there are lots of them here.
Maybe you should publish a book of your favorites.
I’m sure. So, Irréversible – is it still something you get people talking to you about a lot?
What sort of things do you hear from people on the street?
Why, do they expect the director of Irréversible to look like something from Tom Of Finland?
Have you had positive feedback from rape victims who’ve seen the film?
Antichrist
Ok. So, Enter The Void‘s in the can now, but it’s been eight years since Irréversible; what took so long between films?
Enter The Void
Irréversible
You actually came up with the idea for Irréversible really quickly after Vincent and Monica said no to your porn film, right?
Enter The Void
Why did they say no, what changed their mind?
There is some intimate sexual contact between them in the film though.
Eva Green did quite a bit of it in The Dreamers, the Bertolucci film.
Irréversible
I read somewhere that now you’re done with Enter The Void you might go back to do that one.
What is it, is it actually porn you want to do?
The scenes between Vincent and Monica in your film do have an incredible intimacy though. How did you get the most out of their relationship? Their chemistry seems completely genuine, as opposed to Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s in Eyes Wide Shut.
What about when you watch Irréversible, is it real to you, having shot it yourself? Yeah, I think for example at the end when they’re naked on the bed, I would say that was the maximum they wanted to give of their intimacy. But yeah, when he’s tickling her or when they’re talking… even on the train when [actor] Albert Dupontel’s asking them about sex, that wasn’t in the script at all. There’s a point where Monica and Vincent were really surprised, and you can feel this weird energy going on, because no one ever talks to them like that. And yeah, the scene in the bedroom, you can tell they’re a real couple.
And there are some bits where they really seem to get lost in the moment, like in the party where he accidentally says his name’s Vincent [instead of his character’s name, Marcus], and you kept it in. Yeah, that night we were all very drunk, even myself. If you want people to act drunk on the set you can actually get them drunk, yeah it’s good. But I kept that in with him saying “Vincent” because I thought it was part of the fun. He had really forgotten he was in a movie.
I didn’t know he was actually drunk. He looks it. Yeah. It was a party, and I did it again in Enter The Void in a nightclub scene, you want people to have the energy of a party, so you bring as much alcohol as you can to the set and you get them all drunk and you put real music on and they start dancing, and at a point it turns into a real nightclub or a real party, and you forget you’re shooting a movie. But those scenes are very difficult to shoot, much more difficult than sex or violence scenes.
What about the Rectum scenes, I know you wanted people to look like they were out of their minds. They were.
But what about people watching the film, with all those scenes with the low frequency noise and the swirling camera, especially in The Rectum, did you want viewers to feel like they were on something? Actually I was thinking, with Irréversible, and some of Enter The Void, both movies are supposed to recreate some sort of altered sensibility or state of consciousness, using cinematic weapons, sound, image, editing, whatever you can use to make it work. Many people say Enter The Void is hypnotic, whether that’s good or bad, people think “What the fuck is happening, my eyes, my ears.”
It’s great, in the Rectum sequence, how the intellectual, sensitive guy [played by Albert Dupontel] turns out to be the one who really loses it. Did you draw on personal experiences for that primal rage aspect of the film? I feel more linked to Vincent Cassel’s character than Albert Dupontel’s. But at the same time, when you get into those situations you can never tell how you’re going to react. Some people keep control of themselves, some people lose control. In a similar situation, I don’t know how I would behave. For sure I would not try to control myself.
You’ve said before that you get into a few fights here and there. If I hear fighting in the street, I get as close as I can. I try to save the situation, once I understand what’s going on, who you can help. I’ve got in trouble a few times putting myself in these situations.
Have you ever badly injured anyone? I don’t know; I’ve never got into any really heavy fights with weapons.
When do you end up fighting, when you’re drunk? I argue when I’m drunk. I don’t fight when I’m drunk, I argue. I’ve got into some fights sober. At a point you become aware of the danger of getting into a serious fight so you try to avoid that final point. If you try to separate people who are fighting, at a point you get smashed in the face, and you smash that person back. They’re not really trying to fight you, they’re just not willing to be separated.
Did you get any violent reactions from Irréversible? Not really, although once I was in Telluride and people were saying to me “Be careful, this film director saw your movie and he wants to smash your face in,” so I said “OK, send him over, tell him that I have a blade and I love fighting.” Actually I didn’t have a blade, I never carry a blade, but what can you say to that.
Who was it? I can’t tell you.
ALEX GODFREY
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And there are some bits where they really seem to get lost in the moment, like in the party where he accidentally says his name’s Vincent [instead of his character’s name, Marcus], and you kept it in. Yeah, that night we were all very drunk, even myself. If you want people to act drunk on the set you can actually get them drunk, yeah it’s good. But I kept that in with him saying “Vincent” because I thought it was part of the fun. He had really forgotten he was in a movie.
I didn’t know he was actually drunk. He looks it. Yeah. It was a party, and I did it again in Enter The Void in a nightclub scene, you want people to have the energy of a party, so you bring as much alcohol as you can to the set and you get them all drunk and you put real music on and they start dancing, and at a point it turns into a real nightclub or a real party, and you forget you’re shooting a movie. But those scenes are very difficult to shoot, much more difficult than sex or violence scenes.
What about the Rectum scenes, I know you wanted people to look like they were out of their minds. They were.
But what about people watching the film, with all those scenes with the low frequency noise and the swirling camera, especially in The Rectum, did you want viewers to feel like they were on something? Actually I was thinking, with Irréversible, and some of Enter The Void, both movies are supposed to recreate some sort of altered sensibility or state of consciousness, using cinematic weapons, sound, image, editing, whatever you can use to make it work. Many people say Enter The Void is hypnotic, whether that’s good or bad, people think “What the fuck is happening, my eyes, my ears.”
It’s great, in the Rectum sequence, how the intellectual, sensitive guy [played by Albert Dupontel] turns out to be the one who really loses it. Did you draw on personal experiences for that primal rage aspect of the film? I feel more linked to Vincent Cassel’s character than Albert Dupontel’s. But at the same time, when you get into those situations you can never tell how you’re going to react. Some people keep control of themselves, some people lose control. In a similar situation, I don’t know how I would behave. For sure I would not try to control myself.
You’ve said before that you get into a few fights here and there. If I hear fighting in the street, I get as close as I can. I try to save the situation, once I understand what’s going on, who you can help. I’ve got in trouble a few times putting myself in these situations.
Have you ever badly injured anyone? I don’t know; I’ve never got into any really heavy fights with weapons.
When do you end up fighting, when you’re drunk? I argue when I’m drunk. I don’t fight when I’m drunk, I argue. I’ve got into some fights sober. At a point you become aware of the danger of getting into a serious fight so you try to avoid that final point. If you try to separate people who are fighting, at a point you get smashed in the face, and you smash that person back. They’re not really trying to fight you, they’re just not willing to be separated.
Did you get any violent reactions from Irréversible? Not really, although once I was in Telluride and people were saying to me “Be careful, this film director saw your movie and he wants to smash your face in,” so I said “OK, send him over, tell him that I have a blade and I love fighting.” Actually I didn’t have a blade, I never carry a blade, but what can you say to that.
Who was it? I can’t tell you.
ALEX GODFREY
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