Perhaps lost in the haze of all the new films debuting at this year’s Venice Film Festival is the fact that acclaimed (and controversial) filmmaker Gaspar Noe is unleashing a brand-new film. Well, “brand-new” might be a bit of a misnomer, as what the filmmaker is screening is a new cut of his film “Irreversible,” now told in chronological order. However, as Noe explained in his Venice notes about the film, “Irreversible – Straight Cut” isn’t just a simple re-edit of the film. It’s something much, much more.
Firstly, Noe is quick to assure fans that the version of “Irreversible” that debuted 17 years ago “remains both the director’s cut and the real version of the film.”
He added, “This new cut is another film.”
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Originally conceived as a special feature for an upcoming Blu-ray release of the film, Noe found that once he created the cut, it was strong enough to warrant its own release, and thus, the inclusion at this year’s Venice Film Festival. And for those that just want to know what the director has changed from the original work, Noe said cuts have been made to the first version to help the “clockwise cut” flow better.
“In this clockwise cut, a few passages without dialogues created lulls in the action and it is for reasons of rhythm alone, not any kind of censorship, that they have been removed, making this version five minutes shorter than the original,” he explained.
Ultimately, according to the filmmaker, re-cutting the film in chronological order presents a version that is completely different in tone to the controversial original.
“Putting the scenes in clockwise order makes it easier to identify with the characters and understand the tale unfolding. The same story is no longer a tragedy, this time it is a drama that brings out the psychology of the characters and the mechanisms that lead some of them to a murderous barbarity,” said Noe. “While ‘Irreversible’ has sometimes been wrongly perceived as a ‘rape and revenge’ B movie, here the deadly outcome is all the more depressing. The film can be more easily seen as a fable on the contagion of barbarity and the command of the reptilian brain over the rational mind.”
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He continued, “Removing the anti-clockwise structure, a mentally invasive formal concept, brings out the actors’ performances that much more forcefully. The gentleness or violence of the situations and the emotional states of the characters become even more apparent”
A formal release of “Irreversible – Straight Cut” has yet to be revealed. However, it would appear that fans of Noe, and “Irreversible,” will have yet another film to dissect and debate.
You can watch the trailer for the new cut below:
