Episode 4

Irreversible (2002)

Published on: 11th February, 2022

A story about revenge, nihilism, dizzying camera work, and notorious sequences.

***LISTENER DISCRETION IS ADVISED***

Listen in as me and my returning guest, Mike, talk through this polarizing work.

Written and directed by Gaspar Noe (I Stand Alone, Into the Void, Love), Rolling Stone said the film was "artfully crafted" while the Wall Street Journal countered by calling it "almost literally unendurable." See? Polarizing.

Told in reverse, it tells the story of a quest for revenge after Alex (portrayed by the incredible Monica Bellucci) is savagely raped and beaten. Her boyfriend Marcus (played by the fantastic Vincent Cassel) and her friend Pierre (Albert Dupontel) rush through some of the seedier side streets and back alleys of Paris in search of the vicious attacker, Le Tenia.

The film is currently available on Amazon Prime, Tubi, Blu-ray, and DVD.

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About the Podcast

Subversive Cinema
The show about the weird, whacky, and downright wrong entries in cinema history.
There are a lot of films out there, so it's only natural that a decent amount of strange content exists. These are the films we examine.

Each week, I sit down with a guest and we take a look a one of these weird, whacky, or downright wrong cinematic entries. Each of them has something about it that makes it special — I call it the "Subversive Sauce" — and that is recipe we try to break down.

Is it scientific? Absolutely not. Will you learn things you didn't know? Maybe. Might you hear about films worth checking out? Most definitely.

Tune in and see what the subversion is all about!
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About your host

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Art Hall

Art started in the podcasting ecosphere back in 2007 with the outrageous, yet short lived, scripted variety show "WBKR: Buckwilde Radio," which claimed listeners from over 20 different countries. After hanging up his headphones and heading west to move to Los Angeles, he kept podcasting in his heart but only made appearances rather than producing or hosting. It only took a global pandemic, boredom, and the pleading from his buddy, Joe, to get back into the mic booth.