A lot has been written about Gaspar Noé’s brutal and nihilistic “drama” (for lack of a better term, I guess that’s technically the genre, but is it really?) Irréversible in the annals of Swan Fungus. Most recently I ranked it the 2nd most disturbing movie I’ve ever seen. In doing so, I wrote, “…I used to describe it to people as being the only film I’ve ever physically felt ill while watching. I couldn’t understand why. There’s really only one GRAPHIC violent scene. The other — and more famous — disturbing scene didn’t have much effect on me. But for some reason I felt seriously uneasy/sick while watching it.” Green Cine took it a step further in calling it the most disturbing film ever made. They wrote, “Still banned in several countries, [Irréversible] is an all-out assault on the senses: the camera swirling and dipping like a drunk sailor getting sea-sick; the grinding, insisting, dread-soaked musical score; the flashing effect that can cause seizures; the backward titles; the backward chronology; the backwardness of the characters who get caught up in a maelstrom of violence; the foreboding bell of horror tolling, that signals the beginning of the film.”
The score, oh the score. Bangalter is one half of Daft Punk, but this ain’t even remotely close to that shit-sucking “Get Lucky” crap Daft Punk is NOW known for. AllMusic says, “Although Bangalter’s productions never previously showed the emotional range to make film work viable, he ably captures a spirit of approaching menace throughout the score. He appears to know much about film music, at least the narrow section from his own lifetime; from the first few notes of the title track, he shows a clear familiarity with the gist of horror classic soundtracks like John Carpenter’s Halloween, Goblin’s Suspiria, and Tangerine Dream’s Sorcerer. “Stress” and “Paris By Night” could’ve been recorded 20 years earlier, while “Outrage” merges Daft Punk-style French disco with the one-note malevolence of horror soundtracks.”
If you haven’t seen the film, you might owe it to yourself to do so. Seriously, not many modern films are capable of eliciting emotional and physical responses like this one. It might leave you feeling ugly, distressed, or even violated, but I always feel like the best art is that which leaves us with lasting impressions. And Irréversible certainly does. And the score is part of that — so check it out and enjoy. Try to enjoy.
Thomas Bangalter
Irréversible
(Thrive, 2003)
MediaFire DL Link
01. Irréversible
02. Tempus Edax Rerum
03. Rectum [MP3]
04. Night Beats
05. Stress
06. Paris By Night
07. Outrage
08. Outrun
09. Spinal Scratch
10. Extra Dry
11. Desaccords
12. Ventura / Into The Tunnel
13. The End
