Ray Pride

>I hope I don't stand alone.

Gaspar Noé's horrifying provocation, "Irreversible," attempts both shock and art, leaving festival and preview audiences loving to hate or hating to love his attempt to show the purity of love as well as its profaning. His first feature, "Seul Contre Tous" (I Stand Alone) is a masterpiece of relentless corrosiveness, a French "Taxi Driver," harsh and playful, steely and singular, a portrait of an angry, deeply disturbed man's interior monologue, or "radio of hate" as the Argentine-born Frenchman once put it.

Blunt at the very least, "Irreversible" takes the form of a series of single-take widescreen sequences, beginning with end credits, moving to a horrible climax that involves a brutal murder in a hellishly Stygian gay sex club called the Rectum of the wrong man sought in a frenzy of revenge. (Some of the scenes have "invisible" edits.) But that's just for openers in this evil twin to "Memento." The two men searching for a pimp called The Tapeworm are Marcus (Vincent Cassel) and Pierre (Albert Dupontel). The movie's visual style calms with each scene. Its centerpiece is its most notorious, a nine-minute, static shot in a flame-red pedestrian underpass in which Marcus' girlfriend, and Pierre's ex, Alex (Monica Bellucci) is raped by the pimp. The scene's graphic without becoming pornographic. A couple of scenes later, there's a bravura scene that, psychologically, is even more disturbing, as we discover the jealous dynamic that plays between Marcus and Pierre over the affections of Alex. In a scene almost as long as the genuinely appalling rape scene, the three banter in a Metro subway car on the way to the party where all will go wrong. Noé is the complete director of actors and psychology, putting a scalpel to the pretensions of the "civilized" trio. Pierre is a sad brother to Dustin Hoffman's impotent intellectual in Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs." The scenes grow calmer still, leading toward a beginning of several touching scenes of fragile domestic intimacy and revealing a sweet secret Alex is carrying.

Ranking up there with "Your Friends and Neighbors" as a great last-date movie, "Irreversible" isn't irresponsible. Blunt or simplistic? Pretentious or grandiosely ambitious? Noé ought to plead guilty to all of the above. Bellucci, who's married to Cassel, has been seen here in art-house hits like "Malena" and "Brotherhood of the Wolf," and has vaulted to the big-budget leagues with "Tears of the Sun," the two "Matrix" sequels and her role as Mary Magdalene in Mel Gibson's "The Passion."

"In today's world it's different," the 34-year-old former model and law student says of an Italian actress' opportunities. "Sophia Loren, Gina Lollabrigida, Anna Magnani, when they came to America, they were already big stars because Italian movies were regularly imported to the U.S. But it's not like that anymore. In order to make a career, an Italian actress has to go to France, learn French, come to America, speak English. For me, it's great to have the chance to stay in between. I'm independent, not the classic Italian woman."

She was a small-village girl. After university in Rome, she modeled for a few years, then was cast in a small part in Francis Coppola's "Dracula." Since becoming a popular success in Italy and France, she's sought out riskier roles, even pursuing Gibson to work in his film. "I'm looking for a challenge. I want to grow up, you know?" She flings her long, thick dark hair. "It's already a great opportunity to work with all these cultures and directors. I mean, to move from `Irreversible' to `The Matrix' is amazing for an actress."

But how about "Irreversible"'s most painful scene? "It is something very private to explain how an actress gets into a character. It's a very intimate process. All I can say is, each time I see the scene, I am disturbed. Even to this day. Even though I know it is just acting. I think because Noé is shooting in a very realistic way, it looks real. When I see the scene, I recognize how the scene goes beyond me. It's not my performance, I see the work of the director. He puts the camera there, boom, he doesn't do anything. It's like, look, a rape that is in real time. You don't see my ass or my sex or anything, just my face. Yet it is terrible."

So why make the movie? "I love Gaspar Noé. In all his films, there is the theme of the contradiction between good and evil in human nature, and he goes so deep. He is not scared of anything. He is a real, pure artist. He does what he feels and I respect that. His freedom is so incredible. In `Carne" and `I Stand Alone,' I thought they were great, he is so courageous. For me, it is like when you see `Deliverance,' this film so violent. There are people like that. Nothing is more violent than life."

"I would love to do a comedy!" she continues with a laugh. "But you know, maybe I have to tell you something. Maybe because I have the complex of the beauty"--gestures-- "you know, beautiful actress, we have this kind of complex. We say, `I want to prove something. I want to get dirty, I want to get ugly. Ugly, you know? It would be nice to forget the beauty and see the soul."

"Irreversible" opens Friday.

(2003-03-12)

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