Melly seconds this one too. So there!

I think Irreversible might be one of my favourite movies ever.

Dreamy.

Unfortunately not mine. :(

u not a fan demonrail?

Of who? Vincent Cassell? I like him a lot.

the film

Irreversible or Ilsa She Wolf of the SS? I prefer Ilsa of the SS. Irreversible's brilliant but depresses me too much. I've only seen it once and don't think I could again.

Ilsa of the SS reminds me too much of Pink Falmingos to make me feel sad. I dunno, the way human misery is portrayed in that film is too cartoonish for me to feel sad. I'd rather read about these things to remind myself how low people can sink. The first time I watched Irreversible I dismissed it as being gimmicky and silly and fell asleep after the first 15/20 minutes. I re-watched it and it blew me away. Of course it's so tragic it's never going to be pleasant viewing, but I love the way it unfolds into a love story and all the superficiality and intimacies loving someone comports. Masterpiece ihomo.

Irreversible fucked me up for about a week when I first saw it, Enter the Void was a massive let down after that.

"Irreversible" is a truly powerful and affecting film. " Enter The Void" has its moments, but goes on for way, way too long and essentially repeats itself a lot throughout the film.

Remember also seeing "Seul Contre Tous" when it came out at the cinema, and thinking at the end, "Is that it?".

demonrail/Genteel D - did you know that David F Friedman was the producer behind "Ilsa..."? He denied all knowledge of it for many, many years (he is credited in the film as "Herman Traeger"), but has more recently acknowleged that he was indeed the producer: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/mo...er=rss&emc=rss

(Sad to note that the interviewer here, Something Weird Video's Mike Vraney, died recently: http://www.avclub.com/article/rip-mi...d-video-106731 )

As for said film itself, have to admit I really didn't enjoy that one at all, in spite of its cartoonish/"camp" etc qualities. I've seen one of its sequels ("Ilsa Harem Keeper Of The Oil Sheiks"), and that was much more like it. The last sequel ("Ilsa The Wicked Warden") was directed by Jesus Franco, and I've not yet inflicted that one on myself.

I've only watched about half of Enter the Void but it's such a different film from Irreversible I wouldn't know how to compare them. The styling remains claustrophobic and paranoid and that 's about the only thing I can say about both. Maybe one has a very defined story and the other one is not too bothered with that.

I guess that "Enter The Void" has a more dreamy/non-linear thing going on in it, hence the lack of any conventional "narrative", as such. There were moments in "ETV" where boredom was beginning to set in for me, and the film's length didn't help matters in that respect at all. Even the "love hotel" bit towards the end could have have been more tightly edited to pick up its pace.

I guess I like stuff like that. You know, the non-linear pace and messing around. I agree it's not for everyone.

Anyway, back to Vicent Cassel - as well as his key roles in "Irreversible" (obv.) and "La Haine", I've also enjoyed him in "Dobermann" and "Brotherhood of the Wolf". Haven't seen "Mesrine" as it goes - is that worth checking out?

(Remember watching "La Haine" on its cinema release here - at the much-missed Lumiere on St Martins Lane - and thinking that Vincent Cassel bore an alarming resemblance to Justin Broadrick!)

I think Irreversible sets a precent for European films dealing with drama and the French have been great for opening up the gates to this sort of approach. A film like Martyrs is very whatever horror bullshit at first viewing (Hollywood wannabe or something) and then....BANG! Towards the end everything takes a more theatrical approach to moving images. Check out how they built the scenes.

Whoah - never heard of "Martyrs" before until your post - will go check Lovefilm now to see if is on there.

e2a: Yep, "Martyrs" is on Lovefilm for online streaming viewing. Will defo watch this one this evening.

Sorry, with theatrical approach I don't mean going to watch plays and be bothered endlessly by them. I mean making sure that you've done your best to psychologically and physically affect an audience. Jump off your seat and that sort of shit.

Oh no no - knew where you were coming from w/your point about theatricality etc - an essential part of film-making, methinks.